How do managers stay organized?
 

I'm in a new asst. management position and I now have almost daily meetings and multiple projects going at the same time. Without popping for a new handheld organizer or some special PC software, can anyone suggest a good way to keep track of EVERYTHING? I've got lists from meetings, dates that tie in to some of the lists, to-do items, etc....

Either keep writing your lists out or get a scheduling program/contact manager like Act, Goldmine or Outlook... There are also freeware programs out there for sure...

I use Act, which synchs with my Palm (Treo 600). I keep track of all my to dos in this program and have them in my palm when I am out of the office...


Before I had the Treo I carried a small notebook with me everywhere and wrote down stuff as I went... at the end of each day, or as neccessary I would flip through the last few pages and create a to do list from all the assorted notes... If I needed a number or a name from the past, I would flip back though the book until I found what I needed...

I have a shelf in my office with about six of these books dating back to my first day on the job. Every once in a while I have to look something up from one of the earlier books...

My PALM PDA.

Outlook.

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Time Management Seminar

I swear by my diary. In my last management position, I would make a to-do list the night before for the following day, crossing off as I completed tasks. I would avoid carrying items over from day to day - if they were important enough, they would have been done already. Managing your email system is also crucial.

I also used the Time Management Quadrant religiously...

QUADRANT 1: IMPORTANT/URGENT
QUADRANT 2: IMPORTANT/NOT URGENT
QUADRANT 3: URGENT/NOT IMPORTANT
QUADRANT 4: NOT URGENT/NOT IMPORTANT

Spend more time in Quadrant 1 and 2 than the others, and emphasis Quadrant 2 for long term development. It works for me. There is a lot of stuff on this around the 'net, and worth a read if you're not familiar with this time management strategy.

I can't help you with the technology stuff, suffice to say I've never had anything more than the trusty diary over the years I've been in management and never needed it. Then again...I'm a pretty organised person to begin with, so that helps.


Edit: I should clarify I work in the public service so, due to budget requirements, I have never had access to a PDA. So I can't really comment on how effective it would be compared to my trusty diary. :thumbsup:

Judging by my manager, nothing.

Delegate. And ask for help when you need it. Centralise all your stuff somewhere. As Cynthetiq points out, more recent versions of Outlook, which you hopefully have, have some great organizational features. You have task lists, calenders, address books, and of course email, all in one handy place. If you have more to do than is humanly possible, be honest, but polite and most importantly specific, with your boss about it. They can shoot some projects somebody else's way if necessary.

Oh... and drink more coffee... No don't.. Do... Don't

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I use these. I used to use a bunch of little programs to keep track of stuff, but nothing worked as well as my little flip top notebook. At the end of the day the important stuff was moved to outlook.

Continuity - I'm always "at work" - either physically or mentally.

Regularity - I do things in the same sequence every day.

Infrastructure - 7 computers dedicated to 7 different tasks - they're always on with current project progress windows displayed.

Physically - Visual reminders everywhere, separate work stations for separate projects, and separate notepads with separate project notes listed sequentially

I guess, for me, it comes down to living a very organized and regimented life. My tasks form the structure of my daily existence.

When all else fails, there are still old fashioned day planners out there for those of us who can't afford a good computerized version. I still use mine when I have a lot going on. I usually rely on my Outlook calander for my normal work days but since I am my divisions trainer, I need something I can take with me when we get a new hire. Since my employer is cheap, the best I can get from them is a current year calander for my day planner.

I use a Dayrunner and a pen. The pen says "Haywood Jablome" on it. But that's just me.

I am another fan of the good old fashioned note pad. Outlook is also a friend

I use the old fashioned Franklin Day Planner. I find that writing something down helps me to remember it, plus I find it preferable to computer programs. Sometimes old fashioned is just better.

Yeah, I used to do the same kind of lists. The hard stuff kept getting carried over to the next day until I would get tired of writing them over and over and then I would either do them, delegate them, or choose to ignore them, LOL.

Add another vote for the good old-fashioned notepad and pen. I find just the act of writing a task down is enough for me to remember it. I rarely have to go back and and check if everything got done, it also helps when the boss asks me why I haven't done something that he never asked me to do, I can check my 'bible' to see which one of us is the space cadet.

Another vote for "write things down on a piece of paper". I've tried the Outlook calendar. But it's too much of a hassle to open Outlook, go to the calendar, pick a date, etc. just to enter a few words. So that'd last about half a day before I quit bothering with it.

Typing things into Notepad and saving it as a file on my desktop works well, as I always see them and think "hmm, I haven't checked out 'JAN 23 NOTES' since I made it originally, wonder what's in there?".

But the best way I've found is a good old fashioned pen and paper. For whatever reason the act of writing it down makes me remember things better, even if the paper's not in front of me. I'll think about a given project, then think "oh yeah, I wrote some notes about that in the bottom right corner of that paper on my desk with the coffee stain on it, below the doodle I made." and then I can remember just about everything I jotted down.

ART already hit on the most important aspect for me, and that's regularity. I have an hourly schedule I try to follow each day so that I can move to the next task without spending too much time on the previous one. And the schedule is almost identical from day to day.

The odd thing is that I am totally different at home, and my wife thinks I'm the single most disorganized, chaotic, scatterbrained person she's ever met. Sometimes I can't believe she still lets me drive.

I can relate to that, warrreagl. It's almost like I've been too organised at work, so when I come home, everything goes to shit. Odd, hey.

Me personally, I write everything down. All my meetings for the day, notes, who needs to do what, etc etc. I've tried palm pilots and other gizmos, but in the end it was always quicker and easier with plain old pad and pencil