I’m curious to know what strategies people use to ‘get things done’ and remember important information at work.

I’m a software developer and sometimes attend meetings where I need to make notes. I sometimes go to someone’s desk and they describe a process or a system I should know about*. I also have a list of things I need to get done through the day.

My system involves a Moleskine Daily Diary where each day I make a list of things that I need to get done with a checkbox next to each one. Somehow that forces me to get things done. For some reason I prefer paper to digital todo lists. Buying one with a day to each page forces me to use a new page each day, otherwise I cram it all into pages and days run over.

I also have an A4 size square-ruled notebook that I make notes in, design plans etc. and then transfer these to Evernote so they are search-able, distributed etc.

I find this works quite well for me, interested to hear what other systems / strategies people use?

* A lot of knowledge is documented on intranets / internal documentation systems, I am talking about the kind of info. you need to make a note of that perhaps most people don’t need to know.

another one where I thought this was a new/spam post 🙂

Page per day diary, every meeting note from the day goes onto the page, important stuff gets transcribed the rest is there in the diary on the day it happened (ok if it’s really busy then I drop into the weekends) but normally that works.

I prefer the moleskine weekly planner in extra large softback flavour – week to view on the left, note page on the right. Saves carrying two books and the XL is still smaller and more stashable than an A4 notebook. Its also very durable – I often keep it rolled up in my back pocket

My plans for the day are contingent on what the whole week holds as most things I do take more than a day to do and I usually have more than one job on at a time so seeing all the week prevents me from getting too involved in one project to the detriment of others.

I have a little book I carry around with me that I write things in. If I need to do something, I put a * next to it. This book is really messy and has notes, doodles and general reminders written in it like ‘note to self, destroy head of architecture and crush his bones’.

When I get back to my desk I have a much neater lined book that carefully copy the todo things into and put dates on. The * systems works there too but more stars means higher priority. This book will generally have more medium term things in like ‘*** register the domain BillStanwayhasasmallwilly.com and gradually build a huge hate campaiagn against him – 31/12/13’.

Finally I create a long term plan on a spreadsheet. This is really important stuff. That has dates, notes, plans, references etc.

“
1. Hack into NASA satellite
2. Activate Sun-enhancing beam
3. Target Bill’s house
4. Burn until Bills house is a smoldering 50 foot cavern in the ground
5. Chase Bill down the motorway with the beam just like in that James Bond film.
6. Laugh hysterically while nursing ice-pick head ache
7. get bread and milk on the way home
”

Samurai – I am Bill. I am the chief architect. I too have a special list and you are on it

I keep everything in my head. It works, mostly. The minute I write anything down I forget about it and it doesn’t get done.

Various lists from various projects that I’m working on. Extensive use of outlook calender to keep track of ongoing experiments that can run for up to 12 months.

I generally make a daily to do list which I occasionally reach the bottom of.

I keep everything in my head. It works, mostly. The minute I write anything down I forget about it and it doesn’t get done.

I actually like this. I plan for the next day as the last thing I do before leaving. Witing it down stops me thinking about it as I know I can just pick it up when I walk in the following day.

I’ve a todo list in excel usually has 20 or so things on. Col 1 has entries A or B for importance, a being do soon, b being don’t forget . Col 2 is the rank or order to do them in. I add to the list if l get new work during the day that I won’t finish that day.

Update it every night. Each morning I check, rank and sort. Then just pick the most fun task 🙂 but at least I know what deadlines I’m missing.

I use a thing called Trello – it has a website and apps. http://www.trello.com

I use it for keeping track of custom builds – I note every part I need to order, when and from who I’ve ordered them, stuff like that.

Ahh Trello is Joel Spolsky’s latest offering, haven’t checked it out but will do.

Great stuff people, really interested to hear what other people are doing.

The reason I’m asking is I’m starting a new job soon (hopefully) and will need to get up to speed quickly, so I’ve been trialling my new system in advance!

I use Trello for SW to do lists.

I have a pad of paper / post-its on which I write down current actions / Todos, but once I have ticked them off, the notes get binned. I store everything as emails / txt files.

I use Excel, then I post up on here asking how I can reorganise my data to stop me having to do any work

Cheers
Bill Stanway

A4 notepads at work Even though I have access to all manor of electronic PC based stuff…..A4 pad works best for me.

Gmail Calendar for personal stuff

At home – Small wall mounted blackboard in kitchen along with a small his/hers type calendar so we can leave reminders ( this gets used a lot more that you realise).

I use a notepad in meetings to write a todo list (I tried with a Nexus 7 tablet but couldn’t type fast enough on it). And then Trello for overall planning.

Another head carrier here. If I make notes I forget about it, forget to look in them, and I find I’m not listening to what’s being said.

The only way for me to remember is to really pay attention and ask loads of questions at the start – then I’ll remember. I rely on my email client to give me reminders of when calls and meetings are though.

Mix of head & notebook here.
If I’m allocating tasks to my Engineers, that have come in as emails, I add a code into the subject & copy myself…& an Outlook rule then puts them into specific folders. It’s the best way I’ve found to keep tabs on who I’ve assigned what to, as sifting through the stack of email I send is laborious.

How do you folk deal with emails ? Some days I can get 70+. 😐

I got back from holiday and had over 1300 emails. Its taken me 3 weeks to deal with them, and the 80 new ones I get every day. Some, obviously, have just been shoved into a folder and ignored – I reckon if its really important then they’ll remind me about it.
I use a combination of written notes, emails and Outlook calendar prompts. Am interested in that Trello thing…

TeamworkPM (http://www.teamworkpm.net/refer/cscls) is IMO the absolutely pigs figs when it comes to task and project management. Super intuitive but with loads of functionality that you can enable/disable. And the team behind it are awesome – I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than 10 mins for a reply re a question, bug or feature request. 10/10 in my book.

I use this

http://taskcoach.org/

but its only any good if you keep it up to date.

For tasks/instructions during phone meetings typically use OneNote which is good for writing notes and also aSsigning tasks that end up straight into outlook. If I receive an email I have to do suffering with I use outlook “follow up by” function and if it’s a one off task it’s usually a separate task using the task function. The OneNote system works well when you need to tell people what I’ve actually done so to speak. For perspective I work on projects and operational stuff in a client / agency structure.

Ps I bring my laptop into every meeting.

Combination of MSProject and Excel and Outlook.

Std Corporate build.

Sometimes I use an A4 notebook, but on the whole I cart the Lappy around.

I use Trello just to make lists and tick them off. Prefered Basecamp, but the boss doesn’t deem a well organised workforce worth paying for.

Strangely I hate books. All that opening them up and stuff. Really detest them. Much prefer to have a scrap piece of paper for any paper notes.

github ftw

I have rolling 90 day plan of the big things that need done.

Besides that I struggle with to do lists etc, the stuff that is important and drives value will surface to the top. Where I really struggle is keeping on top of my team and ensuring all their work actually really gets finished and not just 90%.

Whenever I write a to do list I will typically come up with 40-60 things to do, nigh on impossible for me to prioritise.

I am an avid but pointless note taker, never get around to re-reading it and struggle with my own handwriting so I would be better off listening more.

So any tips gratefully appreciated.

at work mostly i just use outlook and make lists in drafts or todos in the task list or calendar.

At home i use google calendar on pc and phone with gtasks or google keep

i like the idea of https://workflowy.com/ but often just end up chucking a quick task on gtasks or google keep (voice recorded)

i also use pocket to store webpages to read later and have evernote to clip pages and text sometimes

i would love 1 app that is cross platform which does everything 🙂

i cant read my own hand writing half the time so avoid paper at all costs.

Post it note … all over … including my PC desktop.

As I have found in numerous roles, just because I write everything down and can find it when I need to – doesn’t mean others do.

They then quote what they ‘remember’ occurred/agreed etc, and get arsey when shown to be wrong 🙂

Bugzilla and post-it notes for me

I use 3 things:

Outlook Calendar (sync’d to PC & phone)
Sticky Notes on desktop – lower priority stuff
A4 paper pad – for day to day/important stuff – aim to clear it before leaving each day

Also flag emails for follow up and categorise them.

To paraphrase the late Roy Castle.
“delegation’s what ya need’.

I use a hybrid version of this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-Back-Using-Outlook-Organized/dp/0735620407

For meetings etc I use Evernote.

Don’t bother with post its and note pads (especially in meetings). Learn to type quick enough and minutes etc become largely a copy paste job. spot the areas you can save time and being efficient and keep commitments.

If it’s being organised you’re after, everything you need is in outlook. The one thing I miss since moving to a mac is he missing functionality in office 2011. Roll on next year and with luck it’ll be closer to o365.

The other top tip for being organised is to follow some of the advice from the 7 habits of highly annoying people. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/0743501535

This will help in sorting the wheat from the chaff when implementing tbl

Like any framework I don’t recommend either are implemented literally. Study them and adapt to suit.

I’m currently making a mental note of how frikkin glad I am that I no longer have a job that requires me to be organised. I’m not very good at it and don’t particularly like trying to be good at it.

Tasks in Outlook

TMI. Yep it’s old school and works for me.