Your tips for organising work/projects

I’ve asked similar questions before, but I often struggle to keep on top of multiple projects.

I manage a small team, but we are responsible for several organisation wide projects and initiatives. This inlcudes developing the strategies/implementing, tracking progress etc. The projects are all entirely different parts of the business.

For those of you that manage to keep the plates spinning, what are your tips?

– I have tried One Note but can’t seem to keep the discipline

– Every notebook I ever use starts off really neat (like first day of term neat) but soon ends up in chaotic scribbles

– I have tried using Teams spaces

– I tend to use Outlook as my file storage – this means I have to often remember who I sent something to instead of navigating to a directory. I keep trying to set up folders, but it’s such a big task I get overwhelmed

I get by, but I can’t help feeling I would be more productive if I had some sort of discipline.

So – what are your top tips?

Employ a Project Manager ?

– I tend to use Outlook as my file storage – this means I have to often remember who I sent something to instead of navigating to a directory. I keep trying to set up folders, but it’s such a big task I get overwhelmed

This seems like the biggest of the issues you mention. Presumably you do have a central repository somewhere for the key files etc?

If not, start one. It doesn’t have to be right first time, but just start a folder “Work -> Projects -> *project name/ ref*” and start putting the key documents in there. You can copy and paste key emails into it too (stakeholder decisions or whatever) and so on.

Once the project’s finished, go back through and check if there are any other essential documents that might be needed in future that aren’t in there, and add them in. Then file it under “Work -> Completed Projects” or similar.

Keep doing that for every project, and over time it will get easier; muscle memory will kick in, you’ll spot better ways to keep it tidy and ticking along, etc.

Other than that I just live on lists. There are project management type platforms (Asana, Clickup etc); tbh the way we use them is generally to have a list of all the tasks and subtasks required, enter the date they’re required, and who’s responsible. Not sure it’s the most effective way of using them, mind.

We’ve moved over to using Confluence for almost everything. Word design documents still live on a network share but with a link back to Confluence.

As soon as a piece of work starts, we create a Confluence page with all the high level information – description of what we’re doing, order book number it’s billed to etc. Sub pages get added as necessary.

The other great use of Confluence for me is an architecture wiki. Every time someone asks me a question or I need to find out something I record it in the wiki. It’s a much better way of holding information on a system that dates back to 2001 than trying to read every design document since then!

This approach has worked for me throughout my entire education and working life

– I have tried One Note but can’t seem to keep the discipline

I get by, but I can’t help feeling I would be more productive if I had some sort of discipline.

Develop the discipline?

Not a troll post, BTW.

If running teams isn’t your core competency (ie you have been promoted into management) I would expect any organisation worth its salt would offer the opportunity for some training into how to develop these skills.

I’ve tried one note before and it didn’t really work so well for me.  What’s a lot better for me is ‘Sticky Notes’, one digital sticky per project with bullet points per project.

And then a well organised Sharepoint

And then a well organised Sharepoint

Surely a contradiction in terms? SharePoint is where knowledge goes to die.

I would second the Confluence suggestion. I would also recommend that if you do that, you encourage the team to develop the discipline to keep it current – don’t take it all on yourself.

Develop the discipline?

This.  Your problem is not the tools chosen, whether teams, one note, A4 folders in a cabinet… All will do what you need or at least be better than nothing. Your getting paralysis analysis looking at all these different options for the magic bullet which will fix your issues – they wont fix anyhting, because they dont do anything on their own.

The bit you are missing is the habit/discipline to actually do it. 

I know this because you sound just like me. Its very, very hard to develop new habits, but thats what you need to do.

It’s not the tool, it’s the discipline. My top tip is to work with people who are good at organising you. You may be a stellar producer of exceptional work, a leader of ideas, great with high-level thinking and innovation and a superb presenter, but hopeless at planning and putting things into action (btw, that’s me). To be properly effective, you will need a “handler”. In my experience these people are worth their weight in gold. Nobody has all the skills and time to prosecute them. That’s the point of teams and project managers.

For general working practices, I work using text files in Notepad with a very organised directory structure for all projects. I prefer text to OneNote because the action of typing helps commit to memory, whereas OneNote is a paste anything place. I then write a short formal summary evaluation for wider consumption and I share the directories with the team when ready using OneDrive.

I have never managed to run any form of physical diary, or notepad, nor a To Do list. I don’t file emails either (but I do auto route some such as work making lists. Searching Outlook by “from” and a smart text term is all that is needed, and the Focused filtering has been all I need to errr focus on work rather than external emails.

If you have stuff you think would help but can’t maintain the self discipline to stick with your chosen route/tool/recording option it can be really helpful to give yourself some external accountability to make sure you “have” to do it.

If you’re keeping notes to help you organise put them in a publicly accessible place and set up a regular meeting to review them with your manager, should encourage you to keep them up to date and in order. If you’re running multiple different projects for different people then that’s just more instances of the notes and more meetings with the managers/stakeholders.

Excel

Every project manager I have ever known, using whichever tool the company threw at them, always had an Excel spreadsheet for the key information. Often with one project per tab.

Surely the answer is just MS Project (which in itself is just a fancy front for Excel).

As already highlighted the importance is the discipline of your team to follow the actions and tasks on time.

I find the “big stuff” in some respects, is easier to manage than all the little stuff…

Of all the things I’ve tried for the smaller/miscellaneous tasks I find outlook the easiest, mainly because it’s something I’m using every day anyway so doesn’t take much extra discipline

You can drag and drop mails into your calendar, colour-code them for various categories and mark yourself as available/unavailable as required.

A:  Someone sends me a mail asking for something that I know is likely to take an hour to do, but isn’t needed until next week – I drag the mail to my calendar, categorise it as “to do” (I sometime add a few notes) but mark my time as “free/available” in case someone wants to schedule a meeting.

B:  I send someone a mail asking for something…  I drag the mail from my sent items folder, drop it into my calendar a few days hence but colour code it as “follow up” so that I get a reminder to give them a nudge if they haven’t responded…

C:  I also create appointments directly if I know that I need to blank out a chunk of time for something – If it’s an appointment in Outlook, Teams automatically shows you as “in a meeting” so it reduces the number of interruptions

Things inevitably get moved out or take longer than expected but I just shuffle them around and use the outlook calendar to plan my time – Things don’t get forgotten about, but I find that I can put them out of mind once they’re scheduled and I also get a good idea when I’m hitting capacity…

It sort of depends on the project, mine have been mostly product development. Normally shortish (<12 months). Often running a couple of projects alongside other work.

Gantt charts/task lists/RACI. Who needs to do what by when (and have they done it). Keep track using RAG status – Red (shit!), Amber (Take a look), Green (Ok) – You can add Blue (not started) and Grey (complete).

If you outline what needs to be done up front I find it much easier to keep track of the information and actions. Again most of mine is stuff that needs to be created – labels, data sheets, sales brochures, the actual product!

Write minutes and notes – because things get delayed, urgent stuff comes up and you need to work on something else then go back.

I’ve always used spreadsheets because they have been the tools I’ve been provided with. There is a basic Gantt template if you google. Tried things like Smartsheets, Project etc. and they all have their place. Most of mine have been relatively straight forward though.

Come up with a filing system that works. Where do you put stuff and how do you find it again. I put everything online in Teams – can get it anywhere, can read my typing but not handwriting.

Use outlook to block out time to get stuff done. For me spending 4 hours in the lab is important so I book it out. Decline anything that clashes.

Chase people. Constantly. They said they’ve done it, but they haven’t. Managing a project isn’t about documenting that you are behind schedule – it is supposed to be making it happen.

File your emails into folders. Or use labels etc. depending on software.

Decide what is important and what is urgent.

There’s loads out there. There are course you can go on, project management etc. but ultimately you need to figure out your own system within the culture you work.  I learnt best with someone coaching me who was organised and experienced – and from mistakes.

I like ms planner.  It’s like a Kasban board. I set up a column for each project with a lists of tasks with due dates. You can allocate them to your team if you want to and it sends them a link to the task

Employ a Project Manager ?

Plot twist he is the Project Manager

Assign time at the start of every day to sort stuff out, whatever method your are using.  That time is just as valuable as time on project if not actually more valuable as it will stop other stuff spiraling out of control.  Don’t let other things use that time.

Onenote is a tool for keeping YOUR notes on various projects and meetings, along with stuff that falls outside those projects.

Onenote needs to then to be reduced to a series of actions which are properly recorded and assigned.  You can do this aspect as you see fit.

There should be a proper project plan, however light, for each project and those tasks should link to one/many project objective(s).

Onenote is done every day, action planning every 2-3 days and project planning every week.

This MUST take priority, it’s urgent AND important and MUST be undertaken regularly.  It is boring and seems to be a huge waste of your time, but it’s not and it does get easier and does payback on your time invested.

To do lists are only really useful when you only have yourself to manage or have significant free time to put into particular tasks.

All the above but glue yourself to the computer to track progress.

Never take your eyes off the people working on the project, coz they are going to screw you up big time when you relax a little.

People have the tendency to work at their own pace but some are just working at snail pace.

I find Asana more instinctive than MSProject. Use board views as if they’re post-its, move the post-its between columns (which could represent people, or months, or whatever) as needed. Set up different boards for different projects, keep track of things that way. Once you get used to that, you can add in other bits and start using it more properly/fully. Go on an APM course – even the intro ones are really useful at understanding how to get organised.

Thanks all, some genuinely useful stuff here.

I work in children’s services which is very dynamic and fast paced – we are always a moment away from an event that can derail your best laid plans for the day/week/month.

I’ve been around the business for long enough to know that every manager has told me I am not a completer/finisher, I thrive on the creativity and innovation. In fact – this is exactly me. I have a member of staff that handles me really well, I would be entirely lost without her.

You may be a stellar producer of exceptional work, a leader of ideas, great with high-level thinking and innovation and a superb presenter, but hopeless at planning and putting things into action (btw, that’s me). To be properly effective, you will need a “handler”. In my experience these people are worth their weight in gold. Nobody has all the skills and time to prosecute them. That’s the point of teams and project managers.

I think the points around discipline are valid, I need to find a way of keeping a (filing/organising/sorting) routine even when the plans get thrown out of the window with the latest unforeseeable emergency issue that needs my attention. It’s too easy for me to make excuses – I’m starting this today.

This is good advice

If not, start one. It doesn’t have to be right first time, but just start a folder “Work -> Projects -> *project name/ ref*” and start putting the key documents in there.

Plot twist he is the Project Manager

God no. I couldn’t do that!

Thanks for these tips…

Of all the things I’ve tried for the smaller/miscellaneous tasks I find outlook the easiest, mainly because it’s something I’m using every day anyway so doesn’t take much extra discipline

Come up with a filing system that works. Where do you put stuff and how do you find it again. I put everything online in Teams – can get it anywhere, can read my typing but not handwriting.

I’ll look at Asana and Confluence as well.

Thanks again, really good stuff.

I found setting up a shared OneNote for the team has been useful.

It’s our bible – all the arcane processes are in one section for reference, project plans are in another, and there’s an overall ‘jobs to do’ scheduling page where we can all see what needs doing, when, who is going to do it and who the key contact is. Took a while to make it a part of everyone’s routine (had to prod people a bit in the beginning) but it works well now.

There’s only the three of us mind, and projects rarely run beyond 3-6 months, but it’s the best solution I’ve found so far.

This approach has worked for me throughout my entire education and working life

This! we are currently on a large project (for us) that is due for installation in March, we keep getting bugged for updates, so we’re heavily into the f*** of stage 😉

Monday.com is another tool that is used but you’ve received enough other suggestions.

My only other advice would be:

1) delegate some ownership to the others involved in the project. Sure you will end up checking the tasks and chasing up but getting others to manage their own tasks will take some of the pressure off you and will also help them become more engaged in the work.

2) whatever the tool you end up using, use it in meetings to ensure everyone else is across the projects/tasks and so you don’t forget anything. It shouldn’t be your own secret checklist – it should be a shared document to help everyone keep on top of things.

Things like miro can help or jira/azure dev ops if you have access to it

Or something like https://plane.so/ which has a free plan or can be self hosted (but obviosuly latter for experienced devs)

Airtable is also a very good tool for this

https://www.airtable.com/templates/project-management/expnPwND0WA2x7nhJ

free tier has a lot

+1 for Asana

Intuitive but not too full on as MS Project

Can keep track/date/followup and get progress depending on your (changeable) views which may then help with discipline

Worth taking a look at Loop components within O365, that allows you to create to do lists within OneNote (or loop) , and these can then be duplicated/shared across the team (and dynamically updated everywhere) into Ms Planner and teams or other places to help track actions. Just started using, and very quickly it helps you get actions out of OneNote…… But…… It does need discipline (that word keeps cropping up) to keep your OneNote organised and important files stored in a share point folder tree or teams file stash

It seems to be helping me take the actions from OneNote books into I do lists

• I love a spreadsheet for visualising things and setting up repetitive calculations etc – which isn’t surprising as that’s what they’re designed for
• Have something that is accessible wherever you are, so ideally from a work phone as well as a computer
• Start badly, but start and persevere with it
• Review it on a regular basis to tidy it up

Not so much a collaboration approach but something which I do religiously is to use my Outlook calendar as a task list. If something comes in which needs doing, create an appointment and drop the original email in to it. You’ll have an idea how long the task will take but get better over time at estimating it.

if when the time comes to do the task in your calendar you can’t do it for whatever reason, just drag and move it to a free time you can. Also update the appointment when complete to reflect how long it actually took.

This has the added advantage that people can’t just drop meetings in at a time when you’re meant to be doing real work.

But as others have said, ultimately it’s a discipline you need to get into.

Our PMs use either MS Project or Excel for the detailed project stuff, the programme level tracking is mostly Excel as is resource tracking. It only works though as we have dedicated PMs, if it were part of my role that sort of thing would never get updated.

Ive been around IT projects of various sizes for over 30 years and, frankly, all the tools mentioned above are useless without the discipline to use them, as several other posters have mentioned.

Whatever method/tool you decide on, I suggest you choose something that your team are comfortable with. Some of the tools suggested may be overly complex for your needs and your team’s technical skills (assuming you actually work collaboratively).

Confession: I, too, lack discipline and am probably the worst offender in our small company for not updating documents and plans. In contrast, a co-worker I work with a lot is scarily organized (frankly, I think she has some sort of OCD about how she organizes her work but she needs this as she can’t rely on me!)

Maybe it’s worth working to the team strengths and maybe you are the starter and driver and others are the finishers or handlers as TiRed puts it.
Ask the others how you can work to smooth their handling and finishing so that they can work efficiently and you get a glimpse into how they manage their work.
It may be a filing structure, or a document of facts, a spreadsheet, or just a chronological pile of scrap paper, who knows?