How do you organize/structure your work?

Remove all ads!

Well, lately I've had more and more work put on my table. I have things to do left and right, and that is work only. Than there are private and social stuff to attend to. Anyway I find myself forgeting stuff more and more. It was never a problem before. I don't think its age (28) or unhealthy living or lack of sleep/rest. It is just that I have so much to do
Do you guys have some system or way of structuring stuff to do?

eg:
I work and than I have phone call and guy wants something, I either leave it for later and forget about it (tried putting it on top of my screen or between keyboard and monitor) or do it at once and possibly get distracted by it or another call and forget what I was doing originaly.

I promise my friends that I'll see them or I'll call them, and I forget all about it

Anyone have the same problem ?

 

All my "work" is spread out all over the computer room. If it's really important, then I'll write it down on a sticky note and put it on the front of my computer desk.

I'm not the best guy to ask about organization...

 

For the work stuff because my manager likes reports everything I'm doing goes into a spreadsheet, even 5 minute jobs, currently I have 60 items for this week 90% of which are complete but I have to show where my time has gone and why I have not completed urgent stuff.

As for home etc don't really forget things there as it's my time

 

Structuring is useless. Chaos will find it's way in every situation.

 

It's simple, people call when they whish wo book a time. My secretary (well she is not my private secretary) picks up the phone and if it's my patient she writes it down in my "calendar" on the computer.

So I don't do much organization at all, I "just" take care of the patients. So the anwser to your question is that I don't organize my work myself.

 

I don't.

 

I think you need a life in order to have structure.

 

Get married. My wife tells me what to do and when to do it.

At work I use a calender -- just jot down notes and deadlines.

 

Me? I (try) to rely on my memory that is, sadly, too short...

 

I'm probably over organised. I have my Lotus Notes calendar into which all my appointments and reminders go. I also have an A4 sized diary which as a day for each page. Each A4 page is big enough to capture the day's to-do list, a snapshot of my appointments, and any notes, scribbles etc I make in a day. Hence everything ends up in my diary instead of on scraps of paper. It means it won't fit in my pocket, but it does mean that everything is in one place. I tried using Palms and Psions to organise my life but in the end have decided that good old pencil and paper works best for me.

Also, I hardly ever answer the phone. That is a big help in time management. My main issues are that I check email constantly.

 

Melhisedek, if you're just dealing with a bunch of legwork you need to prioritize, you might want to look into David Allen's "Getting Things Done" program. It's a very tactical approach to knocking out all the work on your desk, though it doesn't apply as closely to higher-level managerial stuff.

Here's a hint: it does indeed use yellow post-it notes.

 

I have a small 3 month notepad that I take with me everywhere and it has my appointments for every day in it (some day there are no appointments). My desk has a 4 story sorting tray. Top gets my immediate priority, 2nd down is the 'stuff that isn't too important and I'll get around to it when the top tray is clear', 3rd down is 'pieces of paper I MIGHT need in the future' and the 4th tray is often filled with non-work related goodies such as that free stapler I stole off Joe or the reciepts from home I might use to claim off my taxes etc.

My computer stores most of my information though using data systems and easy to use internet stuff all complex and I can't understand how half of it works but I know how to use it.

I also have a pretty good memory when it comes to other issues so I don't always need to write stuff down unless they're overly complex.

 

Structure always ends up being more of a problem than a solution for me, so I gave up on it a long time ago.

 

Just bought another charger for my CrackBerry, so we'll consider that organization.

 

Try the take a number system. They get served when we have time to do it. Sometimes the wait can be a couple months...

 

We have a wiki set up so that we can record all of our 'to do' things. Before that I used to save all reminders in notepad.

 

I write, in huge letters, reminders to myself, then either stick it to the keyboard or put it on the notice board. Or leave things in strategic places on the floor where I'll trip up on them.

 

ABC's... Airway, Breathing, and Circulation. Manage all the things that can kill your patient first, deal with the s**t in the bed when things slow down later.

 

A load of stuff scattered across my desk, with a page of paper to write notes of what needs to be done first near the middle. Just scribbling things down in the hope that I'll see the message and remember sometime soon.