Time Management Systems

[crunchycon]

I have been struggling with finding a simple system with which to prioritize and manage my time, as well as organize my meeting and project notes (I work outside the home as a corporate trainer). I've used a conventional paper planner, and have attempted to go paperless using programs like Evernote. Nothing seems to really click as it seems overcomplicated.

I'd love to know what members of this forum do to keep their lives in order.

[Ultralight]

Have you kept a time journal or done an activity inventory?

[freshstart]

are you forced to use a certain program at work to keep your schedule, arrange meeting times with a group, etc.? We had to use the time management utilities that came with the software my company bought. But they could not sync with anything else, not even our blackberries. Total PITA and pretty much useless because we were all out and about all day and could not check in with these tools in real time, not even if we found free wi fi because of confidentiality. Employees so badly wanted a tool they could use for all of their life, not just work, that they used the work tools for home life as well. But our employer can see everything you write! So I have no answers except I would not do this, lol

[Kestra]

I'm not sure if I should be answering this because I struggle with the same problem, and have less going on at the moment then you, but just in case any of this helps:

- firstly I dedicate time to keeping organized, and try to review my system and documents frequently. I actually have a Word document that's my document organization masterlist, which I can refer to to try to remember where I put something, as I tend to start the same type of thing in different places and at different times. I have a good memory, but not good enough for the amount of documents and projects I have on the go, and especially if I haven't worked on them for a while. I went from feeling completely disorganized to only moderately, just by putting more time into it.

- for project notes I make a lot of use of Word's auto-table of contents, as well as bookmarks and hyperlinks (within the same document or between documents). I've been trying to add more dates and internal notes and comments as well, to remind myself where I stopped working. I use the writing program Scrivener, and while I have found it useful for rough drafting a longer single document, I had to stop using it for miscellaneous project stuff, short documents, and switched back to Word, plus the usual Windows folder system.

- for appointments I have a combination of an Excel spreadsheet (where I record things I might want to do as a high level overview - I have a line for everyday, so if I find out about something I can jot it down) and my iPhone calendar app, for definite plans. Again, I don't have a huge number of commitments yet, so that's good enough for now. I'll probably start a Google calendar eventually when I'm doing client appointments.

- for to-do list, and prioritizing and managing my time I use mostly Excel. Here's a screenshot.
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/11745919_862535900492115_1257100333669057634_n.jpg ?oh=cd1cdccc75720d6da2982d4635641ded&oe=564FFBE8

I enter my to-do's by category, time required, priority, frequency (for recurring tasks), due date, then use the sorting feature to pick what I want to be working on. I use a function to colour overdue cells, and a function to change the due dates based on the frequency I want to do the particular item.

- I keep all my most common Excel stuff within the same spreadsheet so it's easy to find. As I work I track my time - what I did, what category, how long I worked. Then I have a summary sheet, so I can set goals of how much time to spend on any particular area.

- for current important/long projects (for me it's currently studying for 2 courses) I made a more detailed schedule that shows where I have to be at each day in order to be done for the deadline). I highlight what I've done.
Here's a screenshot:
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/63389_862538637158508_8472976341570457141_n.jpg?oh =04ae59d54104ac21b52fd2985e8e6a2d&oe=564D91EA

Those are my basics I think. I'm slowly getting better. I'm looking forward to other people's ideas.

[Ultralight]

I realize that I am risking sounding like a total radical, or perhaps a jerk, or just a bit nutty. But I have this goal of simplifying my life to the point where I do not need a formal time management system and have very little management of my time anyway.

So after doing activity audits and things of that sort, I just use a little calendar on the wall. I scribble a few things on it. For work I just keep a running to-do list, but I barely consider my work to be part of my real life. I am just a robot at work. haha

This is all still in the experimental phase, so I may change it in the future.

[catherine]

Holy cow, Kestra, that's some system!

I've tried to go to apps for time management, like Evernote and Wunderlist. Wunderlist is the simplest online tool I've found. The problem with ANY online time management tool is that it's sight unseen. You have to dig it out of the computer. I need things right in front of my face.

So I have a very low-tech dry erase board that works perfect for me (at least when I'm at home and not traveling.). The board hangs right in my office in plain view. I write down my goals/tasks for the week, and then I have a separate list of daily MUST DOs. That's it. I write 'em up and erase them when I'm done.

I do keep my general appointments and active projects on my Outlook calendar, however. That's kind of the "birds-eye view" of my to-do list.

[Kestra]

I realize that I am risking sounding like a total radical, or perhaps a jerk, or just a bit nutty. But I have this goal of simplifying my life to the point where I do not need a formal time management system and have very little management of my time anyway.

So after doing activity audits and things of that sort, I just use a little calendar on the wall. I scribble a few things on it. For work I just keep a running to-do list, but I barely consider my work to be part of my real life. I am just a robot at work. haha

This is all still in the experimental phase, so I may change it in the future.

There's nothing wrong with that. If I wasn't self-employed I'd just use my phone calendar and phone to-do list.

If I wasn't so organizationally impaired and didn't need to be doing so many things at once to keep my brain happy, I wouldn't need such an elaborate system.

I do like to do things randomly as they come up, so I don't have a specific daily time structure. On the other hand it seems the only way to partake in social activities (until all my friends are retired) is some type of formal scheduling. If I wasn't willing to do that I'd never see anyone.

[Ultralight]

Kestra, you have got some skillz!

[Kestra]

Kestra, you have got some skillz!

If you ever need a spreadsheet, I'm your girl.;)

[Ultralight]

I will sheepishly admit I have a very, very simple spreadsheet of my 158 possessions.

[freshstart]

I need a calendar where each person has their own calendar but things involving each other can show up on all our calendars. I'm hoping the Apple calendar will work because we all use Apple products. Anything has to be better than super long email strings and then everyone has to adjust their paper calendar with each email

[SteveinMN]

I primarily use a calendar on my laptop that syncs to my smartphone (or a calendar on my smartphone that syncs to my laptop :)). That's all the time-based stuff: appointments, bills, phone calls, etc. The non-time-based to-do items go into general "hoppers" which are organized by function. I have a hopper for our house, for my rental property, for my business, for the non-profit board on which I sit, etc. They're just free-text files full of notes and "someday" items. When one of those items rises in priority enough to have a date set, it moves to the calendar. I can update the calendar and the hoppers from anywhere so I don't have to keep track of anything until I can dump it into the appropriate place and no longer worry about it.

Now, that's not really managing my time in a macro sense. My experience is that trying to do that too tightly is just an exercise in frustration. I have no way of knowing if that phone call I need to make will take ten minutes or thirty minutes or ten minutes today and fifteen tomorrow. Or if the dog will need something that takes away from whatever else I have scheduled. When I carefully planned my day for maximum accomplishment, things like that (and there always were things like that) just kept bumping the train cars further and further down the track and I just got overwhelmed. This way is better. Fortunately for me, I no longer need to squeeze into a few hours everything that I used to....

[Kestra]

I need a calendar where each person has their own calendar but things involving each other can show up on all our calendars. I'm hoping the Apple calendar will work because we all use Apple products. Anything has to be better than super long email strings and then everyone has to adjust their paper calendar with each email

I remembered a friend mentioning this so I asked her. She was using an app called Hub, and liked it, but then it sounds like the free trial expired and she didn't want to pay.

[Gardenarian]

I also use an the kitchen wall calendar as my primary reminder. Whenever I make appointments, I ask that they send me an email AND a text (if that is an option.) I use Google calendar as well, and that syncs to my phone and PC, but I often forget to put things in there. I like paper.

I find it really helpful to do some journal writing - usually in the evening - about what I really want to accomplish and what my priorities are. That's where I'll write about things like health, diet & exercise, home repair, garden ideas, creative thoughts. Then, every day I make a To Do list, using the kitchen calendar and email to remind me of appointments and stuff, and my journal writing to keep in mind the bigger picture.

Without the journal writing, my free time tends to just spend itself without my actually even noticing. I've been trying to find or create some kind of journal/datebook that would fulfill these functions, but having a separate calendar and journal is okay.

My work only requires my to show up and do my stuff, so at least that part is really easy.

[shadowmoss]

I like the basics of Getting Things Done. Not that I have managed to totally implement it. However, the basic structure helps. I have a personal calendar that sends notices to my personal email that I get into at least once a day (and can access from my phone if necessary) that sends reminders to check that I've paid bills a couple of days before they are due, when to put out the trash, and when to put out the recycling, that kind of thing. Zoho.com has a free, online complete suite of applications that even includes a Gantt chart (did I spell that right?) for project management, you could see if you can build something that works for you out of their offerings. Did I mention it is free?

[Zoe Girl]

I primarily use a calendar on my laptop that syncs to my smartphone (or a calendar on my smartphone that syncs to my laptop :)). That's all the time-based stuff: appointments, bills, phone calls, etc. The non-time-based to-do items go into general "hoppers" which are organized by function. ....

i am working more on that, i had evernote but it didn't talk to enough different systems. So i am working more with google on my new android phone. i used to have outlook( work calendar) that synced up but then none of my google stuff would work, now google works and outlook does not, and all my email accounts are not connecting. However i did get keep, a google app, and i can share my task lists and access them from my computer. So i am working on learning this one but i really like it so far.

[iris lilies]

I like Steve's organization of ideas. This is pretty much what I do on paper, the time-sensitive things on a calendar and to-do lists on paper. I can't/don't want to move calendar items to an electronic source because I share that info with DH. We don't have smart phones.

we DO,share an email address and we both check email daily, so there is probably a way to sign up for calendar event notifications. But then our internet is so blasted off and on, I really hate to depend on that right now.

just musing here. I've been pondering optimum organization of my activities since I retired, haven't hit on The Way yet.

[gg_sl]

My basic system:

Outlook Calendar - meetings and some other items I block out time to do
Outlook Task List (only for emails flagged that I need to (re)read)
Pad of paper for actual hand-written to do list, updating frequently
Manilla folder for each project (labeled with label maker). Generally with post-it on outside with "Next Action" step written

[kib]

Ongoing: i have a computer document with a page for each month. Not a spreadsheet, just a plain old page. I print it out on the first day of the month, and write on it as the month goes by. Sean's Bd 7/15. Paid prius registration $500 7/26. At the end of the month I edit the page in the computer, so that next year when I print it out, I have a record of what's going to be important again. I keep a full year of pages in a notebook so I can update other months by hand if something pops up.

Over the years, I've found it to be more reliable to do it this way than have it 100% online, but also less work than having to write things onto a calendar every year.

For day to day things, I have a document called "daily bread", which basically lists the standard stuff for the week; cleaning, personal stuff, specific goals I'm working on. This one stays electronic. It's got a column for every day, I highlight the day. At the bottom are any one-time appointments I need to remember, I just keep a running list of them there.

As others have said, a lot easier to manage this stuff if your job doesn't require a lot of scheduling and juggling, for that I have no advice at all.

[freshstart]

thanks all. Not working, when I was, we used outlook. I still haven't acted on this yet, I can't imagine if my parents, the kids and I all use Apple products that the calendar function must allow us to share. The key is being able to share because we have to coordinate all the rides to all these MD appts (my dad is the only driver now), when the kids will be here, etc. I do a three week out list of my schedule and email it to everyone. Since no one is doing the same, I figure, well, my ride needs are down there, maybe they will work around that. But I also would like to know other's schedules so I know not to book something. The kids could care less, they will call and say they are on their way even if it's on the books that I have an appt. So I am giving up on them. Hopefully the 3 adults left (not particularly techie) can manage to do this. It is an uphill battle, whatever I use, i'm going to have to teach them.

as far as to-do lists, I keep them in Notes, works fine.

[iris lilies]

May I just say

Thank the gods and praise Jesus that I am no longer working

and I no longer have to use that POS software Outlook.

Lord, I hated it. Thank you.

[Teacher Terry]

IL: you are too funny! YOu & I are a lot alike except for politics/social programs. You make me laugh out loud sometimes.

[ApatheticNoMore]

It may not be great, but I have to say I work with worse software every day (nah it's not Microsoft - it's more much of the software is free software - for no real reason other than the company is cheap. And the software that may be paid doesn't function that well either). So you get used to one software or other crashing near daily - and most of the time it's not Outlook.

[freshstart]

May I just say

Thank the gods and praise Jesus that I am no longer working

and I no longer have to use that POS software Outlook.

Lord, I hated it. Thank you.

Me, too! I refused to use it and used our web based email instead. I still got and could respond to the zillion emails and somehow, in 11 years, no one ever questioned or cared that none of my emails were from Outlook. And as for Windows, hospice doesn't have a lot of money so that meant we did not buy the new versions, fine, many companies do that. But ours was at least 3 versions behind, to the point that Microsoft no longer supported it. that was FUN! People that choose to work in hospice are generally mellow, you can throw all kinds of really bad clinical s*** at us and we are calm and start making a plan to fix it. These are not the type of workers who yell, "F this!" loudly in a public office and a group formed that threw their laptops onto the guy's desk who made this poor decision, threatening to really quit if he didn't do something.

their first mistake was to promote this guy to all things IT when he was from finance and had zero IT experience. And despite daily complaints about him, he's still there, 10 yrs later, not returning calls with pleas for help because even he can't take it anymore. He's George Constanza hiding under his desk, with a pillow and a kindle, he's DONE

[iris lilies]

It may not be great, but I have to say I work with worse software every day (nah it's not Microsoft - it's more much of the software is free software - for no real reason other than the company is cheap. And the software that may be paid doesn't function that well either). So you get used to one software or other crashing near daily - and most of the time it's not Outlook.

Oh APN, believe me, I feel your pain at cheap software. Outlook isn't the worst by any means. Agreed, it didn't actually crash I just hated the fact that it seemed to have 5,000 options AND YET never did what I thought it should do, intuitively. Or I suppose it was our implementation of the 5,000 options that made it complex, who knows.

[SteveinMN]

if my parents, the kids and I all use Apple products that the calendar function must allow us to share.
The iCloud calendar probably is the best way to do this. Have everyone keep their calendar on their own iDevices, but sync with iCloud. That way, logging into iCloud will show everyone's calendar in one. Might have to preface calendar entries with an initial or such (or maybe use a different color for each person, but I don't know offhand if there's a way to make that color a default; otherwise, people will have to remember to do it each time). But it should work.