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It's the beginning of another development year, and one of my resolutions is to become more organized. I've tried an assortment of approaches, but I never quite seem to be able to arrive at an approach that:
- is lightweight. I have people drop into my cube all of the time with "a list".
- is searchable.
- can be organized by topic/task and date;
I've tried using ToDo List, text files, email, one note and they all seem to muddle things. What do you use to keep track of tasks?
Charlie Gilley
<italic>You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house.
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I have played with this[^] before, and it is rather easy to use. Haven't used it in a while, though.
There is a portable (e.g. on a usb drive) version here[^].
Bob Dole The internet is a great way to get on the net.
 2.0.82.7292 SP6a
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I use that now. I was thinking a little more about what it is that frustrates me. This is probably not unique to me. I have a mix of new development, maintenance items, bug reports, and general technical discussions that occur.
Rather than switching between applications that do one thing better than the other, I end up logging it all in a text file. Think of yellow stickie notes on steroids.
I have a daily diary for running with the day to day stuff, but it's next to impossible to keep that content in sync with tasks...
CORRECTION - on my old laptop I have version 6.3.4 and I just upgraded to the tip that has - a calendar in it. Hmmm. Have to play with this a bit.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house.
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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PNotes[^]?
I use it as well.
Bob Dole The internet is a great way to get on the net.
2.0.82.7292 SP6a
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charlieg wrote: is lightweight.
Yellow stickers and a notebook, over the years I've found that it works surprisingly well ...
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Yellow sticky notes work good. With tape added so they don't fall off the monitor.
Steve Wellens
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I have a Word document that I use to keep track of long-term tasks. It's a bulleted list, with indents for sub-tasks. I've keep a printed copy on my desk, and cross items off it as they're completed. I had a run of several months, year before last, where the Word document was a single page. It's now two pages, and has been as long as five. I keep active e-mail items in the top level of my in box, and only move them to a folder when they're completed, or I've added them to the Word document. Walk-in requests and things that "HAVE TO BE DONE TODAY OR WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIEEEEE!" or are otherwise on fire are handwritten on 5"x8" pieces of recycled card stock we use for printing samples (we make ink jet printers).
This scheme works for me. The cards let me record things simply and immediately, without distracting me from what I'm working on currently. Little stuff gets done and crossed-off the cards quickly, since I prefer getting this sort of thing out of the way as soon as possible. If an item sticks on a card or in my e-mail in box for more than a day or so, it gets migrated to the Word document. It serves to keep my priorities in order, and to help me plan what I'm working on. It helps also when my bosses (yes, plural) shuffle my list of "#1" priorities  . I review/edit/print the Word document about once a week.
The key is to find a scheme that works for you. Try different things. If your organization improves, keep it. If it doesn't, change it. Programmers like applications to do everything, so it's easy get too wrapped up in the application and lose sight of the goal. My scheme works for me precisely because it's low tech, and doesn't distract me from the high tech I'm focused on.
Software Zen: delete this;
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I put more effort into evading my tasks than into keeping track of what I have to evade next.
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charlieg wrote: It's the beginning of another development year, and one of my resolutions is to become more organized
As a thought you might want to spend time on considering whether this is worth the time.
How much time do you spend tracking this stuff versus doing it?
If your primary focus is supposed to be project creation (architecture/design/code) versus project management should you be doing stuff that isn't related to that? Maybe you are doing stuff that you just shouldn't be doing (it isn't worth the time you spend on it)?
If in fact a primary part of your job is tracking these sorts of things then the first step is not looking for a tool but rather define what the tool should do. Your list is rather short. For example some possible requirements of a tool.
1. Deferring tasks to the next release
2. Tasks that need more research
3. Assigning tasks to others (while still tracking)
4. Tasks that need input from others
5. Notes from meetings
6. Defining stages of a task.
7. etc.
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Oh, right, time to ask an admin for a new pad of sticky notes, thanks. 
I'll get right on that tomorrow.
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