Tracking what you're doing

[jenett]

So. I have a lovely new job, and I am at the stage of the lovely new job (this is the end of my 4th week) where I am beginning to figure out what I want to do going forward.

In particular, I'm looking for a good way to track ongoing projects. I have a todo list I like (Todoist, which I use for both work and home stuff), and I have a tracking method (inherited from my predecessor) for tracking actual reference requests (an Excel spreadsheet).

But I also have a bunch of other things (right now, the list includes rearranging the office shelves and piles of things, creating some handouts and materials for researchers, shelfreading, reading through the annual reports so I get a sense of what's in them, building a knowledge base document with things like "What are the names of the bells in the bell tower" and "why is this particular sculpture unusual". Lots of stuff that is long term but has segmented bits, in other words)

And I'm trying to figure out the best way to track "Made X handout" or "reviewed Y materials and edited" or whatever, so that later, I can figure out what I did when, or so that if my boss asks what I've been up to, I can summarise quickly.

I'm reasonably open to technology, but my work computer has less memory than it might, and complains with more than about 10 open browser tabs.

So. What do you all do? What have you tried that didn't work for you?

(This is a public post: feel free to invite people to drop in and comment. Same requests as my previous Salon posts, namely assume people have reasons for what they're doing, comments that improve the conversation or ask questions are entirely welcome, if you do not have a DW account, please put a name we can call you in your comment.)

Comments

[davidgillon]

building a knowledge base document with things like "What are the names of the bells in the bell tower"

Aha, the birth of Perkipedia ;)

So. What do you all do?

My almost inevitable response to things like this is to create an Excel spreadsheet. It doesn't have to be much - a plain worksheet listing task name/description and hours sounds like it will get you by at first, but I almost inevitably end up augmenting these as new ideas for using the sheet pop up. And it isn't something I'd necessarily have open all the time, a once a week approximation of what you spent your time on is probably going to be all you need for now (this may just possibly resemble the way I always filled in timesheets - 'Oh, call it 5 hours on X, it was somewhere around there')

[jenett]

Something like that, on the Perkipedia. (need to email the person to discuss what's possible in the tech side here, though hosted solutions are a possibility once I figure out what I want the thing to do.)

I've contemplated Excel, but I'm not sure it's the right choice here. I've found that if I don't enter things as I go, I often forget them later, and that doesn't help. (and there are times where dates might be very helpful - like 'was going to do X, got short circuited by Y urgent thing')

And I don't so much need hours as an easy calculation (I don't think anyone's going to make me justify my time in specific), it's more 'Oh, I was working on X, and then we had a reference question that took me 8 hours, so of course I didn't get as far as I wanted' is handy sometimes.

I've used WorkFlowy and some other lightweight text apps in the past, also Google Docs.

[untonuggan]

I've played around with Wunderlist, it seems to be good but I get caught up in making too many complex lists rather than doing things.

Recently been rec'd Do It (tomorrow), which has a more straight-forward interface that looks like it would work better for me, but not sure it would track things the way you need it to.

Re: keeping a low number of browser tabs/keeping track of links, I'm not sure if you're looking for a solution but have you considered Zotero? It's a Mozilla plug-in that lets you store links, sync them between computers, share them with others (say if you're in a class or some kind of fandom group), and last time I used it extensively there were ways to automatically export citations but there was some kind of legal battle with EndNote so not sure if that functionality is still there in the same way. Also, when you add something to the database and pull it up later, it uses the Internet Wayback machine to try to pull the site up *as it was when you added it*.

Obvsly adding a Mozilla plug-in could also slow your work machine down, but just mentioning because I find it way easier to keep track of bookmarks with Zotero than endlessly disorganized bookmark folders/emails spread out across multiple machines.

[jenett]

Wunderlist is one I've tried several times, and just doesn't work for me.

Todoist is great for me, because (with a paid thing) I can save Gmail messages or websites (I think the website is now a free feature) as a todo with a couple of clicks, and find them again quickly later.

(The Gmail part was huge at the previous job, less so at the current one where Outlook is the thing, but still handy for personal stuff. I have a fair number of tasks that are 'do something with/about this email in two months' sorts of things.)

Re: tabs - I use Instapaper to save stuff I want to read later. My problem comes in when I have multiple things in progress at once (for example, I have several things I want to read in close succession, but I don't want to remember which I wanted to open when I'm done with the earlier ones)

Like, for example, I'm looking at different archives and their policies this afternoon, and it's nice to have several different ones up at once, and something to take notes in. Or I might have our archives website and then a couple of the Internet Archive hosted digitized collections, with searches. Things. Tabs! We are no longer in the internet of the early 2000s!

(Um. I might have unresolved feelings about tabs. Apparently.)

When I am doing Alternity indexing, I am prone to having a window or two of 20+ tabs, mind you, but that's rather a special case. (On my home machine, it is occasionally a little cranky, but nothing like work, which tops out at about 10-12)

Anyway. For other documentation, the more I poke at it, the more I think I need something (some kind of text document) that has current projects and a few reminders to myself about where I am with that, and then day by day stuff that isn't calendar items or explicit todos, but 'made more progress on Y, emailed Z about it, waiting to hear back'.

[silveradept]

For my workplace, because of reasons that had to do with a previous manager, I keep an Excel spreadsheet with my daily time on it, just depositing what it was I did that day at what times. If I forget what I did that day, it's not as easy to reconstruct, but if I'm on top of it, it serves as a quick way of knowing what happened in any given day, in hourly chunks.

[jenett]

Yeah. That's a different granularity than I think I need. (Yay reasonable managers!) It's mostly tha when she says "So, what's been going on" it'd be nice to be easily prep and say "Oh, two really complicated questions, 6 moderately complicated ones, and here's the progress on the current projects."

[(Anonymous)]

This is Venecia. First, I'm also a huge fan of Todoist (paid).

I feel like OneNote might be just the thing for you. It comes with Office and is relatively lightweight. It's like a hyper flexible text editor where you can keep all kinds of stuff, from notes, lists, links (websites, emails, documents on your network). You can type anywhere on the page and if you have a tablet even hand write.

The context hierarchy is Notebook (dropdown) / Section (tab) / Page (side menu). Navigation is easy and intuitive. You can have everything in a single place or categorize as necessary. And it has fast text search where you can set scope (all notebooks, this notebook, this page) and get sorted results. It autosaves and keeps history.

Finally, there are apps for your smart phone so you could, in theory, be in the stacks with your phone referencing your notes.

[jenett]

Ooh. That's worth exploring on Monday.

I use Evernote for some things, but the web version can be a bit demanding.

[(Anonymous)]

I use evernote exclusively for saving recipes from the web (both food and crafts).

Something new I've been experimenting with very recently is WorkFlowy, which is like the ultimate flexible bullet list. I like it for notetaking and big brain dumps because it's got keyboard shortcuts for everything (no mousing required). Plus you can see the overall heirarchy, but focus quick on a particular level. The thing I don't like is the lack of linking (it turns URLs into links, but you can't link to files or other locations).

To me a bulleted list works like a mindmanger. I can brainstorm very easily and make sense out of all kind of disparate thoughts and data. So it might be used just for that.

Otherwise the tools set looks like:
Events and appointments: Outlook (work) and Gmail (home) -- both appear together on my phone
Todos and tasks: Todoist

[aedifica]

Oh, I wouldn't have thought of OneNote but yeah, I think it would do what you're looking for, Jenett. With the caveat that it doesn't exist for Mac...

[jenett]

It looks like it might? (Though I don't need Mac, but portable device aka phone would be nice.)

[sine_nomine]

I have to admit I go decidedly low-tech with such things... I keep both a "To Do" list and a "Done" list and they are both handwritten on (horrors!) paper. MUCH faster for me to pick up a pen and jot down stuff. Too, when I get interrupted, it's easy to look back at the done list and see what task I was working on so I can get back to it more quickly. I also found that, at the end of the day with only a To Do list, it felt like I had done nothing because only a couple things were getting crossed off... but with a Done list I could look back at two very full sheets of lined paper and realize I accomplished a lot.

Additionally, one thing I do when playing Admin (which means it may or may not work for you) is that EVERY task I did got a folder. Didn't matter if it was a complex PowerPoint presentation or a one-off photocopying of an article. On the tab of the folder I wrote the task and the date assigned. On the front of the folder, I wrote the date I worked on something for that project and a precis of what it was. When the task was completed, I wrote Completed with the date and filed it in my filing cabinet. Kept them, generally, in date order unless there were lots of tasks that went well together. This way it gave me a visual tracking device. Further, I stored the in-progress tasks (and it didn't matter if I hadn't done anything yet on it; the minute it got assigned it got a folder) in angled file sorters... which meant I could rearrange priorities on a moment's notice, could see what all had to get accomplished quickly, etc. And, finally, I used the folders to store my work product both in-progress and final so that if I had to go back and make another copy of the article, for example, it was already there to hand.

I found that the combination of the physical reality plus the act of writing helped me both stay on task better and then, at the end of the day, week, month, whatever I had VERY visual proof of what all I'd accomplished in case anyone said "What do you do all day?!?"

YMMV, of course, but on-line tracking of this stuff wouldn't work for me in the slightest.

[jenett]

I've been thinking about paper, but I find it very easy to get overwhelmed in it really fast.

(I am about to work up a reference question worksheet form, so I can make notes quickly on where I've tried, which terms, etc. and then have a space on the back to write call numbers for things I want to go look at.)

My predecessor kept complete records in both paper and electronic versions, but I really hate dealing with paper (and also, we will eventually run out of filing space, and 95% of what we do goes in email now)

The done list, though, is a thing. Maybe also a quick tally sheet for things. (I do not need to print out "Referred person to X for image rights" but it'd be nice to have a quick record of how many of those we have when.)

[sine_nomine]

Understood re overwhelmed; I guess because I don't use my done lists for data collection (and let my folder system speak for itself) I haven't found that to be an issue but, of course, YMMV. :-)

(did she intend to hand her records to anyone with visual issues? Because, depending on the person, one medium may be much easier to read than the other, as you likely know)

Done lists, I found, were critical to my sanity because I'd get to the end of the day and feel exhausted and like I'd worked non-stop and yet it looked like nothing was accomplished.

Yes, re tally sheet. Makes a good deal of sense.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing!

[jenett]

Yeah. The thing about the emails is they get filed by person, not by time. (which is really handy in some cases, because of course we have some people with multi-year projects, or who are regular contacts, and it's very handy to see what the other things you said to them are.)

In terms of the records no - and for the electronic stuff, if someone needed paper copy, it'd always be possible to print. (Some of it is question of visual quality, too - part of our collection is things like pamphlet and clippings and magazine files, where the originals are not always printed or duplicated well.)

[sine_nomine]

This all makes sense.

Too, I think it will be easier on you building on your predecessor's work; you don't have to make your own system... just see how it all fits together.

Good luck with it all! I am so thrilled that this really seems like an ideal fit for you on so many levels.

[azurelunatic]

I do daily text files in a text editor which has a single button to insert a timestamp (Notepad originally, and then I convinced Notepad++ to do it as well), with a weekly sum-up on the work wiki in theory. (In practice I'm playing catchup.)

[hunningham]

And how I do it - just in case it's of interest at this stage. I've tried excel for time tracking but it did not work for me - I ended up just making up time-entries, which is really not the way it should go.

I use toggl for time-tracking, which I really like. Available as website, or app, and free for single users.

I also use paper log books, hard-backed - the sort lab technicians use (or the sort I used when I was a lab technician). This is for everything - to-do lists and ta-da lists, notes from meetings & phonecalls, thinky things, and a work diary. It has to be a permanent logbook; pieces of paper just disappear into the void and are gone forever.

And between paper and toggl I'm usually okay.

[eeeeka]

I don't think this is what you need, but I was just introduced to BaseCamp by my job and it looks pretty awesome. However, it's not free (monthly fee, iirc). It's an online project management tool that's pretty user friendly. I think it's more than you need, since it's really designed for collaboration which (potentially) lots of other people.

As someone said upthread, OneNote is also pretty awesome. I'm using it to track projects with links, meeting notes, a to do list and a bunch of other things. And you can share them with other people. I think the online version allows you to share with people who don't technically have the license. Again, not free, but I like it.

[jennyrhill.livejournal.com]

I like Trello, and toggl, and rescuetime. Trello to track tasks and things in progress, toggl to track actual time spent on various projects, and rescuetime because it tells me how much time I spend on different sites/in different applications. Between that and my sent email, I can get a decent picture of what I did in any given week.