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.
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Date: 2015-05-30 02:05 pm (UTC)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.