What ways do you guys find most effective in prioritizing and organizing tasks? I'm a recent development analyst and I'm starting to get sent and copied on a lot of emails. As development deals are coming, under DD, or under construction, timelines are different. Setting follow ups, reminders, etc are more important for me now.
A few ways I was told was either using the task function in Outlook or maybe Evernote. Any other ways?
Thanks
This is a super important topic for a young developer. It took me a couple months to really get the hang of and not just flat out forget things.
I used to put real effort into utilizing to do list software and apps (like the Things app) but it ended up just being more work and I wouldn’t keep up with it.
The notes app on my iPhone or a literal piece of paper with a to do list have always served me well for tasks. Also, when I have an email that I need to respond to, after reading it I put it back on unread. Having unread emails drives me crazy, so Outlook then serves as another checklist. Finally, I make sure that if something is high priority, I schedule time for it on my calendar with a reminder pop up. That way, nothing else gets scheduled there and I don’t run out of time for it.
Eventually, this won’t be a problem for you. You’ll have enough reminders from other people and just a better feel for being the puppet master of every task. But starting out - writing everything down is absolutely key. So many things happen and you can’t let any of them slip.
You can go deeper with using Sharepoint, etc to collab with your team.
Having highly organized folders in the corporate drive is so important. I've seen folders from past deals that were organized haphazardly, and it gives me second hand anxiety.
I've become a big fan of Microsoft OneNote, which is similar to evernote (but its part of our firm's MS 365 IT package, so it's what we have). I keep notes, files, and items to save. I will create to-do check lists in there from time to time.
Beyond that, I like 'sticky notes' that I put by my monitors and if something is important or far off and will be important, I will place a calendar reminder at the date/time I want to be reminded. Good way to not lose track.
For major projects, whiteboards with tracking details are great, and even excel sheets. Really just depends what works with your work flow.