How do you keep track of regular assignments at work

[Anonymous]

This probably seems obvious to most professionals but I'm stressing a little bit. For the first time ever I have a job where many of my tasks are recurring at various intervals with hard due dates. Weekly, monthly, quarterly etc and they are being thrown at me quickly. I've only ever had jobs where the majority of my tasks were one-off and easily managed from my inbox without having to be tracked. Get the email, maybe flag it if I need to come back to it later, do the task, done and delete, or moving forward bigger projects where one thing led to another without needing hard and fast due dates. For some reason keeping track of the bigger picture stuff with moving parts seems more manageable and came naturally to me more than keeping track of all these recurring things which sounds clean and simple. I have ADHD, so maybe that's part of it. I don't know.

Please try to be as detailed as possible if you have a system that works well. Preferably digital and can be accessed on different devices, I think.

[Anonymous]

I would start by creating a recurring calendar event in outlook with the due dates.

Then I would set up reminders. This will depend on what you have to do for each task. Make a list of what you need to do and how long it takes.

For example I had one monthly task, due the 15th, that entailed logging into a system and downloading a list of accounts. Then I made a spreadsheet of the accounts. Then if I already knew what was going on with that account I would note it in my spreadsheet. Otherwise I would email the list of accounts to each account specialist and ask them to update me on those accounts and/or set up a meeting where they bring the files to review together. Then I would advise them on any follow up needed on the file. Then I would follow up with them to see the outcome. Then I would add all updated info to the spreadsheet and email it to the person who manages all the reports.

Break down how much time each step takes. Since the report was due the 15th, I would download the next set of reports by the 20th and email it to staff asking them to respond or meet with me by end of month. Then I would give them a week to follow up so by the 7th I wanted to know the final outcome for my spreadsheet due the 15th, which gave me a little grace period for additional follow up or if I was going on vacation and wanted to submit early for the 15th.

I did it by keeping a weekly task list, but you could set calendar reminders for yourself. The biggest difficulty for me was when the task involved other people and they weren't responsive and missed my internal deadlines so I needed a follow up several times.

[Anonymous]

Pen and paper. Year long calendar so I can see current and forward months and deadlines. Make immediate lists for the week. And then I keep open items in my inbox folder.

[Anonymous]

I use Tasks in Outlook

[Anonymous]

I use Microsoft Teams. Their "Tasks by Planner" feature is easy to use. You can create "Boards" for different projects and then tasks within those boards, assign due dates to the tasks, and set reminder alerts.

I also use Outlook calendar. For recurring events, I set up a recurring calendar appointment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I use Microsoft Teams. Their "Tasks by Planner" feature is easy to use. You can create "Boards" for different projects and then tasks within those boards, assign due dates to the tasks, and set reminder alerts.

I also use Outlook calendar. For recurring events, I set up a recurring calendar appointment.

Wait, what is this tasks app? I don’t see it in my teams. What’s is called exactly? I tried searching for it and don’t see it.

[Anonymous]

I use my calendar to schedule recurring meetings. I have a monthly metrics report that is due the same time every month. I schedule 30 min to run the report and format the data on the first Monday of the month. I schedule another 30 min meeting to review the numbers with two team leads the first Wednesday of the month. The report is due the first Friday of the month.

I manage 4 small departments and that is one example. My teams have weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual tasks of varying complexity. I automate the cycle by scheduling time to create or review the product with a bit of time to fix if needed.

I also have a color coded chart of all these items by department that I can refer to. This is useful if someone requests vacation so I can see if we need to make sure to do certain tasks before they leave or have a back up while they are out. It is also helpful when leadership asks for participation in special projects so I can tell at a glance which teams or people may be able to squeeze it in and which are in the middle of their annual report preparation period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I use Microsoft Teams. Their "Tasks by Planner" feature is easy to use. You can create "Boards" for different projects and then tasks within those boards, assign due dates to the tasks, and set reminder alerts.

I also use Outlook calendar. For recurring events, I set up a recurring calendar appointment.

Wait, what is this tasks app? I don’t see it in my teams. What’s is called exactly? I tried searching for it and don’t see it.

I found it after searching in “apps” on my teams (I’m just learning about it from this thread)

[Anonymous]

I use a day planner. I write absolutely everything down- even if it seems like a small assignment.

[Anonymous]

Outlook and OneNote (the latter a game changer!)

[Anonymous]

You need a word document or something that details all of the processes. Each process is a page and all of the steps are on the page. Put on there how many days lead time you need/duration. Spend time writing out all of the details.

Then you need on your calendar, reminders to do the work. Either the block of time, or likely better yet an all day event that does not show as busy that stays at the top of the view so if you are thinking to yourself that you can do something else on thursday the 4th, you see oh, but I have to leave time for this step or that step. THis is recurring at the necessary cadence.

THEN you need to use the taks planner tiles as your check list. DO not rely on your calendar as your checklist. The task planner tiles will give you emails daily as the tasks are upcoming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Outlook and OneNote (the latter a game changer!)

This. Plus Sharepoint.

[Anonymous]

I’ve used Asana for 10 years. You should be able to do everything you need with the free version and you can have it export to Outlook if you need help building it into your calendar (I generally don’t do this because I don’t want it to appear as meetings). I get a daily email reminding me of what’s due in the next few days and I just start my day looking though Asana.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need a word document or something that details all of the processes. Each process is a page and all of the steps are on the page. Put on there how many days lead time you need/duration. Spend time writing out all of the details.

Then you need on your calendar, reminders to do the work. Either the block of time, or likely better yet an all day event that does not show as busy that stays at the top of the view so if you are thinking to yourself that you can do something else on thursday the 4th, you see oh, but I have to leave time for this step or that step. THis is recurring at the necessary cadence.

THEN you need to use the taks planner tiles as your check list. DO not rely on your calendar as your checklist. The task planner tiles will give you emails daily as the tasks are upcoming.

Try this in One Note instead. It’s so much nicer than a Word document for something like this. You can scroll horizontally or vertically. You caninsert pictures, charts, links to other documents, etc etc. And you can share with someone else. I love One Note.

[Anonymous]

^ can insert pictures…

You can also create pages within files and more! Love it.