In my new and highfalutin (dictionary.com says that it's one word so that's what I'm going with) position, I get a lot more e-mails. Enough that I've finally yielded and have been reduced to using automatic filters for certain notification and bulletin board e-mails. And my inbox count is still creeping steadily towards 200. Tomorrow will be a good day to pare a lot of those down. The filters only save me sorting time and don't actually help the inbox count since I always filed those e-mails anyway. What is in the inbox either needs to be read, replied to, has a valuable attachment, or is there as a reminder. The reminder thing is a bit ineffective since I have so many of them.
The other consumer of my time is that other people want my time now. People need to talk to me, get my authorization for X, Y, and Z, and generally seek me out to discuss problems and hopefully solutions. The result is that I need to keep a lot of information in the present. I'm sure I'll simply memorize certain things and other tasks will become rote, but while I'm still learning this makes for a lot of note taking. I write a lot of notes, especially sticky notes and have them all over my desk. As I get things done I throw old notes away or consolidate notes on pieces of paper or my white board.
I'm trying to figure out a system. I've never had one before because I never needed one. I have never been in a position before this, either in Farmington or in college, where a scrap of paper in my pocket wasn't enough. Now my tasks are many and disparate and require a lot of pacing to jog my memory. For 2008, I will probably buy a nice day planner, though I sometimes wish I had one right now. Alas. I'm confident that my crazy note taking will work for another month. I'm not big on getting a PDA or some smart phone. I've always been somewhat old school when it comes to reminders and taking notes. I like the act of writing things down, being able to take side notes, different styles, boxes, underlining, etc. It's simply more interesting to take notes by hand than it is in some smart phone.
2 comments:
I agree with you on the handwritten notes, I've never liked the concept of having electronic to-do lists.
Electronic versus pencil comes down to whether your business world is desk-bound or field-bound. If you spend a lot of time away from your desk, you may be able to get away with some form of paper day planner just fine. If you spend a good portion of your day at your desk computer or just a regular portion of your day so situated, then I suspect you will find that an electronic gadget will serve you very well, for you can use your computer as the primary data entry device. This ties into the email question.
Me? I almost always start my day in front on my computer, thus I am able to update my PDA readily. I then go out into the field where the quantity of data I carry in the PDA is a lot, but just right for a PDA. Therefore, I have no need for a wifi-equipped computer in the field.
Experiment. You are sure to change your mind more than once. I did -- many more times than once.
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