We can’t all afford a personal assistant. And unfortunately if you don’t organize your tasks your work can easily get on top of you. And when work gets on top of you, you’ll no doubt feel stressed out and not perform at your best. Important tasks get put off, deadlines get missed, and mistakes get made. Thankfully there are lots of helpful applications out there to help you schedule your workflow and effectively manage your time. It takes a little bit of planning and a smidgen of discipline but you’ll be able to tackle that job list without freaking out. Who knows, you may even find the time to take a lunch break.
Take a break
No one should work at his or her desk for eight hours straight. Not only does it stop you from producing your best work, it’s also terrible for your health – physical and mental. The Timeboxing technique is a time management system that helps you divide your working day into blocks. It’s a simple setup. You allocate a set amount of time to work and take a short break when it’s done. Once you’ve done this four times you can take a 10-15 minute break. Timeboxing can help to make you more productive. It can keep you fresh and energised and breaks big jobs down into manageable chunks. Timeboxing is also a brilliant way to keep track of the amount of time you spend on a project; particularly useful if you charge your clients by the hour
To-do lists
Instead of writing your to-do lists on scraps of paper – which you then lose – download Toodledo. It’s a to-do list app that lets you build a workspace where you and other invited guests can manage the workflow of a project. This means you can see what your co-workers are working on and delegate projects fairly and efficiently.
Synch your schedule
Mozilla Sunbird is a cross-platform calendar applications that is great for people who use more than one calendar. It lets you import other calendars and see all your dates and appointments together You only need to update in one place and you’ll find it much easier to stay on top of your tasks.
Time tracking
No idea where the time goes? Take control of your working day with the Gleeo Time Tracker. This touch-screen application makes tracking your time almost effortless. It allows you to flit between projects for greater accuracy and after a few weeks you’ll be able to clearly see which habits are affecting your productivity.
Task management
Wunderlist is a task management tool that works with all smartphones, Mac, and Windows systems. Simply enter your list and Wunderlist will update your tasks across all platforms. Meaning you can stay organised whichever device you’re working on.
Capture your thoughts
You’re familiar with the frustration of hitting on an idea when you don’t have a pen to hand? You need Evernote. This note-taking app allows you to save thoughts, ideas and inspiration as a typed doc, doodle, or audio prompt. It will save you the stress and time of searching for a pen and paper, update all your platforms from one centralized operator, and mean you never lose your train of thought again.
Tasks on the go
Remember the Milk is one of the most popular task management applications out there. It’s full of smart features that really make a difference to your day. Review tasks that are located nearby, add new tasks, complete old actions on the go, organize incoming projects, and synch all your devices seamlessly.
What was I doing?
Now you can ask your iPhone or Blackberry that annoying question with reQall. It’s ingenious. It lets you tell your smartphone what you need to do, you can also email or text your to-do list. The application will analyse the data, decide what kind of task it is and organize your tasks accordingly. What’s more, if you add a location and time to your task, reQall will prompt you based on your whereabouts. So if you’ve got a meeting near the dry cleaners that you need to collect your suit from, reQall will let you know that you can combine the two tasks. It’s amazing, like having a personal assistant without hiring an extra pair of hands.
In the Clickinks Office, Julie works in marketing and ensures everything runs in a timely manner. She looks after all design and marketing related issues. Follow Clickinks on twitter.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
