[Deadhead]

They used to have this thing that worked great for this. I am not sure what happened to them. I think they called it a secretary. Maybe you could find one at an antique store.

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Deadhead

They used to have this thing that worked great for this. I am not sure what happened to them. I think they called it a secretary. Maybe you could find one at an antique store.

Dang it, Bruce - I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry.

K

[giddygoat]

All of our secretary's moved into other jobs and left us mostly on our own. I use Outlook as does everyone else in the company, 24,000 plus employees. Emails with meetings go right into the calender, setting up meetings is easy. One can add anything to their own calender anytime. We can use it on any computer tied to the web as well as a smart phone. Emails can be sorted and searched many ways. Any email with attachments can be sent to a file folder for safe keeping and easy to find reference, or subfolder under the main folder. I have hundreds of main folders with thousands of emails in sub folders under these that I use everyday, works well. Some days I get 100 plus emails and this system does a pretty good job of making them manageable.

[bird72]

I am an engineer also, communications. I started as a drafter in 1976, age 20. I have seen staffed engineering departments with drafters, engineering clerks, junior engineers, senior engineers, right of way agents, surveyors, etc. It has evolved over the years to a model where we are 1/3rd staffed, no support staff, just engineers only, and down to 3 from 9 in the latest group (not counting 6 or 8 support positions gone). They suplement with contract engineers who mostly are either geriatric has beens (retired came back and don't know new technology) or greenie weenie new ones you have to train. We used to have bosses who were ex engineers. Now we have project managers and bosses who never engineered. The model is 60 plus hour weeks, no overtime pay, and constantly getting "metrics" that they beat us up with because, magically, one can never do good enough. I am getting out and doing something rewarding soon. It sucks and there is no hope. But they gave me a good ride, but the glory days are gone. So as far as a work organization:

I keep a list by me with the red hot must do's. The rest of the work I never get caught up on is dealt with by who e-mails and calls until it gets moved to the hot list. Me, I like legal pads right next to me, no pull up data base and such, right in sight. Oh, learn great apology techniques for being constantly late.

[zephyrracer]

Keith I feel your pain, cell phone calls and emails can easily eat up 3 hours a day, having had this problem one of my solutions was to have walking meetings daily, we would hold emails and cell calls and discuss issues at the time of our walks it also spurred ideas and solutions, this saved a great deal of time with duplicate question and answers, discussions started out with bullet points schedule concerns and everything else, result was 20 minutes a day verses 3 hours a day, some other areas helped in the process was it gave team members a hands on and visual prospective, answered questions before they were asked and my favorite we became visual to all creating a stronger team collectively. Your deal is surly different, hope this helps a little.


Quick story at a family reunion at Boyett's in TN walked in place was crowded everyone looking down into their laps being the bible belt I thought all were saying a prayer before the meal as I walked through to my table I started to laugh at myself as they were all playing with their blk berries. People are in the communication mode as they think they type even as they sit next to each other.


Happy Holidays Gregg Blakemore

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by zephyrracer

having had this problem one of my solutions was to have walking meetings daily, we would hold emails and cell calls and discuss issues at the time of our walks

Years ago I worked for a semiconductor manufacturer. Someone in management noticed how much time was being wasted on meetings, so they took all the chairs out of the conference rooms. The number (and length) of meetings went WAY down after that.

[Deadhead]

I struggle with the calendar and managing tasks since mine all pop up at random. I basically use my phone as a note pad, which is treacherous as I have found out through losses, but I have one nugget to offer.

When I was in my 20s I worked in a busy law office. One of the old Attys I worked for had very successful ways of dealing with all of it. One element may still apply - he saved all his calls until the PM, usually the LATE PM. He made all of them at one time every day. Only scheduled or emergency calls got through beyond that. It shortens them when you know you have a stack of them to get through.

[67_Krewzer]

Like TheAMCGuy stated, if you're using Outlook you can set up rules to automatically redirect emails to go to specific folders, mark them as read, forward to another person and a whole host of other options. Rules can be set up for key words in the subject line, from certain individuals or content within the body of the email itself. I use rules all the time and the stuff that ends up hitting my main inbox is 90% junk after the rules are applied.

Bill

[tininjun68]

I'm also an engineer and for better or worse, I've graduated to the Program Manager role. (Read: less exciting design work and more financial responsibility for the group). Anyway, if you don't mind MS Excel, I've found that a spreadsheet with hyperlinks to any one or two critical files e.g. A solid model, drawing or contract obligation email is a great summary document to get all your info into a bird's eye view. The trick is to update it. I typically scan emails every hour and leave an email 'unread' (bold) until I update the spreadsheet or answer the question. I use cell fill colors to code projects that are funded/not funded, awaiting decision from someone, etc.

Having at least one dependable intern or other engineer to be able to task with items is HUGE. Heck, one of them showed me how to do hyperlinks! Micro managers usually get buried or stressed.

Just my $.02. Good luck Keith! I do like that scan software that Mark mentioned too-if I can hyperlink to PDF scans of receipts, that'll be another piece of info matrixed into the 'Master Spreadsheet'!

Btw, been a big fan of the '65 since I read about it in HPP. When did that article run?

V/r,
Chris

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by tininjun68

Anyway, if you don't mind MS Excel, I've found that a spreadsheet with hyperlinks to any one or two critical files e.g. A solid model, drawing or contract obligation email is a great summary document to get all your info into a bird's eye view. The trick is to update it. I typically scan emails every hour and leave an email 'unread' (bold) until I update the spreadsheet or answer the question. I use cell fill colors to code projects that are funded/not funded, awaiting decision from someone, etc.
... I do like that scan software that Mark mentioned too-if I can hyperlink to PDF scans of receipts, that'll be another piece of info matrixed into the 'Master Spreadsheet'!

Thank you; I'm an Excel whiz and had been tracking a list of items on a spreadsheet, but I hadn't thought of links, or color coding. I like that and will incorporate that (I think) -

Originally Posted by tininjun68

Btw, been a big fan of the '65 since I read about it in HPP. When did that article run?

V/r,
Chris

and, again, thank you. Part 1 was in the February 2004 edition of HPP; Part 2 was March of 2004 and then there were some follow up editorials in the May 2004 version. HPP was also kind enough to run a copy of Dad's obituary after he passed away.

K

[marxjunk]

multi task...i know how engineers love it..heres a tool that may help...


its a mechanical pencil that expands..and when not a pencil..it a tie clip...dude..i found an easy solution...im not sure what for but hey


came out of a fleet managers estate

[Deadhead]

That 2nd Pic looks like a .30 round. Maybe you are onto something THERE. THAT would certainly reduce the workload/extraneous calls.

[marxjunk]

lol

[Stuart]

I actually have a pencil tie clip, although I don't wear a tie to work anymore.

[fiedlerh]

As others mentioned, Outlook can help organize info and calendars, but it can get cumbersome.
The easiest I've found is an Excel spreadsheet. Excel can easily schedule your entire life and really helps with CRS disease (can't remember sh!t) as you get older.

Dates are in the left column.
Next column is for personal stuff; birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, vacation days, etc.
Remaining columns across are for work stuff.
You can put incoming stuff anywhere and just drag tasks into cells as needed to fit your schedule. You can also link to emails, websites, or anything else, add pictures, etc.
A second sheet is for the past.
As each day passes, I cut from the present and paste into the past.
Additional sheets can be added for to-do lists for specific projects or info on certain subjects.
It makes it faster to know the keyboard shortcuts to add or delete cells. (Ctrl-minus, Ctrl-shift-plus).