Who is the organisation guru.

[MuffyTheVampyreLayer]

Help!

Yesterday I got hit with the motherload. By mid September, I have to have completely wound up a marriage (including custody of six kids, one fostered and one surrogacy, division of the family assets, draughting of new wills, filing of afferdavits, applications to court, valuations....etc), written and presented a lecture on the Death with Dignity Billy Currently before Parliament, Written and submitted an outline of what I'm doing at varsity over the next 8 months, and how I'm going to do it, written and presented another lecture on the status of the embryo...on top of all the other crap I normally have to do anyway. I have no idea how to organise myself to do all of this, and these are quite involved tasks so my normal "do it the night before" approach just isn't going to work :p.

I'm currently trying the 'do a bit here and a bit there' appraoch. I now have all my notes on Euthanasia mixed up with my notes on Surrogacy, the living room looks like it has been wallpapered with depositions, and I have yet to start on the 'what am I doing over the next 8 months' thing, as basically, I don't have a fucking clue what I'm doing beyond sorting out this current nightmare.

Any suggestions on how I can organise myself to get all of this done in the next 12 weeks would be greatly appreciated.

[SimpleSimon]

Outline. Set major headings as each of the required tasks, and be sure to include the unmentioned regular stuff. Under each major heading, break the task down into subheadings, with as many clauses as needed to briefly state the necessary steps.

I would suggest that you do this with your first heading being the topic "Time utilization at university over the next academic year". That takes care of that task. Prioritize the other tasks by needed time of completion. There wll be overlap, obviously, but it gives you a framework within which to organize the other tasks before you.

As needed, expand the various clauses, add subclauses, etc. I would suggest three things: 1) do it on the computer; 2) make time estimates as you write the outline for each task; 3) keep track in each portion of the outline of hours spent on each task and sub-task.

It will prove a valuable tool in time management into the future if you will keep track in this fashion.

[MuffyTheVampyreLayer]

Originally posted by SimpleSimon
Outline. Set major headings as each of the required tasks, and be sure to include the unmentioned regular stuff. Under each major heading, break the task down into subheadings, with as many clauses as needed to briefly state the necessary steps.


I'm up to page 5 already and it looks like a bloody spiderweb :)

[SimpleSimon]

In that case, flow chart the damned thing. I always found it useful to get a big sheet of square-ruled paper, set my major headings as a left hand column, clauses as the next column, subclauses as the third columnand so on, each item being discretely boxed. If you will do that, there will become apparent various sub-tasks which are somewhat repetetive, and thus contribute to more than one major task.

Draw connecting links between the apparent related sub-clauses - I always did it in various colored markers, one color for each major heading.

Sounds horrendous, doesn't it? If you will do this, I can virtually gaurantee it will save you time in the long run, and will insure steps are not overlooked.

[MuffyTheVampyreLayer]

That sounds bloody good - I might do it on a big piece of A1 and stick it above my desk, trying to do it on the computer is just pissing me off.

I'm assigning days too - Everything is due at the same time (pretty much) so I can't prioritise by deadline. I figure if I use 2 days a week for the divorce, 2 for prep for the lectures, and one for other shit, then I might be able to get it all done. I'll do the timeline this weekend, I have decided I'm not going to take that too seriously at the moment - the department is well aware that I get things done my way, even if there is no apparant order. I can use the other weekends to tie up stuff I think I'm getting behind in. I may have to give up mIRCing. :(

Just breathe...just breath.... I keep having anxiety attacks :(

[MAC]

simon sounds like he's recommending "sub-task-at-a-time"

keep in mind the end goal doesn't matteruntil all the pieces are in place

could I also offer meditation :) seriously

I obviously don't do long research papers but my boss drives me insane wanting to know pointless useless data on shit that has NO relevance to anything and is outside of what he initially asked me

but keep in mind I have about 6 job titles and perform numerous completely diffferent task each day while posting here :p

what works every time is to have all the data first
don't worry about what it means or how it compares
get it, sort it, label it, file it, then trust that you an put it together when you must

I tear apart alot of large complex machinery this way
infact, a silly lesson I learned doing transmissions (which have alot of seals and parts that go in-order aroudn a central shaft)

get a board and lay out each piece as you dismantle it piece by piece from the furthest end of the board so the last piece out is the first piece on the board closest to the tranny.
this can be applied to logical thought once you have your notes.
actyual physical organization goes along way towards mental organization....it also helps you to realised if you get anything out of sequence, one or two steps later you KNOW you've fucked up. You can see the next few steps and you cna back up as appropriate before you get any further.

last point:
as you go, things will change in order-of-importance
the thing you've been working on for two days will suddenly be #3 on your list
I always keep a schedule of what I'm doing and I frequently renumber and update it...why? at 10am today we where suddenly 2 days behind in one shop and we finished 5 jobs by 6PM to be back on schedule because I actually knew what had to be done and what didn't...for the first time all week :rolleyes:
put things in order and then get after them in order and don't worry about shit that ain't in the rotation

best of luck

[MuffyTheVampyreLayer]

Thanks Mac, I needed to hear that I don't have to worry (too much) about shit staying mixed up until the end - because that's probably how it's going to be :)

[Koliedrus]

Originally posted by MuffyTheVampyreLayer
*snap* because that's probably how it's going to be :) Your psychic abilities need a tune-up.

That's CRYPTIc for "Yes you can. Yes you will."

Get back to work. (http://www.thehypertribe.net/forum/showthread.php?threadid=8391)