Task management and the writer 
One thing’s for certain: writers often take on as much (if not more) work than they can handle. At the very least, we have more ideas than we have time to tackle them. If you’re juggling multiple projects, managing your tasks can be very difficult and seem incredibly daunting. It doesn’t have to be that way. If you have a little patience, more than a little discipline, and a willingness to put in a little effort then keeping on top of your tasks can become less of a chore.
I know a few people who try to bend time management techniques like Getting Things Done (GTD) to their will. I’m not a big fan of GTD or techniques; I find it a bit too complex and involved for my tastes. I like keeping things simple. How? By using a couple of Web-based tools.
The first one is Google Calendar. I drink a lot of Google’s kool-aid, and Calendar is an important part of my professional toolkit. In Google Calendar I have set up multipl, colour-coded calendars — one for my personal life, one for my freelance writing, and one for my corporate writing. I associate events, such as deadlines and milestones, with a particular calendar. I can then have Google Calendar email me or send a text message to my mobile phone warning me when a deadline is approaching. All it takes is a couple of clicks and a few keystrokes.
One drawback of Google Calendar is that it doesn’t have an integrated to do list. If you’re trying to manage your tasks, a to do list is essential. That’s where Remember the Milk (RTM) comes in. It’s an easy-to-use Web based to do list. As with Google Calendar, I set up to do lists in RTM for my personal, writing, and business lives. When I enter a task, I can assign it a priority and a deadline. I can then have RTM send me a reminder via email or as a text message to my mobile.
And it’s easy to pull Google Calendar and Remember the Milk together — you can add your tasks to Calendar by following these instructions.
Overall, this method is simple. It works for me, as long as I make the effort to enter events and tasks, and to keep an eye on them. That effort is negligible, and pays dividends.
What do you do to stay on top of your tasks? Feel free to leave a comment.
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we use http://www.taskbin.com… it is an easy task management tool…