HACKER Q&A
📣 firguringitout

How do you get organized?


Hey HN,

I'm in desperate need of some help getting organized. I recently started a new gig at a big tech company after a bunch of startups. I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed due to the volume of stuff I need to keep tabs on, report on, etc.

In discussions with my manager he suggested I figure out some system to get organized and mentioned Getting Things Done.

For anyone who has struggled through this before, what did you do? Can you share some thoughts/tips/systems/encouragement?

How did you get organized?

  👤 atsaloli Accepted Answer ✓
As an IT Operations professional, I'm a big fan of "Time Management for Systems Administrators" book by Tom Limoncelli (O'Reilly). See https://www.tomontime.com/ (author's website). That's the system I use to organize my work.

With a bit of "bullet journal" (https://bulletjournal.com/) and Cal Newport style time-blocking sprinkled on top.

👤 Salmonfisher11
(Hierarchical) Kanban boards.

They are most efficient tool I've met in 20 years.