I have, just recently, become something of a devotee (albeit one with a bit of practice needed yet) of [David Allen](http://www.davidco.com/)’s “Getting Things Done”
method. What I like about it is that, unlike most of the Stephen Covey like approaches to organising your life, it can cope with the kind of
‘creative chaos’ that most information workers live in.
(As an aside, I’m not sure I like the ‘information worker’ label – kind of makes it sound like it’s an IT thing, when it really should apply to
a lot of professionals)
I’ve tried doing the ‘to do’ list thing in the past, but normally end up with a complete breakdown within a couple of days. The problem is that the
systems don’t cope with the things that just come along. And I can’t remember a day I’ve had recently where I finished the day without having
at least half a dozen things come up. The Getting Things Done (GTD) approach actually embraces this, and is actually built around an approach
of continuously reviewing the tasks that are coming in.
It’s probably not something that works for everyone, but if you’re interested in looking for a new system with a bit more flexibility than most of the
popular systems, it’s well worth a look. The book (“How To Get Things Done”) can be found fairly easily in Australia, or ordered off Amazon.