Variety and the beauty of task lists

Ever wondered what it would be like to be able to dip your toe into a completely new area of work just for one day? Perhaps you've listened enviously to people telling tales of their jobs that sounded really interesting and wished you could swap with them for a while? Well, maybe a portfolio career might be for you then, particularly if you have in your toolkit a good mix of strong, proven generic skills that can be applied across many different areas of work. But how do you organise your time effectively?

My portfolio of work might include a number of quite different projects e.g. ranging from helping a new training business with copy-writing and editing for publicity purposes to tutoring key stage 3 English students and editing case studies for a government-funded education programme. This sort of variety is exciting and challenging but how best to keep on top of it all?

Outlook task list is an invaluable tool; my business email is set up in a web-based platform which I choose not to link to Outlook so I use it solely for task lists. I haven't yet found an online task list that offers as much versatility and ease of use; if I could I'd use that (suggestions welcome!). Gmail's task list, like Remember the Milk, is great for mobile access and simple personal reminders but I find them a bit clunky for business use. I review my Outlook task list every morning and evening and re-prioritise tasks by date as required. It also allows me to keep multiple plates spinning by allowing me to brain dump ideas, tasks and deadlines in one place where I can forget about them until necessary. This is a whole lot less stressful than trying to keep everything in my head. I'm sure to some this is preaching to the converted; I always used Outlook task lists in my full time roles in the past but I'm finding them even more useful now I'm flying solo.