[jives]

Many developers try to keep track of everything in their head. That won't work as a PM.

Your time will usually be much more fractured than it was a dev, as you track multiple ongoing projects at various levels of detail. If you try to keep everything in your head, you will most likely start dropping balls, and if there's anyone who shouldn't drop balls, it's a PM.

So, my advice: make lists and track the status of everything you can.

"A large percentage of my time as a PM (project manager) was spent making ordered lists." - Scott Berkun [1]

[1] http://scottberkun.com/2012/how-to-make-things-happen/

[rodolphoarruda]

I've spent 2016 with an average of 10 to 15 active projects I had to manage. Each one of them had an average of 5 stakeholders performing around 2 or 3 tasks per week I had to manage. That alone, using simple math, gave me 150 active tasks per week that I should track. You can easily double or triple that number if you had tasks created to yourself before (preparation) and after (follow-ups) each task due date. On top of those, you still have to manage admin/desk work to the company you work for (timesheets, expense reports review and approvals, contract reviews etc.).

More than task lists you need a method to support them. And that is something you can build based on corporate policy and culture (not following any particular order). Inbox Zero combined with a task oriented PMS like Basecamp has worked for me so far.

[jives]

Agreed. Your personal process is incredibly important, and lists or more advanced productivity tools are there to support that process.

Years ago I put into practice David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology. While I've significantly customized my own process since then, I still use techniques like immediate capture. When a todo / idea / concern comes up, I quickly capture it in a holding area and get back to what I was doing. Then I intentionally revisit that list at regular intervals to pick off items with my full attention.

[DougWebb]

For a 40 hour week and 150 tasks per week to track, you have just 16 minutes per week per task. 16 minutes, to understand what's going on with a task that requires 13-20 hours to complete. How can you possibly develop an understanding of any of these tasks? I'm guessing that you can't, and that your 'tracking' must be limited to updating Basecamp with whether or not the task is on-track or blocked.

[rodolphoarruda]

It doesn't go that way because of the variety of projects/tasks you are handling. For some projects I check the entire Gantt chart in seconds, send 2 or 3 notifications and that's it, 5 minutes max. Other times it would take me 1 full hour to write a single email with 4 or 5 statements and send it to company executives. I have to choose my words, be careful and rewrite. So it depends.

You are not taking overtime into consideration. In 2015 alone I worked a full month worth of overtime. Working 40h a week for me was far from reality. On peak periods I was pushing from 12 to 16h a day.

Edit: tried to improve grammar. Added more details to improve context.

[enjo]

Many developers try to keep track of everything in their head. That won't work as a PM.

It doesn't work as a developer either :)

[erikb]

It's also harder to proof that you are doing your job if you are in the middle between a few teams. Therefore tracking activity in tools instead of your head is also an advantage. Best is not hand written lists, but official tools that are accepted as serious. E.g. the CRM or the issue tracker.