The simple reason is I've been doing too many things at once and then dropping the ball.

The #1 culprit is distractions. I've cut out a lot of email and I only check it once a day now, apart from a couple of clean accounts that I've set up PopTray to notify me of when email comes in.

But that still left plenty of tasks on the table, many of which were 30 minute jobs, some were longer.

I first tried a handwritten note book, but that got completely disorganised in itself as I was bumping jobs up or down the list.

Then I tried a text document which was better as I could just delete things as they were completed, and it was easy to re-order tasks. However I sometimes missed a self-imposed deadline which didn't really matter that much, but it was more of a problem when someone was waiting for me to do something.

Then I tried a wall chart and post-it notes. This was a method I'd used years ago when I had a job. It's okay, but the notes kept falling off when the kids walked past.

But for the last month or so, I've been using the free version of HiTask.com.

This is a really cool little web based app that lets you organise your tasks, meetings, birthdays, etc. and also allows you to make notes and – a big plus – get reminders by on-screen alerts if you have the page open, or by email if you don't. Use a clean email address in conjunction with PopTray to get an alert in your system tray.

It's well worth checking out.

-Frank Haywood