well, this process was years in the making. I suspect it will still evolve further. I am still tinkering with a customer follow-up/waiting for list.
Yes, the customer requests is basically an inbox for customer actions and open-ended. I might have something like:
“Request: Jack Smith price quotation” - I’ll have notes that hold more descriptive info such as a phone call or conversation notes.
Another task I might have would be:
“Create project: Jane Doe - Fall Marketing 2015 advertising campaign” - This basically becomes a bookmark or reminder for me to create a project based on the notes I recorded.
If the customer request task is a single action, I’ll just leave it in customer requests. I don’t need to create a folder or project. It might described as “Do: check Joe Blow to see if he received my e-mail requests”.
If the customer has one project, I’ll create a single project for that customer. I won’t need a folder. I might label it “John Doe: ABC Agricultural Development corporation - Create warehouse diagram”.
If the customer has more than one project, I’ll create a folder and put the multiple projects in there for that one customer. There is no need for me to have a folder for a customer if its just a single action or a single project. If it is a repeat customer, I’ll definitely create a folder. If it is a one-time customer, I won’t need a folder.
Just remember to keep most of your projects to on-hold and set a small handful of projects that becomes your focus to “Active” status. These are your focus projects. Don’t look at any of the on hold projects.
I do vary my day. I might spend an hour working on one project. Then I might refer to my maintenance lists to do the routine office work (paper shuffling, filing, creating sales reports). I can’t ignore the maintenance tasks. So, I’ll mix the routine stuff with major projects.
Sometimes, I’ll just print out the project actions and just work off that sheet. Sometimes it is too tempting to go back to OmniFocus and then see another project that I’d rather do (easier to accomplish).
Having a sheet of paper with my project tasks prevents me from looking at OmniFocus all the time. I know these print-outs are what I should be working on.
I keep OmniFocus hidden but still running in the background. Then I’ll hit my quick-entry shortcut whenever I need to capture something. I’ll rarely interact with OmniFocus unless I need to capture something (using the quick-entry screen) or I am checking off stuff. I also interact with OmniFocus when I am talking to a customer and need to refer to my project actions while talking to him/her.
I usually do time blocks. I block off one hour and say I’ll work on Project #1. Then for the next 30 minutes, I’ll work on some routine maintenance tasks. Then I’ll block another hour and either continue working on Project #1 or see if I can work on stuff with Project #2.
I’ve found that three active projects is just about the right number. Enough variety of tasks to work on for my currently active projects. Then mix in the routine maintenance stuff to make sure things are running smoothly.
I also have those emergency requests and I will remember that I have to just stop work on some of my pet projects and deal with those.
Keeping my day open-ended helps. I shoot for making significant progress in one project a day. I know that the crazy customer requests and the maintenance tasks will fill in the rest of the day. Life never goes according to plan.
This process is always evolving and I think you’ll find your own mix of dealing with maintenance tasks, customer requests, and pet projects over time.
Good luck.
