A couple of my friends have asked how we manage time inside our company and how I personally manage my time. To be a successful web entrepreneur managing your time wisely is not an option–it is a prerequisite. You better have a good system in place for managing your remote departments, be social on- and off-line and still have time for strategic development. What I’ve learned through trying many different set-ups is whatever system you use, make sure it provides value and is easy for everyone to use. There is no point in complicated software if nobody checks it or updates it regularly.

My own system is heavily influenced by Getting Things Done and my occasional readings of Lifehacker.com.

Principles I find helpful:

• You must have a trusted Inbox where you can upload everything from your mind You must commit to make this Inbox comprehensive and check it every single day I follow Inbox Zero philosophy: Move quickly without rushing
  

Process:

My process pretty much follows the GTD philosophy:

• Every morning I start by looking at my Gmail. I am looking first at messages that were not sorted automatically through my filters. I then decide if it is trash, resource, or an actionable item and add an appropriate Gmail label to it.
• I then look through the actionable items and sort them into: scheduled events – schedualed in Google Calendar, context to-do – logged in right away to RMT or full-on projects that need to be logged into Zoho Projects.
• I then look at my “Waiting” label in Gmail and see if I need to follow up with anybody.
• I go throught the list of open projects in Zoho and see what tasks are pending.
• I then brainstorm on what else needs to be done.
• After that process, which takes anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes, the list of tasks is born and logged into Remember the Milk to be synced with my Blackberry that by now has the list of all my apointments, new contacts and urgent task.

Tools:

Microsoft Outlook :

I use it as a Desktop Calendar that gives me reminders when I am at my computer. I also use it as a backup to all of the emails in Gmail.

Google Sync:

I have Sync installed on my desktop, laptop, and Blackberry. This allows me to wirelessly sync all my appointments and contacts between all the devices, so if I put something in my Blackberry it will show up on my Google Calendar and on desktop in my Outlook. For a person that works from any location this service is invaluable. My only pet peeve with it is that it will only sync to your primary calendar.

Google Calendar:

I use this for many reasons: 1) A hub between desktop and Blackberry 2)Ability to quickly share my events with employees and family 3) Ability to see my schedule from anywhere with internet access

Google Docs:

There is a great reason to use Google Docs – portability. There are thousands of ways to sync your documents, but I’ve found that Docs are the easiest way to have your documents wherever you are. With Docs being constantly improved I rarely use Office these days at all. Another reason to use Docs is collobaration. When working with more than 1 person on the same Doc this feature becomes a life saver as you don’t email document back and forth.

Gmail:

For me this is the best email management tools. Portability, labels and filters make it the best tool for me. If for some reason you are new to Gmail read how to become a Gmail Ninja and use filters and labels effectively.

Remember the Milk:

Simply the best task management tool I have ever used. It is very easy to capture and organize your tasks with this tool. You can access your task from anywhere with internet access and my favorite feature is it syncs with my Blackberry. I use it as a gadget to see my Gmail window. Too bad there is no official product that syncs RTM with Outlook.

Blackberry Bold:

After many trials I still prefer Blackberry over Iphone ( I didn’t check the 3GS version yet). I can write a long post on why I still prefer Blackberry, but I won’t. In summary–it is fast and has a keyboard. Due to the awesome aforementioned sync tools my Blackberry contains all of my appointments, tasks, emails and I don’t have to even plug in any cables. Applications I use: Google Maps, TwitterBerry, WeatherEye, Gmail, Gtalk, Fleshlight, FlyCast and of course Facebook

Zoho Projects:

This is where the management of the company happens. While Zoho projects are not the most sophisticated project management system, it is easy to use, economical, and people actually use it. Not only do we schedule all the milestones, deliverables, and documents related to a project, but we also use the forums for communication. That way we eliminate missed emails, and all the communication related to the project is within reach

Pros and Cons
Things I love about my set-up is comprehensivness and portability. The most annoying thing about my set-up is that it has three Inboxes: Gmail, Zoho and RTM. Hence the reason I keep on hoping that RTM, Zoho and Google will include task synching in their products.

I might write a follow up to this post on how I plan and schedule projects in Zoho Projects.