How do you organize your projects?
 

Between family, work, civic volunteering and sleep i am finding myself with more and more stuff apart in my garage. Currently working on two major (for me) projects and am starting to find lists that i made of what to order, etc.

I know i'm not the only guy here with more than one iron in the fire so i ask of you, how do you guys organize yourselves? Dry erase board in the garage, excel spreadsheets, custom designed restoration software....????

Wing & a prayer:D

Remember the Marble Notebooks?

Each page is a project.

I use a word doc to prioritize the jobs that need to be done on each car.
Then I use a speadsheet to track what parts I want to order for each job...

I also use the word doc to keep track of the historic repair documentation.
Mileage (Date) - Replaced brakes, flushed brake fluid, new brake lines

Finally, I use the same word doc to keep track of oil change intervals, tire rotations, registration renewels for each car.

When and if I ever sell a car, I can just print out the word doc to give the new owner a complete history of all jobs done to the car, which includes the mileage and date.

I wonder how Jay Leno keeps track of all this stuff for his cars.

And when do you have time to drive them?:D

Driving is definitely not a problem for me.
The 911 is close to 3,000 miles this year.
The 1st SAAB (Play car) is around 2,500 miles this year.
The 2nd SAAB (Work horse) is around 10,000 miles this year.

I'm not one to let them sit in the garage.
The sad thing is that I actually work from home. None of these miles are daily commuting!

it will help to organize things using the same scheme that the factory does in their shop manuals and on the PET

also, use the related tab (or something like that) in the Pelican catalog -- very helpful

Drive them till something breaks or drives you nuts and you just have to tackle it.

I have a new headliner, pedal bushing set, some electrical goodies all waiting to be done....that and I need to pull my engine to reseal my timing chain boxes.....so when the oil spot is huge or I dont mind the down time I will prob do it all at once.....

Oh and dry erase board

involve the family make it fun for all to enjoy. at my home even the kids like time in the garage with the porsches.

cheers ed

Perimeter shelf around the garage (wider above the door).

All items from one project located together in one area. Smaller projects get a plastic chest of drawers with wheels on it (See Wallmart etc.)

White board on the wall to capture things while I am working, and to keep track of the next immediate batch of tasks that give me satisfaction when I cross them off.

The bigger "mother" list is in OmniOutliner on my computer (with imbedded links to web pages, cost spreadsheet and any other resources I find useful).

Notes etc are exported to owners manual created in Word and updated whenever there is something significant completed. Until then all my jotnotes are safely organized in OmniOutliner.

Constant activity on the project (even if it is just picking up a part, ordering something, or solving a problem or making a phone call).