Keeping track of work requested by clients

A couple of years back, when I began having work with numerous different clients in a single month, I created a simple system for keeping track of work currently needing to be done. I'm sure there are lots of different ways of doing this, and you need to find what works for you. But here's mine.

Usually, I use client emails as my "work order", since the majority of work orders or requests come to me by email. As soon as I receive the email, before it leaves my in-box, I print it, and stamp it with a special stamp I had made at Staples. (It was cheap and easy to have a custom stamp made, and I've been using it for some six years now.) My stamp looks something like this:

WORK ORDER
Date Requested _____________________
Date Completed _____________________

I fill in the Date Requested; this helps me keep these tasks in order. Sometimes I need some help deciding what to do first on a given day, and if all other things are equal, I'll always do the work that was requested first.

If the work has a deadline attached to it, I make a note of that as well.

If the work request/work order came in by telephone, of course I write it down myself, and then stamp that slip of paper. The occasional faxed work order gets printed and stamped.

I have a bulletin board on the wall which faces my desk. For every current client, I have posted a bright-yellow slip of paper with his or her name (or business name). Underneath the client's name, I post the stamped piece of paper (or stapled bunch of paper), usually folded in three.

This way, I can see at a glance what work needs to be done, for who, and when it was given to me. This has been a huge help in keeping my business in order. There have been times when I've done work for as many as fifteen different clients in a month, and I can't think of single complaint I've ever received about taking too long or not finishing work when it was expected.