I work as an in-house German translator for a large non-profit organization here in the U.S. and we get countless requests for translations each month (50.000 words on average in addition to various other translation tasks not covered by our standard procedure). To keep track of every single request, and it's due date, my co-worker and I created a separate list called TRANSLATIONS, which we share with each other through RTM's "share list with contacts" feature, which ensures that we are always in sync.

Whenever a new translation request comes in, one of us enters it into the list including the unique ID code assigned to the request by our project manager, how long each translation is (the number of words), and, of course, the due date. We then assign the translation to either my co-worker or myself by tagging the entry with one of our names. We also note the nature of the translation (publication, correspondence, voice over, etc.) by applying the corresponding tag to the entry. If there is any additional information pertaining to a particular request, we enter it into the notes field.

If we're unsure whether a translation should be done by my co-worker or myself, we don't assign the project right away. Instead, whoever gets to it first tags the entry with their name so the other person knows that this particular translation is already being worked on.

We sort our list by due date and translation requests that take precedence over others (so called rush requests) are marked as high priority so we know to complete those first.

Since the nature of our job allows us to work away from our desk and since we both travel for business, we have our translation list synced with the RTM for Android and iPhone applications and use the RTM Gadget for Gmail to keep track of our work no matter where we are.

RTM has made keeping track of our translations as easy as 1, 2, 3,... and instead of wasting a whole lot of time on organizing and assigning our translations we can now spend more time on our actual work.

Thanks RTM!