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The problem I'm facing is when my team grew up, I get a lot of requests to check something, help, etc. Sometimes I forget about either of those requests because I don't do any planning (e.g work on a task for 7 hrs, then PR reviews/requests for 1 hr) and the requests get lost. I use slack reminder bot very frequently but this doesn't work well for communications performed outside of slack and neither have structured to-do list
The rule is if you want something done you must ask at least 3 times.
Or if someone calls me on the phone, then it's probably urgent.
[Backlog] [Active] [Done]
All new tasks go into [Backlog]. In the morning I move the backlog cards around based on priority, the higher or more urgent items positioned at the top. The top three then move into [Active]. [Active] has a limit of no more than 3 items. As items are completed they move into [Done] and are replaced by new items from [Backlog], again up to a limit of three. I limit [Active] (they call it a WIP limit) to make sure I don't take on 5-6 tasks and start feeling overwhelmed or despondent for not getting much done as I am flitting between items (spinning plates on sticks).
I use trello, you get a few boards for free.
Then, first thing I do in the morning is update my list based on what (if anything) changed the night before. I place asterisks beside the THIS HAS TO HAPPEN OR UHOH things. I even prioritize those.
Then, I schedule them into my day, before I start - based on estimating them. I follow through with those items, shutting off everything whilst working on the "must happen" list. I review the list and re-prioritize roughly mid-day, having come up for air at least once.
The problem I found over the years is that nothing is as quick, as limitless, and as fluid as paper. For this reason I use a Stalology B6 notebook.
For a team without that, I would either context switch each time a problem comes up (which could be hard if you're pinged a lot) or make a more formal intake process. I've gotten pretty used to context switching so my general flow is to keep a list of the problems I'm working on and break each down into small sub-tasks with check marks for progress. It's sort of like caching your current work and thoughts on the problem but that is still not as good as just working through the issue uninterrupted. I don't think the tool for note taking matters, it could be a journal, org-mode, plain text, outlook, trello, or whatever you're comfortable with.
Some teams which I've worked with have built out intake systems to keep random fire drills under control. The system they have is to keep a triage channel open in slack and a triage board in Jira. If you have a small question or need a bit of help, it's usually fine to ping the on-call for their team in the slack channel. If their on-call is swamped or the issue is bigger, they'll usually request that you file an intake ticket with Jira. This probably seems like overkill (especially if the company is a small startup) but if you're spending a significant amount of time helping people and solving production problems, this should be tracked so people can see the extra work you're putting in. It's important that people don't burn out or become the sole person who know how everything works. Newer management may not understand why you're struggling unless you give them tools to see your actual workload.