Recommendations of a project management book/system that isn't overkill?

[ManicMinor]

I need to manage projects on a regular basis, without ever being a 'project manager' per se - they're not especially complex, only coordinating the work of a few people, lasting 6 months max typically. I've muddled through with my own type of project management tools, typically on excel spreadsheets, but I've not found one good way of doing it, and anything I read on this freaks me out in its complexity with talk of risk registers and the like.

Any suggestions on tools to use that are logical, relatively simple but will help me keep things on track?

Gantt charts are your friend. You can keep a handle on timescales for different strands of a project very easily.

Thanks exWife (feels slightly odd typing that!). I've muddled through with Gantt charts on excel but don't think I'm doing it very well, I struggle when the timescales are a bit more flexible - any advice on how to use them well?

Basecamp is good

If you are just managing people's work, perhaps it isn't PM tools you need but people management tools...like a really good diary system that allows you to keep track of tasks and progress. I used to make my own labels to stick in my diary with weekly and monthly tasks that needed doing that I could tick off as they got done, eg report to funder, marketing, monthly return, progress review with each team member, send out meeting notes etc...Basically list out what you HAVE to do each week and month, for each person and that becomes your 'to do' list.

I had 17 staff and then inherited another 12, and most of them worked from home so it was quite challenging keeping track of all their plans, work and progress. Easy systems to collect info were key to knowing where everyone was [not literally, metaphorically] in terms of each project they were working on.

Some graph paper with a chart of which tasks need completing and when and the timescale for these.

I work for a company which has operations all over the world and its very much necessary to have the all the communications done up in one platform. Practically to have that we have been using the cloud based project management tool from Replicon which also keeps track of the time and tasks related to the project. Overall project management is done up with the extreme effectiveness of end result to come up. Check out the link here - www.replicon.com/project-and-program-management

Gannt charts are probably the sort of thing you need.
Have a look into the principles of PRINCE2 which is a project mgmt methodology, it should point you in the right direction. It is quite dry and the course/official text books themselves are probably too indepth for what you're doing, but there are plenty of online resources which will give you an idea of the key concepts and tools.

Many thanks all, I will have a look through the tools mentioned.

Microsoft Project is great for planning, but as others have suggested you need people management skills and all the related stuff.

What industry are you in?