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[jdiddleymspot]

*mentally prepares for incoming rage for accidentally saying something wrong or using a word in the wrong context*

I always have problems with managing my dorfs and they often end up with a variety of different jobs, progress is extremely slowed because of my bad management skills and they end up starving of dying of thirst, or beating each other over the head with master crafted toilet brushes or whatever. I use dwarf therapist for management but the needs of the fortress are far too great for such a little band of grumpy misfits.

I'm only in the first half year and already I feel like the fortress is lost.

I try to only have each dwarf assigned to the role they are best at, and sometimes put someone who's main job isn't needed so much on as a temporary mechanic/fisherdwarf/planter etc. if I lack the required skills. The problem is, is that they then tend to become so good at that job then they stay on in their new appointment, which means I loose their main skill because they're so damn good. HELP!
What's the best way to manage these little buggers so they work effectively do the jobs I want them to do?

[KodKod]

If the problem stems from assigning skilled dwarves new, unrelated jobs...

Then the solution is to stop assigning skilled dwarves to new, unrealted jobs. Why not have them just haul until they are needed, and make some random peasants into your mechanic/fisherdwarf/planter, etc?

[acetech09]

Dwarves don't lose old skills if they get good at new ones. They will eventually forget their old skill in a few years, but it won't be crowded out of memory.

Get Dwarf Therapist. That will help quite a bit if you're having labor problems.

Tip: Assign labors as you need them, not based on what your migrants have. It'll become much more organized. If you have migrants that you don't need for skilled labor, give them a nickname and give them hauling or something, and assign skilled laborers from that pile as needed.

[KtosoX]

...
Get Dwarf Therapist. That will help quite a bit if you're having labor problems.
...

This

I solve the labor problem by creating 3-6 general profession groups(like builders, farmers, warriors, craftdorfs, nobels) after the second migration wave.

[TomIrony]

This was a problem for me until I developed a caste system. It takes a bit of time to maintain it, but it's a very simple system that's allowed me to remain organized and alive for quite a few years with 100+ alcoholic hobos dorfs.

Step 1: Build a dormitory, and make it big. Don't bother making bedrooms until the first migrant wave.
Step 2: When the first migrant wave arrives, turn off all hauling on your starting dorfs.
Step 3: Turn off all skills except for hauling on the migrants, unless they're exceptionally good at something that you need. Rename all their jobs titles to "Hauler".
Step 4: Build rooms for every dorf that isn't a Hauler.
Optional: Any migrant that comes in with military skills gets drafted.

Repeat this for every wave. When you have demand for a new job, instead of assigning a dorf skilled in something else, pick a Hauler, rename his job title and assign him to whatever his new job is (turning off all his hauling skills).

What you end up with is a caste of skilled dorfs that perform their tasks without ever interrupting themselves with hauling, and a caste of haulers that own very little and keep the place clean. You'll just have to always make sure you have enough room in your stockpiles and that you don't actually run out of Haulers.

[Lexx]

I specialize my dorfs as well. If they have a skill I have no need of they generally become a hauler/woodcutter. Otherwise they get hauling put off and the only do that or closely related skills. With military skilled migrants being put into the militia and only doing tasks that raise agility so they are better in combat. Otherwise I don't change names etc. Those that become notable enough at something I tend to recognize by name.

[Garath]

have three dwarfs specialize in planting and you'll never have food problems. Similarly, a brewer or two, four for large forts, can keep it supplied, and that is when you do not turn their hauling labors off. The other important specialists will be armor and weapons smiths. You can set workshops to let only someone of a certain skill or higher work there so you can have plenty of masons working on construction with just a few to pump out the better quality stuff. Similarly, you can set any number of people you like for butchering and tanning, milling, plant processing, wood burning and furnace operator. Having a lot of people as mechanic but again letting only good ones work at making mechanisms will let you construct traps and link up bridges faster.

You'll have to find a balance for yourself, but it's all about deciding what is critical and reserve some specialists for it and assigning the others as needed, not as they would like. Sure, he might be a great fisher, but I need to replace a miner. Here's your pick, now go. So he's a legendary shearer and spinner, but I'm in need of someone to make cheap bone bolts. etc etc.

I usually end up with too much food ever, two dozen legendary +5 miners (I like to rotate militairy people in to build some muscle), brewing booze just to get rid of the damn plants, the rest is more worth of my attention.

[Madventurer]

...
Get Dwarf Therapist. That will help quite a bit if you're having labor problems.
...

This

Did you even read the first post? He already has it...

[KtosoX]

Somehow I missed it. Probably because it was all lower case.

[AranC23]

I try to only have each dwarf assigned to the role they are best at, and sometimes put someone who's main job isn't needed so much on as a temporary mechanic/fisherdwarf/planter etc. if I lack the required skills. The problem is, is that they then tend to become so good at that job then they stay on in their new appointment, which means I loose their main skill because they're so damn good. HELP!
What's the best way to manage these little buggers so they work effectively do the jobs I want them to do?

It's really no problem to have a legendary herbalist that is also your best leatherworker.  Urist McFlowerpicker does not care that he's making leather trousers instead of picking flowers.  If a dwarf has a useful skill that you want to preserve, just make sure you don't assign him tasks that put him in harms way.  Mostly these include tasks that take them into caverns or onto the surface.  It seems like your wedded to the idea that a dwarfs' labors should always reflect their highest skill and it just doesn't work like that usually.  Who cares how great a milker a dwarf is if you don't need milkers? 

Grouping your dwarfs by setting their profession to their expected set of duties makes organizing them all in Dwarf Therapist easier. 

This is how I organize:
I have specialists.
I have haulers (I call mine Teamsters)
I have military dwarves. 

The specialists have a very small number of labors enabled (often just 1) and no hauling jobs.  When they aren't needed you enable "safe" hauling jobs that don't put them in harms way on the surface.  (Legendary Armorsmith's don't haul wood, for instance.)

The haulers are expendable, low-skill, manual labor dwarves.  You can specialize your haulers if you like, but I don't usually.  When you need a specialist you don't have you promote from this pool of labor.

Most of my military dwarves have hauling enabled for when they aren't on duty.   Archers can also be hunters and such although I haven't been messing much with that recently.

If you are running low on food you need a farm set to grow plump helmets year round, a few planters with no other labors enabled, and to disable cooking of plump helmet's and their spawn.  You will be buried in plump helmets in no time.

[vorpal+5]

Same here, I made quite a big jump in quality management in my last fort, because I splitted my Dorfs in 7 categories only, so whatever the number of Dwarves, it goes down to these 7 set of activities (haulers being a category, Mason+Mechanic another, not two!).

I then watch the idle counter. if it is between 0 and 3, it means each category has work. If it goes suddenly up, it means a category is finished. I then check in DT who are they, then order a new big work... It works quite nicely.

Various hints, already said before btw!

a) if a category is always too busy while one is too often idle, time to rearrange work repartition!
b) you don't care most of the time of skills like 'master cheese maker' etc. Haulers they will be. Split your Dwarf as YOU need them, not on their main skill (notable exceptions exist, like armorers, etc. they are just too good to pass on)
c) if a category is too often idle, you can also enable a safe hauling job for them
d) Workshops can be restricted to a min and max level. This is an awesome feature. Forge steel breastplate with the legendary armorsmith. Ask the apprentice to churn out copper gauntlets... (then sell them or equip your backup militia)

My fortress is now at 102 dorfs and I manage them easily.

[SkyRender]

 Wide-range specialization is indeed the key to a successful fort.  This is especially true with the vast majority of farming labors, as you've unfortunately discovered.  Having a fifth of your fort dedicated to farming labors and food hauling, and nothing else, will pretty well stave off all threat of starvation as long as you have a good-sized farming setup and don't ignore the food production industry entirely.  (Also, keen hint for you: embark with lots of turkey hens.  They lay eggs immediately upon being given a nest box, and give you at least 10 eggs per lay.  Each egg is one kitchen cooking session away from becoming a full-fledged meal, and egg-laying is a mostly-automatic process that only needs food hauling, nest boxes and hens to keep it going.)

 My own method results in something of a set of "castes".  The Farmers have all farming labors enabled and food hauling, the Furnace Operators only have that labor enabled and nothing else, ditto for Weapon/Armor/Metalsmiths, the Craftsdwarves have all crafting labors and carpentry enabled, there are a few mechanics scattered about the ranks (generally amongst the manager/broker/trader/head surgeon lesser nobles), and everyone else is a mason/hauler.

[slink]

In my opinion it sounds as if you are trying to do too many things, too soon, with your small band of Dwarves.  I start with a totally unskilled seven.  They own seven picks and two axes, a rope and an anvil.  I set them, using Dwarf Therapist as you do, to mining, carpentry, masonary, architecture, mechanics, butchery, tanning, and farming. 

The only carpentry I do for the first half year is to make a bucket and to take apart the wagon.  The masonary consists of making one block, between one and three floodgates, and perhaps a door or two.  The mechanics consists of making between four and eight mechanisms, building a lever, and attaching it to between one and three floodgates.  There is also the well to be built, and the farming plots to be laid out.  Plump helmets get planted in a 5x5 plot.  If the pasture is dangerous, then the two draft animals must be butchered and their skins tanned, before they either starve or are killed by ... whatever.  The axes are only used to clear trees that are in the way of something else that needs doing, such as digging a channel to let water into my reservoir or walling off a stairway from a cavern.

All the while these various cross-crafting skills are being practiced, huge amounts of mining gets done.  Because all seven can do any of the other tasks, the only thing they get good at is mining.  Then, as migrants arrive, the other professions are offloaded onto the newly arrives Dwarves.  There is no feeling of loss because there was no real skill acquired in anything but the mining for the first seven.  They may all get a tiny dot in planting, but it will be nothing compared to the large square in mining.  They may also briefly be used for emergency professions, such as gem-cutting if there is no jeweler and someone's mood needs a cut gem.  They are jack-of-all-trades and master of one, at least until a specialist arrives.

[Psieye]

Yeah this is a phase a lot of players go through when they start, myself included. Used to take me an hour whenever the spring migrant wave came as I analysed every personality and picked out the best possible job for each of them. Now? There are only 3 kinds of dwarves: drone, recruit, specialist. A dwarf is allowed to be a specialist at 2 or more areas if I deem it viable to juggle between them. Drones have 40 labours (including the hauling labours) assigned in my Dwarf Therapist template. Specialists get nicknames so I know what their specialty is.

[psychologicalshock]

Usually I just rely on migrant specialists for anything beyond the starting tasks like mining/mason/carpentry/farming. Find a dwarf whose good at what you want done and turn off his other jobs, usually you only need a few specialists to get a ton of production done. 2-3 metalsmiths working full time with 4-5 furnace operators smelting will rapidly deplete all of your metal . It's a similar situation for any wood-related jobs. Usually you'll run out of resources way before you need more specialists to work with. As for food - just assign 3 farmers, a cook and 2-4 brewers, done.