1) Use Dwarf Therapist.
2) Set jobs on repeat.
Stonecrafts and blocks can be set on repeat and left until inventory becomes a problem. Farming industries (prepared meals, cloth) are also good for that once you get a decent inventory built up. Set your masons to make bedroom sets (cabinet, coffer, door) on repeat, you'll never have to worry about having enough bedroom furniture.
Some people also recommend using the manager. I've never used it, so I don't know how it works. Dwarf Foreman is another add-on that reportedly makes managing the dorfs easier. Dwarf Companion will tell you what your dorfs will be good at if you run out of ideas.
The manager screen in the game is very useful. "j" to view current jobs, them "m" to move to the management screen (there are other ways to get there, I just can't remember them at the moment), and once in the screen you will see incomplete/pending tasks that have been set.
These tasks are separate from those manually set in the workshops themselves, and are added to the workshop queues after whatever is already specified, so you can have repeating jobs (e.g., rock blocks, the cabinet-coffer-door set, etc) and still throw in a manager screen task of "rock floodgate: 5", and have all of the stuff be completed (materials being available, of course).
To add a task to the manager screen, press "q" then start typing what you want to make. Once you have selected the specific task it asks how many you want. Currently the amount is limited to between 1 and 30, but you can queue up multiples of a task (i.e., need 100 charcoal? q > char > 30, q > char > 30, q > char > 30, q > char > 10; need a dozen steel helms? q > steel helm > 12).
When entering the item you want to queue up it does a pattern match on what you type, so COFF reduces the list to just Coffins and Coffers ... change it to COFF ROCK and you only see Rock Coffers and Rock Coffins.
The two drawbacks to the manager screen that I've run into are that not all possible tasks are listed, and it will allow you to queue up tasks that you cannot complete due to workshop or material shortages. If the workshop exists you then get constant "cancels make blah: needs material" until you either cancel the task from the manager screen, or you acquire the required materials. The benefit is it keeps retasking the workshop, even when the jobs cancel, until they are completed (e.g., queue up charcoal 30, smelt magnetite 30, charcoal 30, pig iron 15, steel 15, and eventually you end up with 30 steel bars if you have the wood and magnetite available).
(apologies for the wall o' text ...
)