Ahh Riblet - the problems of empire. I found the amount of administration a hassle when I first got into the game, but you get used to it. As you gain experience you get a good sense of what's happening where, and a lot of it becomes automatic. I think you're right to do it methodically - and I'd even add a couple of things to what you've suggested at the start. Basically it's bringing up each of the screens in turn - heirs, agents, income, alliances and maybe generals. In line with most of the posts here - I do more or less of the following each turn, depending on the phase of the game:

- Switch on the autotaxer when the empire gets to a certain size. This is usually around 15 or so provinces, or earlier if the cash is pouring in.

- Check the income vs expenditure, and keep the expenditure under half the income. That seems to avoid the Drinker vice , which is annoying in heirs and top generals, and from my take is mainly caused by overproduction of troops - ("never knows when to stop"). I see how much profit I have and what I can afford to build. I use this screen to check the loyalty levels of the provinces, and see if there are problems - especially when a king dies, a lot of provinces have been conquered in a short time, or the enemy has ships that may isolate islands or make other provinces feel cut off.

- Scroll through the provinces with the buildings parchment and maybe the province description parchments open. I don't queue until I'm rolling in cash, except maybe for key provinces. If I don't need it I don't build it - and that goes for Merchants and Farmland. I have the feeling that the AI prefers a lean style, and gives Materialist and Gluttony vices for raking in too many florins.

- Check the agents screen, and use the Valour link to order them if I have missions. Generally I'm using Emissaries to charm neighbouring factions, and Bishops to blackmail others or convert - again this is my take on their non-published abilities. Typically they don't need much movement. At peak times of agent activity, or when hunting for princesses, I'll use the Z and C keyboard controls so only the agents are showing. I try and keep up with what other factions agents are doing.

- Check the heirs screen to see if anyone is due to mature, in which case I'm careful about what I'm doing that might affect their stats and v&v's. Likewise I keep a track of aging princesses, and marry them off to generals at 30.

- Check the Alliances screen if I'm preparing to attack someone, or wanting to prevent a key ally from allying with a target. Sometimes I'll start a war early by launching a peasant unit or similar at the target and withdrawing from the battle in order to prevent these alliances, or simply to let the other factions know where I stand. I use princesses and bishops to target in the same way, especially putting them on rebel provinces to let the other factions know I'm interested in them.

- I check the loyalty of generals at the death of a king, and regularly click through the stacks to see what stats the unit commanders have. Ideally I'll do this when they're first trained ... but ... I get carried away with the rush of the campaign sometimes. I'll also check this when I'm assigning titles.

- As mentioned in another post, I'll click on the relevant v&v on the advice parchment as it comes up in the end turn sequence to see where particular v&v's have landed.

In other words, I check some or all of the screens each turn, and I haven't found a way around this. Heh. This seems the case with most here. You're probably doing something similar anyways, and were wondering if there were shortcuts - in which case my post hasn't much helped, but at least you know there are others doing the same thing.