This is an IMO response, every photographer has their own way, this works best for me.
1. Stop shooting jpg + raw. Shoot raw only.
2. Use Lightroom(preferred) or Aperture.
3. Label your cards! I use green painters wax tape with a number on it. After I'm done with a card I hand it to my assistant, and she takes the tape off the card and places it over the holes of the card. This let's anyone on the team know this card is shot or full. (I learned this from shooting stills on a documentary last year, the DP said most of the industry labels the CF cards this way. I adapted it to my workflow)
4. After a shoot, create a folder on an external HD named (example) 20120529_Adam+Sarah
5. Inside that folder create another folder labeled RAW.
6. In the RAW folder label new folders that correspond to the cards, 1a, 2a, 3a, and so on. This allows you to track if you have any corrupt images to the folder and card. If I have any corrupt images on any cards, bye bye card.
7. In Lightroom create a new catalog labeled 20120529_Adam+Sarah_Catalog on the same external HD.
8. Drag the 20120529_Adam+Sarah folder into the 20120529_Adam+Sarah_Catalog folder
9. In Lightroom go to import and import the 20120529_Adam+Sarah folder using Standard or Full preview.
10. Copy 20120529_Adam+Sarah_Catalog to a back up HD.
12. Cull your images, edit the keepers
11. When finished editing your images copy the 20120529_Adam+Sarah_Catalog over your 20120529_Adam+Sarah_Catalog backup folder.
Cheers,
David
www.davidstephenphoto.com