Project Management Tools for Home and Work
So many projects, so little time! A project is an “individual or collaborative effort that is planned with a specific aim.” Project management is the “discipline of planning and executing the work of a team to complete a goal.”
As Walt Disney said, “Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating the talents of those who work for us and pointing them towards a certain goal.”
At home and work projects are everywhere. It all depends on your view of a project. At home it can be an organizing project like garage organizing, a holiday project like Christmas or Hanukah, or a family event like a family reunion. At work a project can be starting an email newsletter, marketing your product or service or doing your taxes. If your end result takes more than 3 steps to accomplish, it’s a project. While there are many free tools to use, these easy to use tools make it easy for you to work on and track your project.
Post it notes
We all love post it notes. It’s a great way to keep track of individual tasks for a project. Write each step on a separate note. Post the notes in a time line with dates for daily or weekly accomplishments. It’s fun to crumple them as you complete a task.
Trello
Trello is the digital equivalent of index cards. Set up your tasks and your timeline to accomplish your project. Capture ideas, track your progress and assign tasks to maximize your success.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud based document system. You install Dropbox on you and your collaborators devices and you can share. What’s best about Dropbox is accessibility and portability. Whether it’s a document, spreadsheet or presentation, you can work together or alone and share your work.
Google apps
Many of us use gmail for our connections. Google offers a host of products to work together. Use Google calendar to drive dates for your project. Use Google docs for your collaborative documents and spreadsheets. Work on the same document at the same time and see changes in real-time together.
Accessible tools make it easy to track and complete your project. Take a few minutes to set up your tools to maximize their effectiveness and then get to work.
Check out this tech list for other tools for home and work.
A networking group I am in has found Google docs to be the best way to share agendas and minutes. The tricky part is everyone needing a gmail address to make it run smoothly, but we really find it is better than the paper and attachments we used to send. Google calendar is the best when coordinating many schedules. I tell my college girl to put her stuff on the family calendar so I knew when she is busy and not to call!
I like your definition: “If your end result takes more than 3 steps to accomplish, it’s a project.” In my work, I consider anything I can’t complete it one sitting to be a project, so it sounds like we’re pretty much on the same page!
That’s right! Getting clarity of what’s ahead makes it easier to accomplish.
It’s more and more common for groups to use google applications for common access. It’s great as associations transition to new leadership.
I’ve just discovered and started using Google apps for work and I love having everything in once place. I even bought my e mail address with my domain name from there. 🙂
Google apps using your gmail account and consolidates everything. It’s much easier to work when everything is in one spot!