Time and Project Management
I’m not the biggest fan of time management, but I do like project management. I find when you map out what you need to achieve you will have a clear path from start to finish, even if it’s not exact it’s still going to help you read your end goal.
You can go to the full extent of Microsoft Project to manage what you need to do, but if you’re like me you don’t work on 6 month long projects that require that kind of macro management (I used to but not anymore thank god!).
What I do is keep a simple task list broken into simple categories. I actually keep multiple task lists, each list being a project. The problem I find I have with working on any project is that I love getting stuck on tangents, while I’m working on something I’ll do some research and end up reading 20 other websites on different subjects, that initial 10 minute task is now over an hour long.
To combat my poor focus, anytime I catch myself jumping off the project, I look at the list and see what I need to do next, if I REALLY don’t want to do it, I check out what else on the list I can skip to right now and work on that instead, if everything in that project is not that interesting to me right now, or if I can’t do it for some reason, I’ll check my other projects, find something small to work on and tick off the list, once you start ticking a couple small tasks off you’ll find yourself in that working groove again and keen to work on the bigger tasks.
For management of what I need to do I use GoPlan, I don’t track time spent, unless I’m doing client work, I just write down tasks I need to do and categorise them. GoPlan is a great project management tool, you can build simple tasks lists that you just check off when you’re done, you can build multiple projects and easily jump between them and you can collaborate with multiple users.
GoPlan is actually really powerful, but the extent of how much functionality you want to use is up to you. A system like this works for me because I keep all my projects in there in very simple lists so I can just tick off tasks that I need to do, and keep a track of where I’m at, and if I have client work I can assign tasks to programmers, external people for them to tick off and track all the time spent etc.
You can join for free and manage 2 projects, if you want to manage more projects plans start at $10 a month and you can manage 12 projects with 8 users per project. They are always updating the system; you can see their activity on the system on their blog.
Here are some screenshots of the system
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I agree on some issues with you. This is like an advertisement for GoPlan. Why don’t you try something else, there are a plenty of other project management services available on the net. For example, how can a help my associate with something where I can not find a space where to write and share with him. I thing GoPlan is ok, but it need improvement.
July 23rd, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Hah yeah it is kinda, only because I really like their system, it’s not over complicated, I’ve used lots of other system in my time from managing 40+ resources (poeple) across more then 15 projects all over 6 months long in Microsoft Project, that’s a nightmare, I’m not a big fan of 37signals project management system, think it needs work and theres more out there that i’ve tried before, I just think GoPlan is nice and simple for keeping a task list, and if you wanted to collaborate, or track tasks by time you can, and to close a task there’s a little check box, no need to go in and edit a task or anything, just nice and simple.
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Well, it is good to hear a first-hand experience from a GoPlan user. Have you tried other, not just 37signals? I’m searching for that kind of software because I’m project leader in marketing agency and I really need a little help from ’something’. May I ask you what kind of project you handle and what software is the best for me, if you have an advise for me. Thanks a lot. Regards.
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:09 pm
what kind of resources are you managing?
print schedules, design schedules, designers, sales people, developers, other?
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Well, my primary goal is marketing a product which means the design, the usability of the features and of course developing a new innovative. I want something to track projects status and tasks I have assigned on my colleagues. Also all expenses and time offs to be presented.
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I’m a beta tester of one new project management software. You may try it. You may find more info on projectoffice.net. They have tracking of tasks and also expenses present in a table. Easy for collaboration. I’m using it within my company. I work with promotion and design of web sites.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
you could try teamframe http://www.teamframe.com/
It’s fairly flexible and covers a wide range of things, I found from the last marketing company I worked with we had to use a suite of applications to get the job done, from MS Project, MS CRM, MS SharePoint and some others.
MS CRM has very good workflow design for the rollout and management of marketing campaigns and collateral that needs to be developed for the campaign, that will cover your marketing campaigns, development of new initiatives would require project management for that project.
October 29th, 2007 at 9:18 am
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