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12 GREAT Tools to Manage Your Time, Your Team and Your Projects

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Entrepreneurs are great at coming up with ideas for new and innovative projects. Completing the project, however, can be quite the struggle.

Choosing the right tools can be the difference between a good idea and a goal achieved. The right tool will put an end to duplicated work, wasted time, lost documents and lost accountability.

How so? Consider what the right tools can do for your project:

  • Leverage – The right systems and software allow you to leverage the expertise and creativity of your team so you can focus on the pieces of the project that you do best.
  • Streamline – The right tools will integrate with your existing solutions. The key to completing your projects is to avoid manual data entry and duplicated work.
  • Automate – Use your team’s brainpower for creative purposes. Let your software solutions do tedious and repetitive tasks.
  • Accountability – Track who was assigned each task and when it was completed so details don’t fall through the cracks.

Here are 12 tools to keep your projects moving forward efficiently at every stage.

1. The first step in your projects is brainstorming. Capture and organize those amazing ideas with mind mapping software.

  • XMind is probably the best-known mind mapping software solution. It allows importing and exporting to PDF and PowerPoint presentations. It also has a Gantt chart feature when your project is ready for the next step.
  • TheBrain works across all your platforms. You can access and add to your mind map on the go. Don’t lose good ideas because you aren’t at your desk.
  • Workflowy mimics the way you think. It’s like a cross between Evernote and a mind map. Workflowy creates an outline of tasks, notes and projects.
2. Collaboration is vital to fully utilizing your team’s creativity. These solutions will help your team collaborate on documents.

  • Evernote works across multiple platforms. Notes and notebooks can be shared among multiple users. It allows you to collect images, PDFs and clip websites. (Evernote is also GREAT for brainstorming!)
  • Google Drive allows any member of the team to edit project documents from any device so the latest and greatest info is available to each team member 24/7.
3. Create accountability. Stay on top of who has been assigned to key tasks.

  • Basecamp tracks to dos, stores files and lets your team ask questions and discuss projects. It also integrates with dozens of other tools, including Harvest time tracking.
  • Teambox is simple and flexible. It links with Google Drive, Dropbox and other cloud storage so all your files are accessible from one place.
4. Project Management and CRM solutions connect people, clients and projects. These solutions all have features that help your team work with your clients and keep your projects moving.

  • Podio has add-on, customizable apps which makes it one of the most flexible solutions. It has a social intranet that allows real-time collaboration. .
  • Smartsheetmay be the perfect tool for you if you love spreadsheets. It simplifies collaboration by allowing you to attach files and keep project discussions in one place. Smartsheet is optimized for mobile devices allowing you to stay on top of your project on the go.
  • Bento for Mac links with email to track project conversations. It also integrates with iCal and iPhoto.
  • CentralDesktop makes every team member’s files, calendars and conversations accessible from anywhere. Share and communicate as easily with vendors and clients as you do with your team.
  • Zoho Office Suite is aimed at tech businesses, but can be used no matter what your project is. Zoho is a Web-based online office suite containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note taking, wikis, customer relationship management, project management and invoicing.

Obviously, there are many project management solutions to choose from. Choose the right tool for your business based on how you need to leverage your team’s creativity, streamline your workflow and automate tedious tasks.

More importantly, put the tool into action! Signing up and playing with it isn’t going to get you results, but using your tools consistently will. In doing so you’ll take your projects from good ideas to profitable results faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Your Action Plan For This Week:

1. Meet with your project team to identify the kinks in your workflow. (If your team is just you, think through where you get stuck and need the most help).
2. Evaluate your team’s needs: integration? Mobile solutions?
3. Choose one of these tools to relieve the roadblocks and meet the needs you identified.
4. Use the tool for the next 30 days then evaluate its effectiveness.

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Comments

  1. Terry Green says

    Excellent article Sydni… I’ve been using Basecamp as my project management system for several years now, and could NOT run my business without it. It’s the connection point between my team and clients, and how we track and manage all of our projects. I also love Evernote, but just need to continue to learn all of the many different ways to use it. Thanks for the tips.

  2. Kristi Hyland says

    Wow Sydni! I had no idea that all of that was out there. Great information. When a project is on my plate, I will have to research these to see what works best for me!

  3. Kelli Wilson says

    Thank you Sydni
    I am working on the leverage by using the things I do and say over and over with clients to build products and streamline the efforts!

    Great article

  4. Jennifer Bourn says

    Love all these resources … several of which I have never heard of. Bookmarking this post so I can dig in and explore some of these for Bourn Creative! Thanks for sharing!

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