Over the past couple of weeks, I have been on a deep dive into all of the available tools and platforms designed to help us get and stay organized, manage projects, collaborate with team members and clients and make life easier. So, I thought I would share with you some of my findings and some tips for navigating your own search. Let’s start with your Why.
Decision Criteria
Before you start your search take time to identify what you need the product to do. Answer these questions:
1. What is the problem you want to solve?
2. How are you currently doing things? Draw out a flowchart if that helps. Identify all the tools you use right now and what you use them for.
3. How do you currently share information, documents and conversations with collaborators and clients?
4. What is the biggest time suck in your current system?
5. What are your goals? If you had a magic wand, what would the perfect system do for you?
6. Know your budget.
7. Prioritize the functions that are most important. What are the “must have’s”.
These platforms all have a base level with limited functionality and quickly get significantly more expensive as you add on. So, your budget may dictate what functionality you’ll start out with.
Narrow the List
Here is a list of the some of the popular options that I reviewed and you may choose from. They range from basically free to several hundred dollars per year. The greatest impacting factors is the number of users you’ll have on the platform and what functions you need. Because each product uses different language, be careful to understand the difference between Users and Collaborators. Each platform is different.
- Google Sheets and Calendar – you can accomplish a lot with a good task list and dedicated calendar maintenance.
- Trello – Kanban style card view task list allows you to move tasks around. Great for visual creatives. Allows you to upload docs, images, etc. You can also share your board with others, set reminders and assign tasks.
- Dubsado – A much more comprehensive solution. Great for managing clients from contracts to invoicing and task management. Functionality increases with pricing.
- Smart Sheet – A task based solution that allows for projects to be seen and managed in multiple views. Excel based so familiar to most. You can collaborate with others, attach documents, set reminders and much more. Functionality increases with pricing.
- Asana– A comprehensive product that works well for managing clients and tasks. You can create workflows and automations. Functionality increases with pricing.
- ClickUp – Another comprehensive solution. Ideal for project tasks, work flows, client management and team communication with chat feature. Functionality increases with pricing.
- Monday– Offers a comprehensive solution including project management, collaboration, document storage, etc. Functionality increases with pricing.
This is certainly not an all-inclusive list. It’s just a start. I found in my research that most of the comprehensive solutions offer much of the same functionality. Some are prettier, some are more utilitarian in nature. Sometimes I find that the pretty factor can get in the way. I’m very visual and I tend to get caught up in the way things look rather than how they function. If you can relate, be aware as you’re choosing and go back to your priority list. Was “pretty” on the list?
The biggest challenge with a lot of the platforms is their complexity. Therefore, managing the platform itself becomes a task that outweighs the benefits. We want the tool to make life easier, right?
My Findings
So, what did I choose? I’m using a couple of different platforms for the time being and testing to see what’s right overall.
I’m using Trello for my newsletter clients. It’s easy to share with clients and easy for them to upload graphics and content they want added to their newsletter.
I’m using Smart Sheet for my own business and testing the collaboration with one client right now.
And lastly, I use a bullet journal. The act of writing my daily ToDo’s and keeping handwritten notes in one place helps me keep on top of things. I create my priority ToDo list each night for the next day and the first thing I do in the morning is review and adjust as needed. It’s also the place I get to be creative each day.
I’m still not convinced there is one solution for all. And I’m done looking, it’s time to get to work USING the ones I’ve chosen. Best of luck with your search. May it be a productive journey.