There are a lot of sites out there that offer project management software whether downloaded on your computer, or server based. They range in features, pricing, and styling. I’ve done some shopping, but this is something I’ve never really quite thought I needed since it usually involves more than one person on your team, and it gives the user a place to login and see updates, converse with the developers.. not something that’s been a problem for me, especially since I am a one woman show and I’m not running a hundred projects a month.
Organization is still very important to me. There have been days when I’ve sat around with nothing to do, only to get an IM or email late that night asking about a project and then it dawns on me.. I forgot. That’s just about the most horrible thing I think I can do, is actually forget.
So I bought a notebook and pen, and kept it next to the computer. Bad idea. My notebook was constantly being stolen by my husband needing to write down a note, by my daughters finding something to scribble on, or by my own self carrying it to the kitchen to make a grocery list. Besides the fact, that it just wasn’t techy cool enough to satisfy me, and it sounds kind of unprofessional anyways.
So I started my hunt for a good, yet simple project manager, and I just wasn’t coming up with anything that sounded like the right solution for me. Then after deciding that 37signals’ BaseCamp wasn’t right for me, I kept looking on their site and saw something called >BackPack. It’s a really lightweight personal manager that lets you make pages with to do lists, notes and even upload pictures. When I’ve completed something on my list, I simply check the box next to that item, and it grey’s out and bumps the next item to the top of my list. Plus, for just a small additional fee, I gained access to the super cool calendar, and I can have even more pages than the free subscription.
Now I have a place that I can access from anywhere that shows me the current projects I’m working on, and has a page for each project. Then I flip over to my calendar and I can see what I need to do on each day. I can color code the calendar so that all my personal notes are in a dark red, such as birthdays and bills; all my projects that are direct clients are in my company color, orange; all projects from Emotech are in their company color, dark pink, and so on.
Backpack is a really neat tool, and it’s worth paying a few dollars a month to have the calendar feature. And if I do ever need to collaborate, it allows me to give access to whiteboards to whomever I need to. So check it out, and maybe it can help you as much as it has me.