This week, my goal is to get you to consider implementing a project manager software (PMS). Once you have a PMS in place to manage projects, teams, and tasks, you will wonder how you got anything done without it. As a bonus, PMS will help you take the first steps towards templating your processes and let you zoom out to capture the bigger picture of your business.
Let’s begin with talking about the advantages of implementing a project manager. PMS can be used to organize and track your projects, centralize communication and collaboration, and provide an overview of the entire process. Additionally, most project managers support templating stages, tasks, timelines, fields, and various other items. This helps create repeatable systems that can be improved over time. Perhaps most importantly, project managers help prevent to-do items from falling through the cracks by allowing task assignment and due date setting. Good project managers also offer smartphone apps for convenience. Other benefits include having the ability to track progress easily across many projects, collaborate with clients, and keep a log of user activity.
So which project manager app is the best? To choose the best project manager for your team, you’ll need to evaluate your needs. It’s a good idea to work with your team to identify your must-have features and functionality. Also pay attention to what not to have: some project managers are very flexible, which can be compromising to consistency. Finally, don’t just evaluate based on the feature list posted online. Some project managers function better than others, so get a trial and test it yourself.
How do you setup your project manager to succeed? A successful project manager is one that both works well and is used well, and good use means having every team member onboard. Involving your teams in the set-up process helps ensure that they will be excited & willing to use this new tool. After all, there is nothing worse than a project manager that is out of date with information and therefore out of sync with reality.
Which project managers should you consider? Here is a list of 20 popular options with a quick summary on each. The best way to start is by picking a few likely candidates and testing them out. Deciding on a tool that will be used daily is a big investment, so it’s worth the time and effort to pick the best choice that suits your needs.
For a more organized, and better managed days ahead,
– Burak Sarac, Team Lead
Access the Hidden Characters on Your Keyboard
There are times when you’ll need to type a character that isn’t displayed on your keyboard, be it a letter with an accent, the degree symbol, or a currency symbol. Special characters are common in many languages, but they are more rare in English. So much so that by default, there’s no obvious way of entering them on Windows or Mac without switching to an entirely new keyboard layout—but that’s not always necessary if you just need to enter a special character here or there. Check out this article to learn how to access the special characters on your devices.
Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month
Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month is observed in June as an opportunity to spread the word about and discuss Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Throughout the month, the Alzheimer’s Association encourages people around the globe to support the movement by wearing purple and training their brains to fight the disease. If you’re interested in learning more about the signs, symptoms, stages, or preventative measures that can be taken, check out this article.
Turn Off a Family Member’s iPhone Alarm
If you live with other people, you’re bound to deal with an unwelcome iPhone alarm. Maybe they’re sleeping soundly through the screeches or left their device behind and forgot to turn off the alarm. Either way, the alarm’s going off in another room, and it’s up to you to get up and turn it off. Or, is it? Read here to learn more.
National Cheeses Day is June 4th
June 4 is National Cheese Day. Not to be confused with other popular cheese related holidays like grilled cheese day, cheesecake day, or mac and cheese day. This day is in reverence of the queen of all dairy, the big cheese. The history of cheese is actually quite interesting – you can read about it here. As for celebrating, here is a list of the best cheese shops in America.
