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Review: Rule.fm

June 15, 2012 by Michelle 1 Comment

This week’s review is a little different than usual – namely, that I decided not to do a video review, because Rule has become my project management tool of choice, and for me to give you a video tour I’d have to go back through and edit out a lot of confidential client details in the tasks/projects. Which, honestly, I’m not 100% for sure how to do in the video!

Instead, here’s their “Welcome to Rule” video:

What I love:

I have six words for you: drag & drop color coded calendar. Y’ALL. It has CHANGED MY LIFE. You may think I’m exaggerating but this is easily one of my favorite features, however simple.

I also really love the “My Tasks” window, always accessible from any screen. Currently, my favorite way to use Rule in day-to-day work is to have a pinned tab in Chrome with Rule open to the master projects calendar and also having the “My Tasks” window viewable. This gives me a really easy, at a glance way to see both what I’m doing today and in what order (because the tasks are arranged automatically in order of priority and also color coded for priority), and also see the week or month at a glance.

And, of course, the design is great. Unsurprisingly, I’m a big fan of the black/gray/blue color scheme – those are some of my favorite colors – and I like that obvious attention has been given to making things look nice.

Aside from the simple-yet-awesome things that delight me, Rule has a surprising amount of depth and functionality. You can use it in a lot of interesting ways – one of my favorite features that I haven’t got to fully explore yet is the ability to link notes, comments, and so on to tasks and projects (or reference a task or project in a comment); so that when you view a task or a project you can see all of the related discussion and information in one spot.

The wiki feature is great for creating a system operating procedures guide (something that’s essential for business growth as you add more people to your team), and it’s also incredibly easy to use with a great drag and drop interface. The CRM tool is another thing I haven’t fully utilized – I’m still figuring out how to add it into my workflow – but I like that they added it and that it’s so easy to use.

The price is very reasonable for the amount of features; there’s a 30 day trial and after that, the lowest priced monthly membership is $20/month, which covers up to 5 team members.

Things that could be improved:

Obviously, I’m pretty much a fan, but I think there’s still a few things that could be worked on:

Currently, there’s a mobile website, which works well but isn’t super-intuitive (it took me a bit of playing around to figure out how to add tasks). I’d like to see a better mobile version, whether it’s an actual app or just the website. Once I did figure out how to add tasks, I really like the mobile version, though.
Some way to create a default “assignee” (for lack of a better term) would be nice. For me, I’d love to be able to set it so that all tasks I created were assigned to me by default, unless I chose otherwise.
There’s currently some weirdness going on with the personal calendar – it doesn’t show tasks that have been assigned to you but don’t belong to a particular project. When I talked to the Rule team they said they’re working on it, and there’s a pretty easy workaround – I just created a project for general business tasks and one for life/home tasks.
I’d love to see recurring tasks added. I think when I asked them about the ETA on this, they said summer 2012, so it should be coming pretty soon. Something lacking recurring tasks would normally be a dealbreaker for me, but I loved the other features so much that I decided to death with it. The workaround I’m using in the meantime is that I have a Google Doc with a list of all my recurring tasks and what days they fall on, and then at the beginning of the month I go in and schedule them for that month.

For right now at least, I feel pretty solid calling Rule my productivity tool of choice, and I’m looking forward to using it in the future!

Have you used Rule? What did you think?

Filed Under: Reviews, Tools + Resources Tagged With: featured, project management, project management tool, review, reviews

What dating & delegating have in common

June 4, 2012 by Michelle Leave a Comment

Let’s imagine you have a friend. (Hopefully, this isn’t too hard to imagine because you already have one or more of these for reals.) A single friend lookin’ for love. She’s mostly had good experiences, but goes on this one wildly horrific date. We’re talking sitcom levels of bad. And after that, she swears off dating entirely. She’s going to be a nun if that’s what it takes – no. more. dating. for this lady.

Seems a little extreme, right?

It does, doesn’t it? But – I see a lot of people doing something similar when it comes to delegating in their business. I’ve talked to people running very successful businesses who are still refusing to bring on any help because they had a bad experience once. Quite frankly, it’s seriously holding them back in their business.

Am I denying that bad experiences suck? No.

Heartbreak – whether it comes from a bad date, an awful relationship, or totally getting screwed over by a service provider you thought you could trust – is no fun. It feels shitty. And you’re often left feeling like an idiot, too, for trusting someone and then having them later proven untrustworthy. I get it, I do. But you’ve got to pick yourself up & dust yourself off, and move on. (After you’ve soothed your hurt feelings with chocolate, of course.)

Once you’re past the chocolate and moping stage, ask yourself: what comes next? (And you’re in luck, because I have an answer for you!)

Here’s what comes next:

Analyze why it didn’t work & figure out what to do differently next time

Did a friend hook you up without firsthand knowledge? “I know a guy” can be a great thing to hear, but if you’ve been burned before and want to make sure you aren’t burned again, make sure that you get referrals from people who have actually used this person, and who are okay answering any questions you have. If you get a referral from someone who doesn’t have firsthand knowledge, email the service provider & ask for references and to set up a time to talk. Anyone who’s worth their salt will be absolutely fine with that.
Were there obvious personality incompatibilities? Did they expect you to do things that seemed absolutely off-the-wall to you? Did certain quirks of theirs grate on you like nails on a chalkboard? If so, try to figure out specifically what those things were, so that you can either look for them in the future or avoid them in the future. For example, some people want day-by-day updates – which is fine,if they’re paired with someone willing to do that and who understands that the client wants/needs that. However, another service provider might not roll that way – they’d rather check in only when a milestone has been passed. And if you’re laid-back and already have a full inbox, daily updates might sound like a nightmare. If you’re incredibly clear on what you need and what you reallydon’t want, you’ll prevent future mishaps.
Did y’all have different visions for the future? You wanted a permanent team member. They wanted to work on one project and leave. Or vice versa. These problems are pretty easily avoided by having a “getting to know you” chat (which is something that you should be doing anyways). During that chat, clearly state what you want out of the arrangement and what you envision it looking like. Then ask them what they envision working together looking like, and what they want out of the arrangement.
Were there communication issues? In relationships of any kind, communication issues are the number one disaster-causing factor. Start asking yourself – am I assuming anything here? Am I hearing ‘tude when there’s no ‘tude? When all else fails, assume that people are being polite and trying their best until proven otherwise. (Which is a good rule of thumb in general, actually. Until they do something like telling you to go die in a fire. Then it’s probably safe to assume they’re just an asshole.)

Here’s the thing: even if you’ve had a bad experience, you’ve gotta get back on the horse if you want to find true love (and/or grow your business). Fun? Not necessarily – at least, not at first. You’ll probably be nervous for a little while. You might have some trust issues to work on. But eventually, you’ll get over it and be able to see the joys that come with having someone else do work that you don’t need or want to do (just like, even after the worst date ever, eventually you’ll have fun on a date again – if you allow yourself to do so!).

PS: Here’s some comfort for you – no matter how bad of a date you’ve been on, this date was worse. (If you have a worse date story than that, I have to hear it.)

Filed Under: Avoiding Overwhelm Tagged With: delegating, featured, outsourcing, team management

Roundup: seven standout project/task management apps

May 21, 2012 by Michelle 6 Comments

In my quest for the perfect productivity tool, I have found a lot of other things – things that might not be the best for me, but have unique features (which stand out in a sea of lookalikes, believe you me), and would actually be fairly difficult to do a video review of, for one of any reasons:

the unique features make it difficult to give a quick overview of
the system is well-designed, but complex enough that I would have to spend 2-3 hours inputting enough data/tasks to actually give a thorough review
the tool is designed for a very specific target market, of which I am not one (web designers, for example)

SO. I bring you this roundup instead – a quick’n'dirty overview of seven awesome tools & what makes them different. Let’s go!

Apollo

What makes it different: Apollo integrates task and project management with time-tracking and CRM (customer relations management). You can use it not only to track your project progress, but keep track of all of your clients, when you last talked to them or interacted with them, and how long you’re spending on your tasks. Ability to categorize and create task lists within a project is handy, also has a calendar view with tasks & events/appointments. (I almost ended up using Apollo, but I need something a bit more intense as far as time-tracking goes, so I didn’t.)

Price: Free trial, $14/month for lowest priced plan

Mobile: No apps yet, but the mobile site worked flawlessly on my iPhone.

Skinnyboard

What makes it different: Skinnyboard has a very visual interface – it’s also designed for coding teams. It looks like there’s a lot of different ways to look at the data. (I signed up for a free trial but as I am not and never have been a coder, most of the language is pretty Greek to me.)

Price: Free trial, $15/month after that

Mobile: No

Kanbanpad

What makes it different: It has an ADORABLE mascot and is well designed. Plus, it has a very visual interface – it looks similar to Trello but with color coding and a slightly better interface. I haven’t fully tested this out yet, having only recently discovered it due to a tip from Andy, but I’m planning on playing around with it more.

Price: Free!

Mobile: Yes (main page says it works on iPhone/iPad, not sure if it’s a mobile version of the site or an actual app)

Solo

What makes it different: Solo is gorgeous. It’s also explicitly designed for teams-of-one, which is something I’ve never seen before. It appears to be mostly geared towards freelancers who work on a per-project basis (seems most users are designers), but I haven’t fully explored it yet. (Although, they’re releasing a team version, Studio, at some as-yet-undetermined point in 2012.)

Price: Free trial, $12/month after that

Mobile: Not yet, Android & iPhone apps in the works

FacileThings

What makes it different: FacileThings is GTD for the lazy person. They’ve gone & created a tool that walks you through, step by step, the entire GTD system and tells you what to do the entire way. Bonus: well designed.

Price: Try for free until June 1st, after that €9/month (approx. $11.50 USD)

Mobile: iPhone, don’t see mention of Android

SkiTrack

What makes it different: SkiTrack has a cute, easy to use design (with a color scheme that I happen to really like, to boot). They also have a “track” feature – where you can assign tasks in the order that they need to be completed (so that someone doesn’t start working on something before they’re supposed to). Another nifty feature that I’m unable to test (and that is still being worked on) is this:

Ski Track also constantly does calculations to provide you with information on when certain tasks are likely to be finished. This means all the deadlines you give in Ski Track are for reference only and the real deadline estimations are calculated by Ski Track for you, based on people’s track record, work hours and task dependencies.

Neato. And very futuristic feeling.

(Among further investigation, I’m unsure if SkiTrack is still being worked on – the last blog entry is from 2010 – but I hope it hasn’t been abandoned because it has a lot of potential.)

Price: Currently in public beta, so all plans are free; after that, a free option & paid plans start at €9/month

Mobile: No

Taskk

What makes it different: Taskk is very new, and I actually just got an invite to beta this weekend, so I had to go in and edit this post quicklike. It’s unique in that you input your tasks across your various projects, their order of importance, and estimated time each task will take. Then you tell it how many working hours you’ll have across the next few weeks and it automatically schedules your tasks out, based on your task priorities and time lengths. Pretty nifty!

Price: Free (still in beta, no idea if they’ll be charging later)

Mobile: I haven’t tested it out on my iPhone, but they designed the site to look good and function on mobile devices as well as computers.

And there you have it ladies & gentlemen! Seven standout project management apps. Is there anything you’d add to the list? Let me know, because I might do a second list if I come up with enough!

Filed Under: Tools + Resources Tagged With: featured, organization, project management, project management tools, review