We've recently talked about the inevitable "Work Dino" in every office — those outdated tools or processes we use that are no longer as effective as they once were. Like using email to manage projects or spreadsheets to track task status, and holding weekly or even daily status meetings to talk about progress face to face.
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Don't let them become....
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There are so many more efficient ways to manage projects and receive status updates. According to our 2015 Work Management Survey, more than 34% of workers attend 6 or more meetings a week, with most of those meetings focusing on status updates. Let's say those 6 meetings are an hour each and involve at least 3 people. If you eliminated those status meetings, you'd be adding 18 hours back into the week. Talk about having more hours in the day to be productive!
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With Wrike, you can easily say goodbye to those outdated tools and move on to a more efficient, effective work management tool. But how?
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Let's take it one at a time:
Replace Email with Comments & File Sharing
Ok, now I know it's not possible to get rid of email completely. It allows you to communicate with clients and receive copious amounts of spam :). However, you may be using it more than you need to.
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Oftentimes, people turn to email as the only form of documented communication. "If I email George to send out the Penske file instead of walking over to his desk, I can create a paper trail."
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With Wrike, you can open up a task and simply leave a comment at the bottom of the task @mentioning George and reminding him to send the file to the client. The task includes assignee, due dates, and any notes George needs to review before hitting send. He can view it all right there instead of scouring through countless email threads.
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So, what happens if George sends out an old version of the Penske file because he missed the email titled, "PenskeFile_final_FINAL" and only had access to "PenskeFile_final?"
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With file versioning in Wrike, you're able to add versions of an existing document within the relevant task so the latest version is always available and not hidden amongst previous versions of the same file. You no longer need to come up with different names for the latest version. Stop trying to make "final_FINAL" happen.
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See how the marketing team at Hootsuite replaced email with Wrike!
Replace Spreadsheets with Tasks & Folders
Spreadsheets are one of those powerful work tools that are great for one thing (calculations and databases), but then people love it so much they use it for everything including managing projects. That's when the tool quickly backfires.
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While spreadsheets start with good intentions; keeping everything documented and organized, they require an incredible amount of maintenance to be effective. And all those colors....WHAT DO THEY ALL MEAN?!
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Let's take a look at our friend George. He has a spreadsheet with all of the files he's sending to Penske. Each column has a date, category, short description, and color based on what's in progress, in review, and approved. Without Wrike, he has to update this spreadsheet daily (since he's the only one who has access to it); changing colors, adding descriptions, and sending the latest spreadsheet out to everyone. It takes him hours.
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If he built it in Wrike, all he would need to do is build a simple folder structure. He could name the folder "Penske," and add all the relevant tasks. These tasks would have a date, would be tagged in the appropriate category, would contain a description, and have a custom workflow that shows the status of the task (we'll get to that in a second). Best part? Each task could then be assigned to whomever is responsible for it so that George doesn't have to go around asking everyone for a status update, then updating the spreadsheet. Each task owner is accountable for updating their own tasks.
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Replace Status Meetings with Custom Workflows & Dashboards
Few things kill productivity faster than a "quick" status meeting. Gathering everyone into a room to discuss updates is probably the reason why almost 50% of workers leave meetings with no understanding of what to do next. And almost no one is prepared to give a thorough update, so everyone is scrambling last minute:
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If George had to host a status meeting every week to provide updates on his spreadsheet of Penske files, he'd probably gather everyone in a room so they could go down the spreadsheet, line by line. Each person would give an update on the tasks they were assigned. How time consuming!
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Instead, Wrike tasks can be assigned a specific workflow that shows the current status of every single job. If he used Wrike, George could simply view a dashboard to see the status of each task his team works on. Here's an example of a workflow in Wrike:
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If George wanted to see an overview of all the Penske files and where they stood (just like in a spreadsheet), he could build a Dashboard in Wrike. This allows George to organize his tasks by status and see how many are "In Progress," "In Review," and "Reviewed." Now, he can cancel that reoccurring, Tuesday morning meeting and start getting status updates in real time, whenever he needs it.
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Are You Still Using Ancient Tools?
Hopefully you’re not still using prehistoric tools and processes, but if you are, then you must download our free eBook on why managers need to break up with email and spreadsheets. It may just change your work life for the better.
