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People at our Mountain View office were recently fascinated by a trending YouTube video showing what is allegedly "Calgary's Worst Driver" taking a painful four and a half minutes to pull out of a pretty standard parking spot. It's a video that leaves you with more questions than answers. BUT! What you see on the video isn't merely an incompetent driver trying to worm his or her way out of a tough spot. What you see is an enlightened guru with vital lessons to teach us about life, career, and the pursuit of efficient productivity. Read on: Lesson 1: Plan Before You Do. The driver kept at it for over four minutes, trying different patterns, each one more complicated than the next. We can't help but think the entire debacle could have been avoided if the driver had taken some time to think things through. Perhaps even stopping completely to step out of the vehicle and judge how close the surrounding cars were situated. When you get into a tough spot in your career, Nike's tagline won't always work; "just doing it" won't lead to success without first thinking things through a little. What are the repercussions of your actions? Which resources will you need to access? Even better, plan out your entire year in advance. Lesson 2: It's Okay to Ask for Help. If you are no expert at your task at hand — whether it's driving in snow, programming code, or writing a blog post — it is incumbent upon you to seek assistance. If you don't, you could cause serious damage to your surroundings and innocent bystanders. Humble yourself, grasshopper. Ask for advice. For example, talk to subject matter experts in a LinkedIn group. You're more likely to get out of a tough spot when you have input from those more skilled or more experienced than you. In the end, succeeding with help will hurt your pride far less than failing alone. Lesson 3: If It's Not Fun Anymore, It May Be Time To Walk. While perseverance is critical in the pursuit of your passions, failure to improve may be a sign that your heart just isn't in it. Our CEO Andrew Filev recently told a story about a time he had a heart-to-heart with a struggling software engineer only to discover the employee was reevaluating his career path — he wasn't enjoying it and it was leading to his substandard work. In the case of "Calgary's Worst Driver," their struggle is probably a sign for them to move on. It may be time for the driver to invest in a bus pass. Lesson 4: Admit Your Mistakes. Everyone messes up sooner or later. The difference between moving on with your dignity intact and going infamously viral is how well you handle the situation. If "Calgary's Worst Driver" had stopped their car and left a note after dinging that red car, we probably never would have seen this video. Similarly, if you make a mistake and miss a vital deadline, man (or woman) up and admit it. Then ensure it doesn't happen again. It's a small world, and your reputation as someone who dodges responsibility will follow you. If Karma doesn't find you, the internet definitely will. Some of life's lessons can only be learned the hard way. If you haven't seen the video yet, it's time to sit through 4 of the most painful minutes of your life: Hindsight is 20/20, so it's important that we keep looking back to catch those learning moments. If you have any embarrassing stories that taught you a great lesson, please share them in the comments — even anonymously! It's important to pass on your newfound expertise and prevent other poor souls from making the same mistakes.
We had a chance to sit down with the team at the Monterey Bay Aquarium to talk about how they're able to juggle so many programs, bringing in roughly 110,000 students, teachers, and adult chaperones every year.
The best project management software for small businesses should include a few key features. Find out some core capabilities you’ll need whether you’re looking for project management software for startups or another type of organization.
Engagement is a hot topic for many business leaders today, and for a good reason. Studies show that companies with engaged employees lead to greater productivity and higher profits. Our infographic illustrates what drives employee engagement and how engagement relates to productivity.
Keeping the project budget in line is one of the most difficult things in project management – and yet it is a huge factor in determining the overall success of the project when the engagement winds down. The goal is to keep it in line throughout and avoid falling into emergency mode at any point with a huge budget overrun that you have to either fix or find yourself at the brink of project shutdown. Through my experience, I've found that the following three processes are extremely helpful to me as I try to keep my project budgets in check on the multiple projects I'm usually managing at any given point in time. Project managers are busy with many things beyond managing the budget on our plate. Developing good processes and habits will help you significantly reduce the likelihood that your project budget will turn into a catastrophe. Let's review each of the three ways to minimize your project budget exposure more closely…. Review and revise the project budget at least weekly The first thing you can do to protect your project budget is probably the easiest thing you can do and it is definitely the least invasive thing you can do. All it requires is you – and the proper information provided to you on a weekly basis. Get weekly information from Accounting concerning the charges to your project and revise your information diligently every week. This may seem simple…even mundane. But it always amazes me how many project managers get lazy and let this slide for a week or two and then eventually longer. "Hey, it wasn't a problem three weeks ago and nothing significant has happened on the project so why should my budget be in jeopardy now?" Well, it's amazing how the little things build up – and they can build up fast. Stay on top of the budget – don't let a week go by without comparing forecast to actuals and re-forecasting, if necessary. It's much easier to fix a 10% budget overrun now before it gets out of control than it is to fix a 40% budget overrun a month from now after it is already out of control. And which one is management going to be more pleased about hearing? Which one will the customer be more understanding of and flexible in working with you on? Make your project budget high profile This is also a fairly easy one and it has worked extremely well for me. And if you're organization is a matrix organization with everyone working on multiple projects at once, even better. Here's the scenario…. You are a project manager running five projects at once. Each of your technical team members are on – on average – three different projects at the same time. And let's remember that – in all honesty – 80-90% of all employees calculate their project charges for the week at the last minute, usually on Friday. Very few accurately document their time during each workday or at the end of the day. And we all remember most of what we did each week … but there's always that four or five hours that we really can't pinpoint exactly what we were doing. We know we worked 50 hours this week, but can only accurately account for 45 of them. They have to go somewhere. Where do they go? They go to the project that they feel those hours will be least noticed in. And that is usually the project that those personnel know is not being monitored closely. So don't let that be your project. Make sure your team members know you're watching the project budget – and the hours that they charge to it – like a hawk. Discuss the budget with them at every weekly internal team meeting and give them a status update on how the project budget is standing up to the original forecast. Share your concerns with them. Periodically question them on charges just to keep them on their toes. Don't be accusing, just ask them questions about the charges and the work that was being performed. If they know you're that aware, it's highly unlikely that any of your projects will be recipients of the 'grey' hours at the end of each work week. Manage scope closely This is probably the hardest one to do and can have the most devastating affect on the project budget. The problem here can be two fold. You have the issue of managing the project scope from your project manager perspective and negotiating changes and change orders with the customer. But you also have the task of managing your project team members closely as they work with the customer. On at least a third of my projects I've run across potential scope issues through discussions I've had with my project team members who were in close communication with the customer. They tend to develop a relationship with the customer and then you have the ego trip issue of your developer 'knowing' they can do anything quickly and easily. The customer makes a small request, your developer thinks it will be no problem to incorporate this 'new' request quickly and you end up having a developer spend a few hours – which can mean a few thousand dollars - of your precious project budget on a customer request that is likely beyond the original scope of the project. None of this was malicious or even on purpose – they were just helping out the customer on a small request. Inform your team, warn them of these situations, and then ask them about their customer interactions and any requests that may be coming their way when you meet with them internally on a weekly basis. Call for feedback Let's hear from our readers. What budget issues have you experienced? Do you find it hard, at times, to rein your team in when trying to keep costs down. What steps do you take to keep your project budget from getting out of hand?
Improve your team's collaboration, enhance work visibility, and so much more.
Whether you need to create a conference guest list with all names and contacts, or some kind of a stats digest to share with your colleagues, there is probably no better way to put down this data than in a table format. If you feel this to be a familiar situation, we bet you’ll like our new feature. Now, as an alternative to attaching spreadsheets, you can create and edit tables right in the task descriptions. Whether you need to create a conference guest list with all names and contacts, or some kind of a stats digest to share with your colleagues, there is probably no better way to put down this data than in a table format. If you feel this to be a familiar situation, we bet you’ll like our new feature. Now, as an alternative to attaching spreadsheets, you can create and edit tables right in Wrike's task descriptions. Working with tables in tasks is simple and absolutely intuitive. Just a few details on how it all works: To create a table, click on the icon in the text editor toolbar of a task. When filling your newly created table with data, press ctrl+enter to move on to the next line in the same cell. You can easily copy one cell or a few cells: Select them, then drag and drop to where you want to paste them. As you put more data in your table, its size is adjusted automatically. When you reach the last row, a new one will be added automatically. This is particularly handy if you have a long list. The same will happen with columns. The tables built into Wrike's task descriptions are handy not only for keeping large sets of data in order, but also because they are collaborative. Thanks to Wrike’s Live editor, you can work on tables simultaneously with your teammates in real time. Our tables in task descriptions won’t handle advanced math formulas for you, but if you need to keep some complex data neatly organized, that’s the way to go.
Having on-the-go access to your work is mission-critical in today's business environment. That is why easy and accessible mobile project management has always been one of our priorities. After reviewing your feedback, we worked hard to make our app even better for you and your teams. Now it's here and ready for you: Wrike's entirely new native app for Android. And trust us, the results are worth seeing! Featuring a new layout, new navigation and a more intuitive approach, the new Wrike Android app will make your mobile project management experience even more convenient and efficient. The first thing you'll notice is the sharp UI - a familiar sight to those who use Wrike from their computers. In terms of user experience, you'll love its increased speed and stability. Moreover, the new app has been optimized to bring our enhanced user experience right to your tablet. Creating, scheduling, editing, and discussing tasks on the go is a breeze with our new mobile app. For your task-tracking purposes, we present to you the newly released mobile dashboard. With this feature you can now overview the most important tasks in just a couple of seconds. And your old favorites are still at your service. Keep everyone in the loop with push notifications; rely on the interactive mobile Gantt chart to adjust project schedules in a couple of taps; attach files from your phone or tablet, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Box; take advantage of the cool mobile-specific ability to snap photos right from your tasks (you'll never lose those ideas scribbled on coffee house napkins again.) Wrike makes mobile project management simple. Our great new app is still in beta. If you love it, don't forget to give us a high-FIVE on Google Play!
Ah, procrastination. We know we’ll regret giving in to its siren call, and yet it’s so seductive that most of us can’t resist. This infographic will help you understand the root causes of procrastination so you can start to withstand the lure of “I can always do it later…." Arm yourself with these 8 strategies to fight procrastination: Focus on the benefits. Look at the task as something that will improve your life, rather than a chore that must be completed. Chart your progress. Making progress visible by checking items off a list or filling in a progress bar can boost your motivation. Feed your productivity — literally. Eat a banana or drink a glass of juice to replenish your blood glucose levels and give your brain a boost. Work somewhere comfortable and familiar. Our brains read uncertainty as risk and are more prone to distraction. Set a timer. Tell yourself you only have to buckle down and focus for 15 minutes. Repeated, short sprints can add up to big progress. Find a work buddy. Having someone to hold you accountable — and celebrate with when you’ve accomplished your goal — is great motivation. Establish a routine. Include scheduled breaks to refresh your brain and renew your focus. Set mini-goals. Break up a big, intimidating task into individual steps, then give yourself a little reward when you hit specific milestones. Read the rest of the infographic to find out exactly what happens in your brain when you procrastinate, the driving factors behind habitual procrastination, and the surprising monetary cost of putting off tasks. Source: Agile8.com Looking for more tips to keep procrastination at bay? Give these 4 new productivity techniques a try.
Welcome back to the weekly Work Management Roundup. This Monday, the US celebrated the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose contribution to the civil rights movement helped America rise to greater heights. In this roundup, we link to an internal memo sent by Slack's CEO regarding Dr. King's importance. We also feature a curious movement in Silicon Valley that is teaching people how to live a more fully-analyzed life thanks to rationality principles. Plus, more articles on how to work smarter and get things done on time. The Happiness Code (The New York Times Magazine): Lengthy but fascinating read on a movement toward cold, hard rationality in Silicon Valley, thanks to workshops offered by the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR). The goal: bring the emotional side of the brain into harmony with the intellectual side and in the process, become more productive and conscious of why you make certain decisions. 4 HR Priorities You Need to Focus on This New Year (Entrepreneur): Via a survey conducted last December, business leaders and consultants report their top HR priorities for 2016. How I Got $248,000 in Pre-orders Before I Even Had a Product (Medium): CEO and entrepreneur Mitchell Harper shares his strategy for building a large audience of potential customers — and it will cost you $0. Email Zero is Easier than Inbox Zero (Cal Newport's Study Hacks): Before you spend serious money hiring an assistant to sort and answer the emails in your inbox, first sit down and figure out if you need all that email in the first place. (Also: time to rethink snail mail.) Holding Off on High Fidelity (Medium): When you sketch out ideas using low fidelity tools like paper and markers, you can ideate much more quickly, provoke the right questions, and collaborate early and often with stakeholders. And it doesn't matter whether you're designing a logo, or building a lead generation process. A photo posted by Wrike (@wriketeam) on Sep 22, 2015 at 6:24pm PDT More Work Management Reads Think About This: A Reflection on Martin Luther King Jr. by Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield (Medium) Lifelong Learning (Farnam Street) How To Prioritize Projects Across Teams (PM Tips) 25 Daily Rituals Of History’s Most Successful…And What You Can Learn From Them (Medium) Go Try This: The Ultimate List: 70+ Best Tools For Skyrocketing Business Growth In 2016 (LeadChat) 9 Ways to Bring More Traffic to Every Blog Post (The Next Web) Seven Useful Microsoft Excel Features You May Not Be Using - Infographic (Lifehacker) Want to Be an Outstanding Leader? Keep a Journal (HBR) Browse The Work Management Roundup on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your mobile device, then you can check out these links (and more) via The Work Management Roundup magazine. View my Flipboard Magazine.
For many of you, the dashboard is the main staging ground where you track the most important tasks. And even if you prefer accessing your tasks by navigating to folders, the dashboard is still the first place you see when you log into Wrike. When things are moving fast, you need a quick access to particular task right from your starting point. And that's what this new feature brings. Now you can simply input the keywords and run a search right from the dashboard view. Wrike will then look through task and folder titles, task descriptions, even comments to present you with the closest-matching results. There are still several ways to search for a particular task in the system. You can click on the account name in your folder pane, choose "show descendants" and then search through the entire account. Or you can navigate to the precise folder where the task is located. But when you need to get to a task on the fly, searching from the dashboard is the way to go. The new feature truly brings search functionality to every corner of Wrike. And it speeds up your workflow, so you can get things done more efficiently!
Agile project management is all about breaking free of rigid, step-by-step processes and shaking off that old "How We Do Things Here" so you can embrace creativity and ingenuity. Throw those dusty, outdated process manuals out the window! Right? Not so fast. As our productivity coach Errette Dunn explains, the Agile project management triangle still requires clearly defined processes. In this 5-minute video, Errette discusses: the key difference between Agile and improvisation how you can be more Agile with the right process how to use your current process to keep from reinventing the wheel & make your team more efficient Watch the video now: Ultimately, the proper mindset is key. Always be conscious about the way you work so you can recognize opportunities for improvement. Related Reads:8 Attitudes Guaranteed to Sink Your Agile ProjectsIs Agile Viable for Marketing Teams?The 7 Wastes that Cripple Knowledge Workers (Video)
Founded in 1999, Roadside Multimedia started as a small firm offering simple solutions to the complex world of marketing. Through twists, turns, and the occasional hair-pulling, they've come out on top of their game. When they began to struggle with managing projects and flexibility, they turned to Google for Work + Wrike for a streamlined workflow. We spoke to founder Chris Mackey about how the use of both tools has helped them create a system where all projects are managed seamlessly. 1. Tell us about your team and the role it plays in your company. We are a website design and marketing team of around 30 people that primarily focuses on dentists and dental marketing. We’ve been using Wrike for close to 3 years to manage both projects and ongoing monthly marketing budgets. We found that using Wrike, Google Apps, and Batchbook CRM we were able to eliminate using Salesforce — which was both expensive and yet still very frustrating and time consuming to customize to our needs. 2. What were the goals that led you to connect Wrike and Google for Work? We wanted flexibility and the ability to manage many clients and projects at once. We found that most project management software was made for fewer clients and projects. Working with the folders in Wrike and being able to measure work done during different time periods was easy. By using Google spreadsheets and documents, we were able to create a system that could manage our workflow well and improve our communication regarding clients within our team to keep things on track for each project. 3. How have Wrike + Google Apps helped your team reach its goals? Our goals are pretty straightforward: complete a set amount of work each month per client and complete specific projects as sold within a specific budget. All of our work is collaborative. So being able to immediately see the status of a project, communications with the clients, and the time spent on each task has made tracking our progress and success possible. We can work in different parts of the country and different parts of the world and all be on the same page. Priceless! 4. What improvements have you seen since implementing Wrike + Google Apps? Wrike and Google Apps have made project management simple and organized for us. We are able to replicate dynamic systems quickly by using templates, folder organization, and Google spreadsheet calculations. This has eliminated the need for a software programmer, which has saved us thousands of dollars. It has also empowered our project managers with the tools they need to be organized and successful (and happier!). We have eliminated the time that was being wasted searching for information and funneled that directly into productivity for our clients. How are you using Google for Work + Wrike to power your productivity? Share your story in the comments.
Creating a solid project work plan is essential for success. Wondering about the key elements of developing a work plan? Find out Wrike’s top tips for creating a streamlined project plan for success and read through a proven work plan template.
“As the projects and tasks build up, tracking them all becomes increasingly difficult with no project management software to help you,” says Joe Dean, CEO at Electronic Sports, a company developing interactive fitness games for commercial exercise equipment. Joe is an experienced project manager, and he knows how it is to be in charge of 50 people with numerous projects running simultaneously and juggling lean portfolio management. He told us about the challenges of his position, as well as the solution he found to overcome them. Curious to find out what the solution it is? Read the interview with Joe Dean.
One of our customers, the Australian company Aduro Pty Ltd., is an expert in e-learning. Their platform enables teachers and managers to upload their learning materials online, so that students can play them on any device anytime. This is a great step forward in speeding up the lesson preparation process and a great way to save a lot of money on organizing training sessions. Whew, do you wish your school had adopted this platform a long time ago? Of course, we couldn’t help asking Aduro which ways of adopting Wrike worked best for their team. We believe their practices will help you bring newcomers on board even quicker and easier, whether you have just created a Wrike account, or you are planning to extend it to new departments or team members!One of our customers, the Australian company Aduro Pty Ltd., is an expert in e-learning. Their platform enables teachers and managers to upload their learning materials online, so that students can play them on any device anytime. This is a great step forward in speeding up the lesson preparation process and a great way to save a lot of money on organizing training sessions. Whew, do you wish your school had adopted this platform a long time ago? “For me, studying is all about the pleasure of learning and the passion to get better,” says Martin Schwall, Business Development Manager at Aduro Pty Ltd., “When it comes to bringing a new tool for the team, I always try to catch their attention by inspiring a personal interest in it. I also try to find the best ways of fitting it into the team’s current working practices, be it the workflow or the other tools and devices they use." Aduro's team at Brisbane bridge semi-marathon The tips Martin has shared with us are based exactly on these principles:1. Make the benefits clear. Resistance to changes is natural for all teams, and it can be the main stumbling block when it comes to a new tool. That’s why it’s important to dedicate some time for the initial presentation and make sure that the benefits outweigh the inclination to stick to your team’s old habits. Getting prepared for the initial presentation is equally important. You need to focus more on “why” than on “how.” You don’t need to go too deep into details. Be ready to handle critical objections, and so on. You can find all these and many more useful tips in the 1-2-3 guide to cultivating a productivity habit with Wrike.2. Use project templates. You might consider creating templates for all similar projects that your team can simply duplicate when needed. For your team members, this really facilitates the launching of a new project, especially during the first weeks of using the software. And once they see how much time it saves, they will be much more enthusiastic about the new project management tool! If you used MS Project to manage your projects prior to Wrike, you can easily import them into your new workspace.3. Make the most of e-mail integration. One of the hardest things for a project manager is to make sure everyone regularly updates their tasks and informs the rest of the team about the changes. If your team uses e-mail a lot in their day-to-day work, e-mail integration greatly helps to develop this habit of regularly updating. With Wrike’s help, your team members can easily update and comment on a task, or create a new one right from their inbox! And with Wrike’s add-ins for Outlook and Apple mail, they can actually do it in the interactive Wrike tab while still staying in their e-mail client. This way, your team doesn’t need to change their habits to keep the project data up-to-date.4. Ensure the work guidelines are easily accessible. If you need some special guidelines to fit Wrike into your working process, it’s handy to write them down and keep the documents online. You can create a special folder in Wrike for that and attach files to the folder description. This way, team members can always access the docs to freshen their memory and avoid potential misunderstandings. Also, you’ll save time on explaining the guidelines to the future newcomers.5. Don’t forget about mobile apps. As Martin mentioned before, it’s always better to proceed from tools and devices that your team already uses. We bet most of your team members have either an iPhone or Android. In this case, they can easily stay on top of the projects and update tasks through their preferred gadgets, thanks to Wrike’s mobile apps. Now it’s easy to access their workspace wherever they are!We would like to thank Martin for sharing these wonderful tips and hope you’ll also find them helpful for your team’s onboarding. Check out one of our previous posts if you are eager to see more pieces of advice on how to adopt Wrike quickly and easily on your team. Why is it important to keep learning? As a small bonus, we’ve asked Martin to share his vision of continuous learning, a concept that is becoming a more and more popular nowadays. “I see continuous learning and development as a keystone of the organization’s growth and success. Today, talented people are getting more and more difficult to acquire and to keep. And in these conditions, the concept of continuous learning not only brings new competences to your organization, but also ensures your talents receive the necessary attention and keep contributing to your organization’s excellence,” Martin says. Interested to learn more about it? Watch our podcast with Martin! “The visibility Wrike provided us on projects and resources has dramatically changed our way of working. But what I love most about this tool is its flexibility. I have implemented Wrike 3 times in 3 different organizations, and every time I was able to fit my process by using folders,” says Martin Schwall, Business Development Manager at Aduro Pty Ltd.