A Free App Can Customize Your Managing Responsibilities
Project Management Tools Enable You To Work Smarter. However, if you're not careful, you end up with a collection of unrelated SaaS online project management software that doesn't sync properly. You use one tool for communication, another for file sharing and yet another for task management. Dot Ledger - Web-based personal finance management tool. ( Demo, Source Code ) Apache-2.0 Ruby Economizzer - An easy and secure system for you to manage your personal money and achieve your goals, and can be accessed by computer, tablet or smartphone.
Work is usually tiring and stressful. Is there anything you could do to make it easier? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is 'yes, if you'll create the best personal task management system for you and your team'. How does it help to regulate a workflow and why especially managers are in need of creating the personal task management system that works for them? We have the answers.
According to the latest research published in 'The Wall Street Journal', the work routine of the manager takes more than just sitting down at the desk. In their latest article, 'Which professions can make you smarter?', they explore the daily routine of the average executives and managers and claim that these jobs are far more creative than we thought. Since the SMB managers must routinely block out distractions and exercise reasoning and problem-solving skills, with time they become real experts in multitasking. Moreover, their ability to be focused is improving gradually and finally, they are able to solve more than one problem at a time. This is a valuable skill when you are in charge of workflow and monitor the progress of other workers as well, but the bigger the business, the less possible is for the manager to cope with everything without any help. While your team is growing so is your need to have a personal task management system that allows you to monitor the progress of each employee, assign tasks, create dynamic checklists online and much more!
What is personal task management system?
In short, the best personal task management system enables you to focus more on the tasks and less on creating the to-do lists for various units as well as worrying about deadlines and last-minute projects. When all your tasks for the day, week or month are already scheduled and the data is conveniently stored in one place, the job of the manager becomes more fuss-free and less stressful than it was ever before. Previously, the managers could rely only on manual handwritten checklists, a stack of Post-it notes, notepads and maybe some inconvenient to-do list that would be rewritten and updated often. Later appeared the bulky and clumsy software. Finally, today on the market there are hundreds of the employee task management tools you can choose from-
a. Expensive flashy and trendy apps that are still complicated and offer more features than you could ever use
b. Free apps that are so basic you wonder if they'd be helpful at all
c. Paid apps that look just right and offer everything you need along with a simple intuitive interface, but you are not sure whether it is worth the price or not
So what to choose? What personal task management will be just right for you? Wonder no more. To make your choice easier, here are some steps that will help you to pick the best to-do app and gradually to create the personal task management system that is just right for you.
How to pick the best personal task management app
Only five years ago there were approximately more than a few hundred apps and websites built to manage your tasks during the day, week, or month. Now, the actual number of to-do apps might be twice that if not in the thousands. Search to-do apps in the App Store or Google Play Store and you'll get hundreds of results. So where do you begin your search and how to make a final choice?
First, do not look for the right software in the app stores. Instead, check out the websites that offer the essential features of the classic to-do list along with extra features that are useful at a reasonable price. Find the software that works best for you and then download their official app to stay connected 24/7.
In general, it's best to start choosing the right software with your task management method-
a. Do you group the tasks in a certain way?
b. How many employees do you have?
c. Do you need to write extra details along with comments and profound feedback or do you keep task descriptions short?
d. Do you want to keep a record of everything that was done?
e. Are you in need of reminders?
f. Do you want to visualize your progress etc.?
Answering all these questions will help you to determine which task management method to follow. If you need a basic to-do list, choose the simple 'Grocery List' app. However, when you organize your task into detailed projects with attachments, subtasks, comments, and feedback, you need powerful software that enables you to get all things done quickly and easily to communicate with your team anytime and from any location.
Management tools, if they are used appropriately, can be powerful enablers of change and actions in companies. They can, for example, help define and execute the strategy, engage with customers and employees and monitor performance.
I am always interested to see which tools are most popular and how the popularity of the various management tools is shifting and changing. A great insight into this is provided by Bain's Management Tools and Trends Survey. This study conducted by Bain & Company gives us a global picture of the adoption and trends of management tools. It has been produced annually since 1993 and is now covering 12,371 respondents from North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
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The results of the recently revealed 2013 survey show that the world's top five management tools are:
- Strategic Planning
- Customer Relationship Management
- Employee Engagement Surveys
- Benchmarking
- Balanced Scorecard
To see strategic planning on the list is not really surprising. It has always been important but when the economic climate is tough then making sure all efforts are focused on the most important things is vital. In difficult times companies haven't got the luxury of wasting time and money on things that are not really important and don't contribute to their strategy. While the strategic planning is getting better in most companies, the strategy execution isn't. Research finds that only 10% of strategies, even of those that are well formulated, are well executed. I find that the communication of the strategy is often poor and most mission and vision statements exemplify that. (See e.g. What The Heck is Wrong With Mission and Vision Statements?)
If strategy execution is a problem then it is good to see the Balanced Scorecard in the list of top 5 tools. In fact, it ranks as the number one tool in Europe, Middle East and Africa. The Balanced Scorecard can take the output from strategic planning and turn it into something the companies can execute. The Balanced Scorecard helps companies to execute their strategy by (1) creating a simple one-page strategy map that outlines the most important strategic objectives, (2) monitoring the strategy execution with meaningful and relevant Key Performance Indicators, and (3) ensuring the correct action plans are in place to deliver the strategic priorities. You can argue that the Balanced Scorecard follows on from strategic planning to ensure the strategy is turned into practice. And again, in difficult economic climates companies need to ensure and monitor that they are doing the right things. (See my recent post: What The Heck is a.. Balanced Scorecard?)
Benchmarking goes hand-in-hand with the Balanced Scorecard. Key Performance Indicators can only generate meaningful insights if they are compared with targets and benchmarks. Benchmarks can come from within the company by comparing departments and business units or can come from industry research or best practice studies. This is again a reflection of the current economic struggles many companies are facing. Companies need to make sure they stay ahead or close to the competition. Introducing some competitiveness into their systems with benchmarked performance goals and targets for everyone can boost productitivty. (See my recent post: What The Hell is a.. KPI?)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is increasingly being used by companies as they try to drive up customer loyalty and maximise cross-selling opportunities and customer profitability. Most companies know by now that it is cheaper to keep existing customers than it is to acquire new ones. The data and insights that come out of customer relationship management systems can then be used to identify cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. Many of my clients are now using CRM systems to better understand customer life-time values and predictive customer trends. This in turn is useful information that should feed into the customer perspective of the Balanced Scorecard.
Finally, we have Employee Engagement Surveys in the list of top 5 management tools. After all, employees are still our most valuable (and often most expensive) assets. The global war for top talent is still raging and every company wants to hold on to the talent it has acquired or developed. Similarly to customers, it usually costs a lot of money to recruit and train new employees. We also know engaged employee are not only more loyal but also more productive. And every inch of productivity is vital in today's competitive global economy. Similarly to the customer information, the data from employee engagement surveys feeds into the people perspective of the Balanced Scorecard.
In my job I spend a lot of time helping companies improve their performance and for me, these five make an eminently sensible list of tools to use for any organisation today, be it a global blue chip, a small or medium sized company or a government agency. They all need solid strategic plans, a tool to execute their plan and ways to monitor and evaluate progress. At the same time they all need to ensure they manage their customers and engage their employees.
The Bain survey also finds that 4 out of the top 5 tools fall into the top quadrant for user satisfaction levels. The only one that lags a little behind is employee engagement surveys, which again is something I can verify from my own experience. In so many cases it is just a statutory process or a PR activity, rather than a true survey of staff engagement. Having said that, in practice I also see many problems with the other 4 tools, which are often implemented in a 'we should have this' and 'we have to follow this process' way. Instead, they are most effective when they are based on real buy-in and understanding and when they are customised to the specific needs of the company.
As always, please let me know what you think. Do you agree with this list and my interpretation of why they are in the top 5? Have you got any good or bad experiences with any of these? Any comments or lessons to share? Please do so..
Mediainfo net. ------
Bernard Marr is an enterprise performance expert who helps companies with their strategic planning, balanced scorecards, KPIs and benchmarking as well as the development of customer and staff engagement analysis. Click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Bernard in the future.
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