9 years ago from Andrew Nascimento, Freelance Designer
To do lists just aren't cutting it for me anymore. Between the onslaught of work piling on my desk from my day job and all of my freelance and personal projects my to-do lists are looking more like a garbled mess. What project management tools do you use? Thanks!
We use Trello.
We do too.
Try 92fiveapp (http://92fiveapp.com). Its awesome for freelancers and small teams. Best part is its self hosted. Here is the git hub repo https://github.com/chintanbanugaria/92five
For those that use Trello, how do you set your boards up?
I like having all my work in front of me on one page.
So I have a list per project. I tend to stick a card at the top of each project list with links and information I want to keep handy. The rest of the list is tasks.
Then I have a "[To do]" list, and an "[Awaiting feedback]" list. I move cards from my various project lists into my one "To do" list, keeping them in priority order. Ideally, then, I always just work on the top thing in the "To do" list. When I'm done with that task, I move it over to the "Awaiting feedback" list so I can keep an eye on it. When it's done ferreals, I move it back to the project list (at the bottom), or just Archive it.
Oh and I also have an "[Inbox]" list to catch stuff I email in. The three bracketed lists are my leftmost lists.
I've wanted to do something similar to this but I just couldn't get over how I would store my past projects. I assume you archive your project lists when they are done, is it a hassle to go back and try to find old projects in the archive area?
I worried about this too, but I just archive lists for projects that are really and truly done, and I haven't yet had to go back. So I don't even know if it's a hassle.
You could also just make a separate board for "Archived projects".
I talked a bit about how we organise our boards on this other thread.
Trello
Pivotal Tracker, Jira, and Basecamp are the ones I've found myself using the most between 9-5/freelance/personal projects.
Hi Chris B.,
May I ask why you use three different tools rather than managing everything in one? I'm wishing there was one tool I can use for everything!
A friend just introduced me to Google Sites (edit: that sounds ridiculous. He introduced me to using Google Sites as a PM). We use it like an intranet wiki where anyone with a "@mindsense.co" email address can log in and make edits. It covers everything from our company-wide stuff to task and issue tracking for Mail Pilot. For example, here is our sidebar:
ASANA.com - strange, that it was not mentioned here. Free up to 30people. Best we tried.
We are using Trello since often tasks can exist in stages other than done or not done. Additionally, Trello helps to provide a visual overview of the current state of a project.
We're using Teamwork
Combination of trello + post-it notes (which we organise as a kanban-style board similar to how trello works — we just like having stuff visible 24/7 so the more important stuff goes on the wall rather than on a screen).
Slack + Pivotal Tracker
Jira + Jira Agile
For those that use Trello for Side Projects.. What is your approach/Setup?
I personally decided to start by following CSS WIzardry's Trello Workflow pattern because I'm still relatively new to Trello. Hopefully In the future I'll find some way that also works for me.
Here's the url for the article he wrote about trello http://csswizardry.com/2014/05/my-trello-workflow/
GitHub Issues for smaller projects, Asana for bigger projects that need more collaboration across multiple teams, and starred GMail emails for personal to-dos.
I've also used Basecamp and Pivotal in the past for larger projects but these days I prefer Asana.
PS. (shameless plug) my project, Taco (https://tacoapp.com), brings these type of to-do lists together in one single place. It doesn't replace any of these other task services, but when it's time to prioritize and focus on a few tasks across multiple projects, it's nice to eliminate distractions.
KanbanFlow. The features are similar to Trello, with a built-in Pomodoro timer.
Buy the self-hosted license once and you can do anything with this tool, large and small projects, teams, clients etc. We've been using it since forever.
We are using Teamwork (https://www.teamwork.com/) after coming over from Trello. I still use Trello for my side projects.
I've opted for ApolloHQ, I came from Trello and switched to it. I would make the same decision 1000 times over.
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