FOND MEMORIES OF ASTRID
So there I was, half way through 2015 and thinking,”Dang, I need some better collaboration tools.” Does anyone remember Astrid? I loved Astrid because it did EVERYTHING. It even pestered me to get stuff done instead of slacking off. Hey! I said “slacking.” Sheesh, people. But then Astrid imploded, and I went on a journey for project management tools. They didn’t even have to be free, just easy to use. My mantra these days.
THE WINDING ROAD
I have tried OneNote, Evernote, Zoho, TeamBox (now Redbooth), SmartSheet, and a bunch of others, but I still just wasn’t impressed. Stuff was either TOO simple, or TOO complicated. Or it did one thing well but not another. Today, just for giggles, I signed up for LifeHacker. Why Not? And then I found this article. Why Not? So, it turns out only 3 of the suggested tools were viable for me, personally (be my guest to try any of the ones I have mentioned…), and of those, two products really caught my attention: Trello and Azendoo. Both of them have a solid free tier.
INTRODUCING TRELLO
What I liked about Trello was the “Scrum board on crack” approach. I mean, it isn’t Scrum, so let’s not kid ourselves. But you create a board and slap a bunch stickies on there (attachments get preview icons) and then everyone dogpiles that board until all the crap is done. That’s a pretty cool concept, so I signed up to try it out.
INTRODUCING AZENDOO
What I liked about Azendoo was the overview video. I mean, it wasn’t the best video on earth, so let’s not kid ourselves. But it showed, in about 5 minutes, how to deal with workspaces, subjects and tasks. Azendoo has a lot of features, so I signed up to try that out, also!
TIME TO EXPLORE
I am excited to try these products. I just needed some stronger grouping functions, and I think Trello and/or Azendoo might doo the trick. Both products also have iPhone and Droid apps. Azendoo also has a desktop app for Mac, Linux and Windows 8 – that’s interesting. What’s more, if you decide to pay for the products, they are not that expensive…as of this writing between $5-10/mo.
Maybe I will follow up with some results… happy Project Managing!
-TheRage3K