(no subject)

[serene]

Okay, I know about rememberthemilk.com and dotproject and a few other ideas for project management and task calendaring -- are there other ways you people who work in small, project-based businesses manage your time and effort?

More background: I work for a small business that is typically at work on several (up to dozens) of projects at once. There are only a few employees. The boss wants some software (yes, they may write it themselves, but not just now) that will:

• track project timelines in a non-clunky way with minimal data entry
  
• use email as a reminder tool for, say, customer followup and the like
  
• be shareable
  
• ideally, be open source

Any ideas?

Comments

[polydad.livejournal.com]

No, but if you find it, publish it so the rest of us can find it too. I'm going to have to invent a few tools as it is, now that I no longer have access to Citicorp's budget.

best,

Joel

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Will do.

[polydad.livejournal.com]

THanks.

best,

Joel

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

You may have heard of this one as well, but I've used Basecamp (http://www.basecamphq.com/tour) for a few small-office server/email/filestorage implementation projects. Easy to use, does milestones, to-do lists (assignable by user), whiteboards, some limited file storage for the paid subs, updates and reminders via email or RSS and so on. There is a subscription cost if you want to manage more than one active project at a time - $24 a month for 15 active projects (you can archive as many as you like), but each project has unlimited users.

I've "cheated" and signed up for three different accounts (using different email addresses). I don't think there's any limitation on the number of different projects another user can be subscribed to, so long as the "owner's" address is unique. But I do think the sub is decent value for money.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

There's a program I was using a while ago to do Gantt charts that was open source and ran nicely on my linux workstation, but I've forgotten its name. I can try and dig it up.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

I haven't done this, but I know a lot of polyfolk use wikis to manage their shedules with oneanother and house schedules. IS there a reason you can't use that for a business?

N.

[chameleonlizard.livejournal.com]

I just ran a Google search on "Open Source" +"Microsoft Project" (because what you're describing is Microsoft Project. There were about 6 relevant hits, the top one being http://www.openworkbench.org/. Hope this helps.

[skywhisperer.livejournal.com]

Take a look at Tasks Pro. I run a copy of it on my server, if you want a username and password.

http://www.taskspro.com/

It's got a clean and simple interface, sends you email reminders, can have tasks added to it via email, is sharable. Is not techically open source, but I have a 5 user license with a few empty spots, or if you don't have a linux server, I would gladly host it for you for free.

I use it to manage housework, mostly.

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

CreativeTrack (http://www.creativeTrack.com) was recommended to me, and although it doesn't really work for what I wanted it for sounds like it might be a match to three of your four points up there. But it's not open source.

[14cyclenotes.livejournal.com]

I made a post (http://14cyclenotes.livejournal.com/233778.html) about this myself recently. I use an interlocking system of Outlook, my Palm PDA, a PocketMod, and a Moleskine notebook to implement David Allen's GTD method. So far it's working very well for me.

By the way, have you heard of the (10+2)x5 hack for getting past procrastination?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Thanks! We're looking to do something that all of the employees of this small company can access via the web.

Tell about the procrastination hack, please!

[14cyclenotes.livejournal.com]

As for the web, Gmail offers an extension that can be used to implement the GTD method. There's a link to it in the discussion on the thread on my journal.

I would suggest though that anyone trying this have some sort of offline collection system such as a PocketMod and/or notebook.

The 10+2 hack works like this: Pick some task that you've been putting off, and some sort of play activity that you enjoy. Settle in to your work area with a timer. Now put in 10 minutes of focused work on your task, then set the timer for 2 minutes and just play. Repeat 5 times for a total of one hour. You'll be surprised how much you can get done this way.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do 10/10 or 15/15. No way I'm allotting less time for play than for work. :-)

[14cyclenotes.livejournal.com]

I think the virtue of 10+2 is that it helps you blow through something that you've been putting off. It's not meant for an 8-hour day.

Anyway, works for me. :)

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Hey, whatever works. My inner three-year-old likes my way better. ;-)

[14cyclenotes.livejournal.com]

Project management apps that you might want to look into. All are web-based and/or free.

BTW, you might like to scope out LifeHacker (http://lifehacker.com) just in general.

Zirrus (http://lifehacker.com/software/getting-to-done/organize-your-tasks-with-zirrus-230155.php)
activeCollab (http://lifehacker.com/software/project-management/manage-projects-online-with-activecollab-204274.php)
OpenWorkbench (http://lifehacker.com/software/management/download-of-the-day-open-workbench-157041.php)
GanttProject (http://lifehacker.com/software/organizers/download-of-the-day-ganttproject-155286.php)

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Thanks!