One of the advantages of working from home is the flexible schedule. No matter how many things you need to accomplish, or how many simultaneous projects you have, you can still control when you can perform certain tasks, as well as how long they take. While this is more true of freelancing than it is for employees, it’s this schedule flexibility that makes the prospect of teleworking more attractive.
Whether it’s a do-it-yourself renovation of your home office, a one-month trip, or participating in NaNoWriMo, there’s always the big, personal project that you’re trying to fit in your schedule. How do you make sure that it won’t have much of a negative impact on your work? Read the rest of this entry »
One thing that’s missing from many online project management apps is the ability to plan your projects using a Gantt chart. Many project managers would argue that such apps aren’t really project management tools at all, preferring to stick with “real” PM software like Microsoft Project.
Gantter is a web app that provides Gantt chart project planning and much of the basic functionality of Microsoft Project for free. Considering that it is emulating a very complex desktop app, it works surprisingly well.
A project plan in Gantter
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Recently, I was subcontracting for an ad agency when things went unexpectedly wrong. There had been points in the process when I felt things weren’t quite right, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. In retrospect, I can see that those moments were actually blatant warning signs that the project was going awry.
Now I keep these warning signs in mind. They’re indicators that I need to take immediate action to keep my project on track. If you’re working remotely, that can be much harder to do than if you have daily face-to-face contact with your colleagues, but hopefully these tips will help you avoid the trap I fell into.
The project had started in the normal way. I took the brief, produced the work, and sent it off in draft form for review with the words, “I look forward to your amendments.” But there were no amendments. My contact at the agency asked for my invoice the same day. I wound up having to chase payment, my contact was avoiding me, and in the end, I only got paid for half the job.
Here are the five warning signs that should have alerted me to the danger.
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“First, just let me say that I’m touched that you enjoyed my services so much that you want to continue our relationship long after the engagement has closed. Flattered, even. Still, for a freelance contractor, time is money, and you’re not paying me for mine any more, so at some point this has to stop. It’s not you, it’s me, I’m sure you understand.”
The above is a conversation I’ve had to have with clients time and time again, although not in those exact words, of course. Often, I later realized, it actually was my fault. In the early days of my career, I wasn’t providing clients with enough of an end-to-end solution. I short-sightedly forgot that when you’re transferring IP, it’s important to make sure that the client (and all of the client’s staff who will be involved) will be able to use whatever it is I’ve produced for them, for as long as the tool is in active use. Read the rest of this entry »
Having spent some time teaching at a university, and being on the brink of becoming a student again myself, I recently stopped to reflect about how my school work and that of my students might be improved with some Web 2.0 tools. The discussion is timely, too, since a lot of working professionals are heading back to the classroom in an attempt to stay relevant during tough times.
During my first go-around, I wasn’t savvy enough to take advantage of what was available, but with the benefit of hindsight, I’ve identified the following three categories of web apps that could make studying easier and more effective.
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In my ongoing and seemingly never-ending pursuit to find the perfect Project Management solution, I recently put the smartsheet service through its paces to see how it would fit the bill.
Billing itself as an Online Project Collaboration tool, it features a familiar spreadsheet-like interface as its data presentation method, which should make a lot of folks feel right at home.
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