Every month, thousands of us look for ways to increase our productivity, our efficiency, and our management of time. And in particular, we spend tens of millions of dollars annually on time management software and related software aids. According to the Google, each month over 12,000 people search for "time management software".
If there is one irritant in this lucrative world of time management software it is this: most time management software out there won't work for you. This is a fact that drives the constant looking for new solutions.
Many tools are designed for only one type of work function or personality - typically the project manager working for a big company. Many tools are hopeless for when priorities change.
The big problem most people find is that when there's a major change to your plans it takes so long to shift around the plan that don't bother doing it.
I'd like to introduce you to a new time management tool that is so flexible that I believe you'll be able to use it for years - and it will work for you no matter your personality. The tool is called LeaderTask.
LeaderTask is able to help people in the most painful, demanding, challenging, and most neglected area of time management - small business.
Some would say that the small business person has the greatest time management challenges of anyone in the world. He has to juggle many widely different and contrasting job roles, and his financial survival, usually depends on him keeping every single one of these going. There is no one to fall back on. This often leads to long hours and over-working.
This is the first tool I've seen that can greatly help a small business person, and was actually designed with the needs of small business in mind.
It's hard to know where to start in describing LeaderTasks's usefulness... In this hub I'll use myself as an example. I'm a small business person in internet marketing and SEO (search engine optimization). I work for several small business clients.
With the nature of my business I have no 100%-crystal-clear idea how I'm going to get to any particular business objective - like top ranking for a particular keyword phrase.
My priorities and tactics will constantly change as more information and results from previous actions come to light. Most project management tools I've seen cannot cope swiftly with such a change in priorities.
I don't have rigid "milestones" that big company managers have. Instead I have "categories of action" to pay attention to. I'll give you one example.
The constant change in internet marketing and ranking methods, plus the noise, misinformation and potential distractions online mean that I must be aware of the use my time in the following ways:
Actions that have proven to be effective
Actions that are not actually proven by me, but I am testing to see if they work
With LeaderTask I can make tree-like lists of tasks under those categories. I can use this tool to make notes methods that definitely work (through a notes function) and then to schedule their repetition in future.
Then I can keep track of actions in several new "categories of action" So I might create new categories for "article marketing" and another for "social bookmarking". And I can have multiple tree-outline tasks inside of these. To be repeated on each site, each month.
I can also categorize actions in other ways to allow me to keep track of what's important and act effectively:
My Goals - In my nature I need to see my goals and can work better when my tasks are in the context of my goals. This seems very important in the high-distraction, high-number-of-choices online business world.
Todo This Week
Marketing Method 1
Marketing Method 2
Client Sites
My Own Sites
Contacts - I can assign tasks and notes to a particular freelancer.
These are basically different areas where it is definitely profitable for me to spend my time - as you can see they relate to Time, Person, Thing, and Goals. Many small business people during the day will shift from role to role and work on tasks with very different contexts like: write article for campaign 1, do weekly book keeping, win new contract X and so on.
LeaderTask helps you keep on top of your progress within these different contexts. A task can be placed in unlimited categories or contexts you specify.
I'm still learning how to use this tool. It has so many different possibilities. The main thing I like is that it's highly configurable so I will be able to invent new self-management approaches as I evolve.
Because tasks can have multiple categories the same task can be in the "Do Today", "My Top Freelancer" area, and any other category you use to assign and track your actions.
One more thing - for many people Task priorities like "Must Do", "Do today" are important in staying productive. With this tool you can create your own Priority Rating data! Wow! So if you want to use the A1, A2, A3, B method of GettingThingsDone you can. You can create the priority types plus the color of task-highlighting for each one.
Such flexibility makes it possible to use the tool for years, even when you change your approach to working, which you surely will.
I'd highly recommend you visit the LeaderTask site now and check it out. It'll definitely be worth your time :).
Abramovsky Alexey has sinced written about articles on various topics from Software. Ivan Abramovsky is cofounder of Unattended Installation Systems. The company's flagship product MultiSet has become a "must-have-software" in homes and offices in more than 60 countries.. Abramovsky Alexey's top article generates over 1300 views. Bookmark Abramovsky Alexey to your Favourites.
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