The Way I Manage My Projects with brightpod
Discussing industry trends and how it affects our clients, strategizing for social media and content. A heck of a lot of content creation… blog writing, photo creation, making videos, etc. We have a photo/video and audio recording studio setup right in the office so a lot of time is spent there :)
My day starts with the biggest tasks on my to-do list so that the important stuff gets my best energy. I usually briefly check email and flag whatever needs a response for later then jump into Brightpod to see what’s happening.
Plan your tasks ahead of time. When having meetings and creating new tasks, don’t just discuss them, put them into Brightpod immediately and decide who’s in charge and when action must be taken. So much time is wasted in meetings discussing things with little action being taken. Always ask yourself: what is the ACTION that must be taken? Answering that question alone will triple your productivity.
4 team members and around 10 active pods going. I’m still figuring out how I like to setup my pods and some I prefer in “List” view versus “Flow”. For example, I like a pod setup just for blog writing or content creation in the Flow view so I can see what stage it’s at in the editorial process. Recurring tasks are a lifesaver in Brightpod because anything social media/community management related is very repetitive.
I used Deskaway in the past which was great but too convoluted for people that weren’t as savvy with new systems. I find Brightpod is simple for me but more importantly, simple enough for my team to jump in right away without much training.
Yes. I have a client who I help do grant applications for their clients as part of our deal. I use the Flow view and set up each task list as a different stage of the grant process and drag each person between them as they are completed. It’s VERY handy for this.
Very little learning curve. The greatest challenge is deciding how you want to setup your pods as they are very flexible.
Recurring tasks. I wouldn’t be a customer if it wasn’t so easy to do it!
Less productive.
A couple suggestions. First, email notifications need more control. Comment system doesn’t have a sufficient notification via email and frequently get lost. When I get a zillion emails each day saying a team member has completed a task, it’s easy to miss the ones that say a new comment has been added because they look identical.
Second, I can’t easily see who on my team has overdue tasks without going into the task lists and looking for overdue items. I’d like a simple screen to go to to get a team overview so I know what’s going on.
Third, there needs to be a more obvious notification of NEW comments that have come in when logging into Brightpod. My entire team constantly misses new comments (including me).
Fourth, you need an iPhone app!
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