loredanatauciuc

Since the year is coming to a close, it's the popular time to draw a line and see where we are. It's the time we sit next to the Christmas tree, with the lights plugged, listen to some soft music and have a glass of wine. All this while patting our backs for the great year we had and the great things we achieved.

But how about the times we had to unlearn things that we deeply believed in? How about the times when the pain was so intense, that we had to throw out the window things that took us ages to learn? These are the best times.

1. Find your passion. 

Yes, find your passion, but don't hold your breath until you do. Imagine what happens if you do not know what your passion is. You have some things you like, but no clear winner. What happens to your work life? You get to stay on the sidelines, waiting for the miracle of passion to happen, instead of diving into work, finding what you like about it, getting more skills, and gradually picking only tasks that challenge you and keep you motivated.

2. If you work hard enough, you can achieve anything. 

In my experience, this is false. If you work hard, you just end up burned out. You need to work smart. If you have several projects ongoing, look for the common traits - common themes that are driving you. Use those themes across the projects and not only will you work faster, but you will get a deeper knowledge on what interests you. Seeing the same theme through the "eyes" of different projects or approaches, you may get fresh ideas and learn much more about the subject.

3. You can reach your goal only if you move forward every single day. 

This is false. Sometimes, you need to step back to see the whole picture and be able to take a different approach. Sometimes you will discover that moving forward is too pricey and you need to change the direction. Be brave, do it, and you will thank yourself later.

4. And speaking of goals: first you have to have a goal, and then you can start building towards it. 

Luckily, scrum can be applied in life as well. If you want to change something, start small, and re-evaluate after some time. If your direction does not make you happy, adjust it and re-iterate.

5. If you want to do more, you need to sleep less. 

False. Lack of sleep impairs at least your concentration and problem solving skills , and for some reason it's the first thing to be crossed off the list of "things to do". Instead of sleeping less, pay attention to the times when you are most productive and maximize those.

6.  Nothing less than perfect goes. 

This one is a favorite of mine. If something is not done perfectly, why do it at all? Well, simple. Because by waiting always to be perfect, you may end up doing nothing.

Embrace the change. Happy new year!

A couple of months ago,  I was in a quest to find my match. That is, my perfect project management tool. I'm not picky, but I like my tools to actually help me out in doing my tasks, so usually I comb the possibilities before investing time into anything.

The list of requirements was quite extensive:
- available on the web and on the mobile. I wasn't planning on installing anything.
- something to give some visual timeline view
- a kind of a one stop shop. I wanted to put there the tasks, to followup the progress, to attach extra information if needed
- should give an instant overview on the situation of the project, without digging up reports
- collaborative was not a must, but a nice plus
- free or not expensive

And the nominees are...

Trello

Has been recommended to me, looks glamorous in the online presentations. The idea is that you have different boards with cards - you can emulate very easily a Kanban board with it. After trying to fit in my projects, I felt like I have too many things to customize. I understand why Trello can be great - it really looks beautiful, it is visual, and simply because you can customize it in so many ways, you can make it work. But I think it was a bit too agile for me.

Evernote

I love Evernote. You can have different notebooks and store notes there. You can attach different documents, and it even has an addon for Outlook, so you can easily transform any email into a note and save it. Very easy to find anything in your notes. I've been using it for a while, but for me it's most useful in storing the information. I didn't actually see the timeline part in it, and that was vital for me. However, it was great for planning different activities and having to do lists.

Asana

Now we get to my recently found infatuation. Asana is a collaborative cross between a project management and a task management tool. You can have different workspaces with projects and tasks. You can attach documents, comment, have subtasks, deadlines. It also offers a calendar view and the stoplight system for the projects. One thing I missed was to set the duration of the tasks, but you can do this with Instagantt (http://www.instagantt.com/) which is integrated with Asana.

Are there any tools you would add to the list?