Hello Asana

I love products that help me manage workflow, and to be more efficient. No product can MAKE you be productive and efficient, but they can help. I've used DayTimer, Franklin Planner, Outlook and Palm Desktop. I've read Steven Covey and David Allen. I've learned something from all of them over the years. I've become mostly aligned with David Allen's Getting Things Done approach. If you are not familiar, do yourself a favor and check it out.

About 6 months ago I learned about Asana. It is a web-based team task management system. I've not adopted their model to use it to replace inter company email yet, but maybe I should. Asana is flexible, and yet offers enough structure & assistance to get you started with ease.

If you are in the market for something like this, Asana might be the answer - and it is free for small companies and very reasonably priced for others.

My favorite tip I've learned over the years is a way to manage tasks/questions I've delegated to others. David Allen calls it @Waiting For. I just use Waiting For. In our case it is a tag in Asana, but there are many other ways to use this idea.

Good luck and enjoy!

Be quick but don't hurry

John Wooden is a great basketball coach. One of his many great sayings/quotes is "Be quick, but don't hurry." Honestly, that is some of the best advice I've ever absorbed and it applies in so many areas of ones life. And it applies well to marketing too. Often there are many tasks that need to be done and all seem ultra important, but most often there are a few big rocks that really need to be done first AND done very well. So, hustle. Work hard. Be diligent. And most of all, be quick but don't hurry-the process, the hire or the project. Great sometimes takes just a little bit more.

Process = Success

If you implement anything more than a few steps long you have a process. Done well a process is your friend. It helps marketers or executives to insure you cover important bases and don't miss things. A good process is not static and improves over time. An example from my daily work is our review process for newsletters - both electronic and printed. The process has saved us many times from making errors both BIG and small. We use similar processes for campaign themes and various other projects, as well. It works like this.

1. We prepare and send a "First Look" which is mock up of the piece. It might have full stories and graphics in some places and ideas for stories in other places. It prompts the discussion.
2. We prepare the newsletter based on feedback and send what is a 98% complete document to make sure the content we've developed follows the feedback/discussion provided in the First Look session. We state this is not polished, but should be close and we talk about any holes that still need filling (the 2%). We ask for a keen eye review.
3. Following comments/suggestions/corrections, internally we do what we call the FTC (fine tooth comb). This is a detailed review where you re-read every word and you need to be in full editor mode. After writing and laying something out - often you can't see the forest for the trees, so you need extra keen eyes at this point.
4. After FTC, we send the final out for approval. If someone finds something, we fix it. Most often, it is approved and we order.

This process works because it has been developed over time and everyone knows what to expect. We use it consistently and participants know what is needed at each step. It makes it easier for all involved AND we get the best results because of it.

What processes do you use to make your tasks easier to accomplish? An advice to make our process better? I love to learn.