In addition to the project management tools that we teach at People-OnTheGo, such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft SharePoint, Google Sites, Asana, and project wikis, our guest blogger will shed some light on additional PM tools for various project sizes.

Guest blog post by Jose Maria Delos Santos

Initiating a project needs adequate preparation. A significant percentage of projects have failed because of the lack of it. Aside from the necessary project management skills and processes, people also need to use the correct tool for the job. As projects come in different sizes, it is also important to use the right-sized PM tool for the project.

The defining line whether a project is small or medium-size can be difficult but is generally relative to the sponsoring organization. As such, PM tools for small and medium-size projects sometimes fall into one group. However, a PM tool having more core PM functionality, such as project tracking, task dependencies, time and expense tracking and resource management, is better suited for medium-size projects. Large projects have a bigger impact in terms of duration, resources, cost, risk and deliverables, and therefore need a PM tool that has a comprehensive set of integrated and sometimes customizable features.

PM Tools for Small Projects

Producteev is a web-based social task management platform that is well suited for small projects. The first interface is called the Workspace, and from this page, the user can create and complete tasks as well as invite people for collaboration on the task. It is available on many platforms such as a PC, Mac, mobile devices, and even just with an email.

Teambox is a project management and collaboration platform that is relatively easy to use. All communications of the team can be organized by projects for easy reference. The discussion may be converted easily into tasks and tracked for progress through a workload view, calendar, or Gantt chart.

ProofHub is an online PM tool that offers cloud-based storage, flexible pricing, and unique inbuilt chat and proofing tool that improves work efficiency greatly. For example, team members and clients alike can use the online collaboration tool that is faster and more powerful than email. All chat history is then stored for easy reference and update.

PM Tools for Medium-size Projects

AceProject is an online application that has strong project management features including Gantt charts, project tracking, time and expense tracking, document management, reporting, and mobility. It also has important human resource management features critical for medium-size projects involving a greater number of people. It can include external collaborators to the project while maintaining security and integrity with access rights. Since projects always involve resources, their availability and their assignment, AceProject’s time tracking, expense tracking and reporting features become indispensable.

LiquidPlanner is an online PM and analytic tool that has more than just a built-in project collaboration feature. It also has the important scheduling and organizational features that can be set by priority. It also has time tracking and approval features that make it easy for team members to fill up their timesheets and for project managers to approve them.

Intervals is an online software that helps users take control of their time, tasks, and projects. Many businesses in over 100 countries are using it, which resulted in successful projects and expansion of their business. It has powerful reporting features that allow the project manager to see how the projects are advancing, what the workload is on a team member, and how well within budget is the project costing.

PM Tools for Large Projects

EPM Live is a work management platform for managing projects. Aside from project management tools such as scheduling, collaboration, timesheets, and reporting, it also has portfolio management, cost management and work management features. It has powerful workflow automation features that can be implemented across the organization for the total picture of project performance. It may be deployed online through the Internet or on-premise within the company.

Project Insight is a customizable online PM software that boasts of a long list of features but still retains ease of use. It is flexible as well to be deployed online or on-premise. It has the needed features to support project scheduling and resource allocation. It also has issue tracking, MS Outlook and Office integration, and portfolio management features.

Genius Project is an enterprise project management system that has all the needed PM features and more. It has project portfolio management, invoicing, demand management, risk and change management, and Agile SCRUM support. It can be deployed as software-as-a-service or hosted on-premise. It also has integration with IBM’s Lotus Notes and Domino.

Conclusion

Web-based PM tools are being adopted more by SMBs because of low initial costs, scalability, and rapid deployment that have increased their ability to compete with larger competitors. Security issues that have made bigger enterprises hesitant to adopt cloud services are now being addressed by on-premise deployments of these same PM tools. Clearly, whatever the size of the project or organization, a PM tool now exists with a right fit.

About Jose Maria Delos Santos: Jose is a freelance article writer for Project-Management.com, a website dedicated to provide PM articles, detailed project management software reviews, and the latest news for the most popular web-based collaboration tools.

Additional Resources & Webinars

• Project Management

• Microsoft Project Techniques

• Microsoft SharePoint Techniques

• Google Sites & Google Sites Advanced

• Collaboration Technologies: Blogs, Wikis, SharePoint, and more!

At-home workers often bear a stigma of being less productive and effective than office workers—but that's simply not the reality. Whether you work at home or not, employees who create a more controlled and distraction-free work environment can see huge gains in their productivity and results. And when you work from home, where you alone define your surroundings, you truly have a powerful opportunity to accomplish so much more.

To find out how, check out my guest blost post for Dell's Tech Page One.

Additional Resources & Webinars

• Accomplishing More With Less

• Staying Focused in an ADD World

• Managing and Organizing Your E-mail Inbox—Outlook 2010

• Managing and Organizing Your E-mail Inbox—Google Apps

No, this blog post title isn't the opening line of a joke—it's a powerful lesson about leadership co-author of The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes, shares in this video below.

Watch to learn how true leaders earn their stripes (pun intended.)

Share your thoughts on leadership in our short survey, and you'll be entered into our drawing to win free leadership training, and more.

Also join us for a complimentary, leadership webinar on Thursday, August 1 at noon PT, "Time for Leadership: Finding an Hour to Lead."

Register now for the free session!

I'm very happy to have contributed my first, guest blog post over at PicktheBrain: "10 Cognitive Distortions that are Stressing You Out and Sapping Your Productivity."

In the article, I talk about the top cognitive distortions or negative thoughts that can contribute to stress, weighing down our bodies, minds, and, of course, our productivity. I also offer some helpful "counter statements" that you can use to combat this distorted thinking.

Hope you enjoy the article, and looking forward to your comments!

Additional Resources & Webinars

• Accomplishing More With Less

• Stress Management

• Eat Well to Accomplish More

• Move More to Accomplish More

Share your thoughts on leadership in the workplace in our 10-minute survey, and you'll be entered into our drawing for a chance to win one of the following prizes:

First Prize: A complimentary seat in our upcoming leadership program ($1,250 value) and a copy of David Sibbet's latest book, Visual Leaders: New Tools for Visioning, Management, and Organization Change.

Second Prize: A complimentary, one-year individual membership ($120 value, includes 12 workshops) and a copy of Visual Leaders.

Third Prize: A Kindle Fire Tablet, 7" LCD Display, Wi-Fi (value $159), and a copy of Visual Leaders.

Fourth Prize: A copy of the Accomplishing More With Less Workbook and a copy of Visual Leaders.

Click to take the survey now:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/leadership-today.

Let's face it, we all have weaknesses. But instead of having an "Oh no!" moment when a challenge comes your way, these weaknesses should be thought of more as opportunities to grow and learn — which may sound simple, but it's far from how some professionals and leaders behave.

In an interview with Harvard Business Review, Dr. Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, describes this very powerful difference between a "fixed" and "growth" mindset:

"In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here's a chance to grow. If you find yourself afraid of challenges, get yourself into a growth mindset and think about all of the growth potential in following this opportunity, even if it's out of your comfort zone."

Here's your chance to grow and learn three quick ways to turn that feeling of "Oh no!" into a success-oriented "Now what?"

1. Turn a challenge into a chance to problem solve or "task design."
2. Turn a difficult task into a 30 to 40-minute focus session.
3. Turn a difficult situation into a chance for awareness and wellness.

For more insights on maximizing your strengths and productivity, join us for a complimentary webinar Thursday, August 1 at noon PT, "Time for Leadership: Finding an Hour to Lead."

Register now for the free webinar!

Additional Resources & Webinars

• Accomplishing More With Less

• Accomplishing More Leadership Program

• Staying Focused in an ADD World

• Total Organization

• Stress Management

Here's a great video tutorial, below, on mind mapping with MindJet software. For more tips and tools about visual project mananagent, join us for our next free Lunch & Learn Webinar on 7/11/13 at noon PT: How to Use Visual Project Management for Greater Productivity.

Click to register for the free webinar.

By Eve Porcello, People-OnTheGo Faculty Member

Back in March, Google announced (buried within a bulleted list in their blog) that they would be retiring their popular RSS feed platform, Google Reader, as of July 1. Google cited a decline in usage, but Google Reader fans are rabid and reliant on the tool to organize and deliver their news for easy consumption.

So what is a Google Reader user to do?

Despite Google Reader’s demise, there are still several services that will help you curate the experience of reading websites and news articles through RSS.

Feedly - Among the Google Reader replacements, Feedly is likely the most seamless. You can log right in to Feedly using your Google account and import your Google Reader data absolutely for free. Feedly also offers a variety of apps that will allow you to access your content from any device.

NewsBlur - Intended to help you read the news from anywhere, NewsBlur offers iOS, Android, and web apps to help you organize and read the news. The service also offers social features to help you see what your friends are reading and sharing. NewsBlur is a “freemium” app with free storage up to 64 feeds and $24/year for an unlimited subscription.

Flipboard, Pulse, & Zite - These apps help you get the latest on your mobile devices. While they don’t mirror the experience of viewing Google Reader from a desktop computer, all show your articles with reliability and great usability.

If you have used Google Reader in the past and you want to export your subscription data, you can download a copy with Google Takeout before July 15, 2013.

To learn more about using other Google tools (that won’t be retired anytime soon), check out our Managing Your Inbox in Google Apps, Google Docs & Drive, Google Docs & Drive Advanced, Google Sites, Google Sites Advanced, and Google Analytics webinars.

Project management has been around for as long as human beings have endeavored en masse to complete tasks and projects of all shapes and sizes: from the Great Pyramid and Great Wall of China, on through 21st century workforce management by way of virtualization and the cloud.

Below is a brief, visual history of project management that illustrates a rich timelime of project management methodologies, advancements, and the overall evolution of the field. Now, more than ever, the ability to effectively manage projects large and small to successful completion is a vital and in-demand skill.

We hope you'll consider joining us at our next free webinar, "How to Use Visual Project Management for Greater Productivity" on 7/11/13 at noon PT where you'll learn the latest visual approaches to project management including virtual whiteboards, and much more.

—> Register now for the FREE webinar!

Click on the image below to enlarge:

Heard about our summary+commentary (s+c*d) format? Learn more!

Summary

“If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work.” –C.S. Lewis. Today, we live in an era of constant distraction: a fast-paced digital age of multi-screens, electronic alerts, instant messages, and alarms, social media, and near-infinite web search & surf possibilities. At work the temptation toward distraction is a very persistent reality; and it’s making us not only less productive but less smart, too.

In a Carnegie Mellon experiment cited in the article (“Brain, Interrupted,” NYT), it turns out that an interruption made test takers “20 percent dumber” than the control group. In the second part of the experiment, a portion of the test takers were interrupted again, and yet improved to 14 percent (still lower though than the control group). Meanwhile, the other portion of test takers, who were told they’d be interrupted and were not, improved by 43 percent—even outperforming the control group.

Commentary

The authors conclude this last group may have focused to “steel themselves” against the interruption that never came, or that an awareness of imminent interruptions better prepared them. People-OnTheGo helps professionals develop this exact power of “micro-level focus,” and offers many strategies and webinars to this end. Here are 3 tips to help get you focused right now:

1. Create a distraction-free work environment.

2. Use a Micro-Plan™ and timer.

3. Quickly “capture” any distracting thoughts in a paper journal so you can remain focused on the task at hand.

Discussion

How do you handle distractions at work? What strategies and techniques are you currently using? What are your greatest interruption challenges? Do you feel you’d be more productive if you learned to better manage interruptions?

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