Thursday, September 6, 2012

Attack of the Free iOS To-do Apps

Wunderlist
Wunderlist manages your tasks with a few focused features for organization, all within a beautiful interface and at no cost. There are not many features to speak of in Wunderlist, but its minimalist focus is what makes it work so nicely. Aside from being really pretty, the interface is straightforward and easy to use. You can create lists, add tasks, decide when they're due, and search and sort through everything you add. All your tasks and lists are synchronized with your wunderlist account. It's free on all platforms, fast, lightweight, easy to use, available on the web, and syncs across all of your devices.
Besides offering the latest multi-touch gestures for task editing and management, Astrid has all the goodies like reminders and notifications, syncing to the Astrid webapp and shared tasks with other Astrid users on iOS and Android. Astrid allows you to track your to-dos and projects, set due dates and deadlines for your items, and be alerted when they're due. You can organize your tasks into lists and categories, and then sync those tasks with the Astrid web service or Google Tasks.
Orchestra is designed to be a to-do list app that works kind of like email, letting your tasks live outside of the app and interact with others. It'll let you send tasks to other people, whether or not they use Orchestra, and they can request your assistance on anything as well. You don't need to collaborate to use Orchestra, however, as it's still an excellent to-do app regardless of what features you use. One of the places it shines the most is in the many ways it lets you add tasks. You can forward emails, speak to the app, or type them in normally. It also offers plenty of task viewing filters and methods of organization. It's simple and easy to use, too. It is, overall, about the best way you can manage your tasks because it's flexible enough to work the way you want.
With Any.DO, you get the benefit of multi-touch gestures to mark tasks as complete, the ability to start typing a task and have Any.DO autocomplete it for you, Google Task syncing, and the ability to add to-dos by tapping the microphone icon and speaking to your phone. The webapp on the other hand is just as intuitive as the mobile version, and Chrome users can install the Any.DO Chrome extension to manage their to-dos without having to keep an app tab open. Additionally, sharing is huge in Any.DO, and you can share your to-dos with Facebook, Twitter, and more. The webapp, iOS app, and overall service are still free, and they all sync up nicely so you have the same to-dos on any device.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

When Managers Must Choose Between Right and Right

Defining Moments: When Managers Must Choose Between Right and Right by Joseph L. Badaracco Jr.
A must read book for managers faced with ethical dilemmas at work. The book discusses and brings together different philosophies and overall creates a great reference tool to examine the "Right vs. Right" situations.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Funny Project Management Quotes

"The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, the last 10% takes the other 90%."

"Successful project management is all about spotting the projects that will succeed and shouting 'mine' and for the rest ducking and shouting 'yours'."

"A two year project will take three years, a three year project will never finish."

"A user is someone who tells you what they want the day you give them what they asked for."

"A badly defined project will take three times longer than expected, a well defined project only twice as long as expected."

"We haven't got time to work out where we're going, we're late already."

"A little risk management save a lot of fan cleaning."

"Good estimators aren't modest: if it's huge they say so."

"The person who says the project will take the longest and cost the most is the only person with a clue how to do it."

"Nothing's impossible for the person who doesn't have to do it."

"There are no good project managers - only lucky ones."

"If there's a 50% chance of something going wrong then 9 times out of 10 it will."

"The least used phrase in a project manager's vocabulary is 'I do not know'."

"The sooner you get behind schedule the more time you have to make it up."

"There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop."

"If at first you don't succeed remove all evidence you ever tried."

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by."