Webmaster’s Corner – Consolidate. It’s Not Too Late!

Things getting crazy at work? Too many projects on the go all at once? Maybe it is time to consider the possibility of centralizing your efforts into a more manageable format.
I personally spent many hours researching the Net for this very reason – I needed something that would help me organize all of my projects, email, and contacts into centralized workplace. The answer for me was Microsoft Project. Please keep in mind that I am a Windows user, so my research was specifically oriented for this operating system. There may be many other great project management software solutions available out there for your particular OS or to suit your needs especially if you are already a Windows user. So look around and find the one that’s right for you.

The key benefit to centralizing projects is the ability to share projects and tasks with a common resource pool. A resource pool is just a list of all staff associated with your projects. If, for example, John Smith is assigned 4 tasks this week and 5 next week, his schedule will automatically be updated and will let him know when each task needs to accomplished in order to complete the project on time. Microsoft Project works much like a spreadsheet – it “budgets” each person’s time to accommodate the timelines of any given project and also incorporates all other associated projects they are working on. Very powerful.

While Project is arguably a little “too” much for my needs now, I have found it to be excellent for a broad range of tasks from large, corporate scale projects to smaller, single task web site fixes. I also have the ability to integrate Microsoft Outlook which helps me with my contacts and scheduling. So remember – it is never too late, to consolidate!