Transparent workflows are a key to successful project completion and efficiency of any organization. However, getting an insight into what each team member is occupied with at any given moment of time may be challenging for almost every manager, to say nothing of a person in charge of multiple international projects, involving hundreds of thousands of volunteers from all over the world. Yet, Ryan Wood, COO at Absolute.org, a charitable non-profit organization, helping people in need in different corners of the globe, found an elegant solution to this common problem.  Absolute.org’s team adopted Wrike as a project and workflow management system and the project management software changed the way people were collaborating on tasks.  “Each team member can see what is happening on the projects that he or she is involved in. All the project schedules are up-to-date, as the changes made by other team members are seen in real time,” says Ryan. Read the rest of the story and find out why Absolute.org chose Wrike over other project management tools.

We’re excited to announce the release of Wrike Simple Projects, the first free, real-time project collaboration tool built on Yahoo!’s Open Apps platform, on July 24.

Wrike Simple Projects will become part of Yahoo! users’ everyday experience and the first project collaboration tool available from the customizable My Yahoo! web page. Anyone who has a Yahoo! account will be able to easily create and assign tasks, organize tasks in projects and invite people to work on projects together. Still the most exciting thing about Wrike Simple Projects is that it is the first My Yahoo! app that lets users keep track of changes made in projects by their friends. Thanks to the ability to see who created, edited, reassigned and completed tasks in real time, they can always stay in the loop.

Saving time and making people all over the world more productive while collaborating on projects is a part of Wrike’s mission. We developed the free Wrike Simple Projects specifically for Yahoo! to help millions of people become more efficient in working together on everyday projects like moving, planning a wedding or trip, studying, etc.

It’s worth mentioning that Wrike Simple Projects will not sync with Wrike’s original version and will not offer Wrike’s unique and patent-pending features, such as the Intelligent Email Engine, Dynamic Timeline, or our Flexible Structures. People who are interested in these and other substantial collaboration and project management features will be invited to join our customer community and sign up for Wrike at www.wrike.com.

We received a lot of customer feedback about desired changes in everyday to-do e-mails, and today we are glad to present the improvements to you.

To help you focus on the most important tasks for you, now tasks that are overdue by more than 5 days are not shown in your daily to-do emails (1).

If a task was not completed or rescheduled while it was overdue for 1-5 days, it is considered non-important to you right now. However, each to-do email contains a reminder about your tasks that are overdue by more than 5 days (2), and you can reschedule them at any time (3).

As always, the to-do e-mail also contains your tasks that are planned for today (4) and overdue tasks assigned by you to other people.

A tiny, yet useful, feature that helps you request task status updates automatically has been improved. Now the request can be created directly from your workspace. It is not necessary for you to have the default e-mail client, such as Outlook, Gmail etc., set on your computer.


You simply click on “Request status update” and a dialog window appears, so you can add custom text to the default message.



Click “Send,” and the recipient of the message will report to you about the task soon.

We recently improved the dashboard interface, so it allows you manage your tasks easier and faster. The dashboard displays the tasks assigned to you that are overdue or due within a week.

So you can easily decide what task to tackle first, the dashboard contains the information regarding the task priority, due date or how many days it is overdue. Additionally, parent folders are shown near each task, so you can quickly get the context of the task.

The dashboard allows you to manage tasks the following ways:

1) Mark the task as completed by clicking on the check box on the left of the task name.



2) Reschedule the task by clicking on the pencil icon. Once the changes are made, hit the “Save” button.



3) Delete the task by clicking the recycle bin icon on the left of the task name.

4) View other task details, such as description, attachments, etc., by clicking on the task title. 

You create tasks via e-mail to avoid forgetting important ideas. Often you don’t have time to set up the deadline for it, so you take the risk of shelving the task. We applied a tiny change in Wrike to help you get tasks done much faster.

All tasks created via e-mail now receive a default due date marked as tomorrow if you don’t set it explicitly. Therefore a reminder about the task will soon appear on the dashboard, and you will get a chance to reschedule or mark the task completed.

We got valuable feedback on our post "Wrike helps you get things done." Many people asked us if we tried to get things done with Wrike ourselves. Our reply is “yes.” Our team successfully practices GTD, and we feel that it saves us hours weekly. We designed Wrike to make ourselves more productive and to save time, so Wrike is a perfect system for us to apply the getting things done method.

Here’s how we do it at a glance:

We manage our workflow and get our things done in 5 easy steps in Wrike.

1. We collect our stuff by creating tasks in our personal Web-spaces in Wrike or forwarding them to wrike@wrike.com.

2. We process our tasks by deciding what’s actionable and what is not. We decide whether we should do a thing right now, do it later or delegate it. We assign some tasks to our colleagues by sending a regular e-mail and adding wrike@wrike.com to the CC field. We don’t forget to set a due date, so that the system can remind us to review the task.

3. We organize our tasks in Wrike by building a structure that is convenient for us. We organize our tasks according project folders. We also have “next actions” and “someday” folders. We don't need the “waiting for” folder, as the system reminds us of our tasks. It’s always possible to create more folders or change the whole folder structure. We can also put our tasks in several folders simultaneously, in case our projects overlap. We share our projects with our colleagues and track the progress together.

We use filters to see who is responsible for what (see the picture on the left). Reports help us to follow the progress of each project and every team member (see the picture on the right).



4. Reviewing our tasks and overdue items is fast with Wrike. We get reminders of our to-dos automatically from the system directly into our inboxes. Our review takes only seconds as we use Wrike’s dashboard. We quickly reschedule our tasks or mark them completed.

5. So we find that getting things done with Wrike actually saves us up to 30 minutes per day. We feel that we have become more productive and do all our things much faster and with less stress.

To get more information on how to implement the getting things done method with Wrike, read the detailed guide on the system.

Now you will have quick access to the tasks that are due shortly.

They are displayed on the dashboard, so you can begin your work at once. The dashboard will also help with your daily review of your tasks. It lets you immediately mark them completed or reschedule them.

 

Check the box, if the task is done, or reschedule it for the future. Completed tasks become grey and disappear from the list in a few seconds. On the dashboard you can also find tasks that are due today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

There are thousands of situations when you are not in the office and don’t have access to a computer with an Internet connection. But if you have your BlackBerry, Treo, other PDA phone, smart phone or any mobile device supporting e-mails, you can easily manage your projects in Wrike even if you are in a meeting or at the airport, waiting for your plane.

Instant information on your project progress
In Wrike, you manage and plan your projects via e-mail. You instantly get information on the progress of your projects. We’ll send you an e-mail notification if there are any changes in the details or status of a task made by your colleagues.

Create tasks in seconds
You can complement your getting things done with Wrike system by using a BlackBerry.
For example, a task pops up, and it can’t be completed in 2 minutes. You decide whether to delegate the task or defer it. Your next action is to put the task into Wrike in order to remember it and get it done. With a BlackBerry, you can create tasks in Wrike in seconds on the go:
• you e-mail the task directly to wrike@wrike.com and process it later;
• or delegate the task to your team, adding wrike@wrike.com to the CC field of your email.

So you can easily and effectively manage and create tasks anywhere with no need of a laptop computer.

Never forget anything
You’ll also get reminders of your overdue tasks on your BlackBerry, which is always with you, so you are sure to not miss or forget anything important. Wrike and BlackBerry (or another mobile device supporting e-mails) let you work and collaborate on your projects from wherever you are. You don’t have to install anything or browse your personal Webspace to always stay in the loop.

A guideline for successfully applying David Allen’s method with the help of Wrike

David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done” has won enormous success among busy people and especially among project managers. The book offers a breakthrough method of organizing your life, completing your tasks and achieving excellent results. It helps us solve the problem of “how to get all the stuff finally done.” The key point of David’s conception is finding “a logical and trusted system outside of your head” to store all the things that need to be done. The only thing you have to do is find such a system. It’s that’s simple, right?

There are a lot of options to collect your own to-dos, but how about making other people get things done? If you work in a team you, need to manage the work of others and follow your team members’ progress. To find a system for collecting your team’s to-dos could be a great challenge. But not for you! In case you need a smart tool that can relieve you from memorizing every task and reminding people about them, we’ve got something to offer you. Wrike will capture all your plans and to-dos and get you and your team into a productive state.

Here we’ll guide you through getting things done collaboratively in Wrike. We will show you that it is simpler and more effective than using paper files, calendars or other tools.

David Allen identifies 5 steps we need go through to manage our workflow. We need to:

• Collect
• Process
• Organize
• Review
• Do

Let’s follow all the 5 steps and see how to manage your team’s tasks in each of these stages.

Collect

David stresses that it is absolutely necessary to collect all the things you need to do in one place, including “anything personal or professional, big or little, of urgent or minor importance.”

When you’ve decided what your commitment is, you define your “open loops.” By “open loops” or “incompletes” David means anything which needs to be done, including global, regular or tiny actions. Your next step is to gather all your “open loops” in one place and get them off your mind. You enter all your to-dos into Wrike. You can do it in 2 ways:

1. If you have a new project in your head, you can create all the tasks online, name them, assign a due date and leave short comments.

2. If you are more comfortable with writing e-mails and you want to start using Wrike on the go, you can send your tasks to wrike@wrike.com and the system will create them for you in your personal Web space. If you have e-mails with tasks assigned to you, it is possible to just forward them to wrike@wrike.com.

Process

Since you’ve finished collecting your to-dos, you start structuring them. You decide whether each “open loop” is actionable or not. In case you decide that the item is not actionable, David recommends to either trash it, put it off (incubate) or keep it for reference.

How you do that in Wrike? If the item is not actionable, you either move it into Recycle bin (if it is of no importance) or put it in the “Ideas” folder, if the action is not needed immediately, but you still don’t want to forget the “loop.” Here you can also store your reference materials.

If you want to be reminded of a task that is not actionable now, but will be needed in a month, you can put a corresponding due date to it. For example, you have to make preparations for a conference that will take place in October, and today is the 2nd of August. You measure the time necessary for preparations and mark the start date (the date when you want to begin getting ready for the conference). The actual conference date will be your due date.

If you decide that the task is actionable, you need to choose whether you want to complete the task immediately or not. You should first define what project or outcome you committed to and then determine your next action. David gives us three variants for next action: do the thing, delegate it or defer it.

Do it. If you decide that the task should be done within 2 minutes, then according to David's advice, it's better to do it right now.

Delegate it. In case several steps are required to fulfill the task, you choose the right person to do the task. If you feel that the task can be completed successfully by someone else, you should delegate it. It’s more than easy to do in Wrike. To assign a task, you need to simply open it in Wrike, choose the “edit” option and enter the e-mail address of your associate into the “assigned to” field. Your associate will then get an e-mail notification with the details of the task. By this e-mail, he is invited to work on the assignment in Wrike. Now he can edit the task, reassign it or mark completed.

Tracking a handoff is necessary if you care at all whether something happens as a result of the task. Wrike takes this part of your responsibility. You’ll follow the progress of others as you get e-mail notifications from the system that your associate has added details to a task, changed the due date or completed the assignment. Wrike lets you know you got something done.

If you cannot delegate the task and have to perform the action by yourself, but nothing can be done immediately, you defer acting until later. The task is then marked “active” by default in the system and stays on your project list.

Organize

The next step would be to structure your tasks by projects. According to David Allen’s getting things done strategy, a project is any desired result that requires more than one action step. This means that all your to-dos, even some rather small things that you might not normally call projects, are going to be on your “projects list”.

The template folders to store your projects already have been created for your convenience in Wrike. It includes personal and corporate folders, where you can put projects that you may be involved in. It even has a shopping list, in case you don’t want to forget to buy something. David gives us a sample structure that can be used for organizing your projects by folders in Wrike.

 

Now you can customize the folder hierarchy the way it is convenient for you. It is possible to name folders after your projects or rename folders the way you like. Don’t be afraid to put a task in the wrong folder. Wrike is a very flexible system, designed meet your requirements on the spot. As you will develop your projects in Wrike and get adjusted to the system, you can move tasks to a different folder. In case things change and projects evolve, you can change your whole folder structure in minutes. You can also put a task in several folders simultaneously, if you feel that the task completion is necessary for a number of projects.

If you work on a project with somebody, you can share the project folder with him. This will give him an opportunity to contribute into the work and follow the progress of the project.

Practically each of your tasks might have additional material or relevant information. You can easily store it in Wrike. You can upload files and images. Wrike allows you to combine your project list with all the project material you might need. All the tasks and corresponding text information, files, images and e-mails are in one place and always at hand for you and your colleagues.

Review

To get things done, it is absolutely necessary to review your progress. By reviewing, you control your whole getting things done system and track results. David stresses that you need to trust your system. That’s why it is absolutely important to keep it up-to-date. You should put everything that comes up and needs to be done in the system. Fortunately, it takes only seconds to do it, as you can either forward the e-mail you received or create a new one and put wrike@wrike.com into CC field. You should also mark “completed” assignments that you’ve managed to accomplish, so that you can track the progress of the work.

The next step of keeping your system trustworthy is the actual reviewing of things you have to do. According to David’s method, you need to keep track of your lists that is “projects list”, project support material, calendared actions and information, "next actions" lists, a "waiting for" list, reference material and a "someday/maybe" list. Using Wrike will allow you to keep all these lists in one place and save your time on paper notes. What's most convenient is it's all integrated with your e-mail inbox.

David suggests reviewing your tasks for the day, so that you don’t forget any important actions. He stresses that having reminders for your tasks is crucial for getting things done. In his book, he recommends creating a list of “incompletes” that are “waiting for” something not depending on you and a list of “next actions.” These are basically lists of reminders for you not to forget important things, and you have to review them regularly.

With Wrike, you don’t have to review your to-dos and overdue tasks. You get reminders of your open loops automatically from the system. Wrike has a built-in notification function, which won’t let you and any of your team members forget overdue items. Wrike sends you an e-mail and reminds you about the due date of your tasks. So you meet all the deadlines easily and never forget anything.

In addition, you get a quick project tasks overview opportunity. Wrike has a timeline function, which is designed for you to take a look at all your outstanding projects and open loops. It will give you the full overview of your activity and help keep track of your to-dos. The timeline is available at a click of a mouse. It gives you a chance to scan all your active tasks, thus radically increasing the efficiency of the choices you make about what you or your team should be doing at any point in time.

Do

The next and final step is the actual doing. Wrike made it possible for you to collect everything in one place, so now you have a reliable system that helps you reduce stress in your life and get a clear mind. Now you need to make your action choices and accomplish your mission. The more things you get done, the closer you are to your whole project completion.

If you followed all the steps of David’s methodology using Wrike, you’ll find that it actually saves you more that 30 minutes per day. and increases your productivity. Try getting your projects done in Wrike and feel that you do your work faster and communicate on your projects much easier. Using Wrike means less stress for you and your colleagues and more benefit for your business.