Wrike is known for being one of the most flexible enterprise project management systems around — sometimes more flexible than we ourselves realize. Our customers are pretty creative with how they use Wrike, so we asked them to share their best tips and tricks.
Check out the unique ways Wrikers are taking advantage of our tool, and you might just discover a new, implementable Wrike hack for your team.
Notification Settings Tips
1. Get your Daily Digest at the END of the day
"I changed my daily summary time from the beginning of the day (summarizing what happened yesterday) to 4:00 PM (summarizing what happened today). I feel like this gives me a better opportunity to re-align my next day for anything I missed in the toaster pop-ups or activity stream."
— Brandy Roberts, Continental Kennel Club, Inc.
2. Only focus on completed work via Notification Settings
"I have modified my notification settings so I only receive an email when someone completes a task, not every time they update it. It cuts down on email traffic, but let's me know the progress my staff is making on certain projects."
— Bethany Taylor, Dakota Security Systems, Inc.
Dashboard Widgets Tips
3. Give individual attention with person-centric Dashboard Widgets
"The dashboard: all my team members' project work in ONE place. I have a widget for each of them. During individual status meetings I print their list, go over it, and update Wrike as necessary."
— Paul Stefanski, Metro Transit, St. Louis, MO
Folder Organization Tips
4. Transfer client information with Folder Info & Permissions
"Use the "information" part of each folder for crucial details that the whole team might need, not just an explanation. On our team, each client has a folder, and we keep goals, objectives, key contacts, email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, etc. That way, if a client ever transfers to another team, it's only a matter of changing folder permissions."
—Mark Curtis, ROI Revolution
5. Store email templates in a "Templates" Folder
"Create macros when working with a support team. This ensures that each email to a customer is consistent and provides your branding."
— Jared White, Contra Costa Association of Realtors
6. Separate client-appropriate information with Subfolders
"For sharing outside of Wrike, use a subfolder in your project of high-level project tasks, with your date ranges. This will create clean Gantt charts and excel exports to be shared with others, while still allowing you to track the details separately."
— Joe Kern
Folder Privacy Tips
7. Stalk interesting tasks with Private Folders
"If you are a project manager or client manager, I've found it very useful to create your own folder with permissions only for you that you call "Follow up" or "Watch". Then you include all tasks that you need to keep an eye on in that folder. It might for instance be tasks that you are not responsible for, but still need to keep an eye on. Then you can also easily add a widget for this folder on the Dashboard and you can stay updated on what's happening with those tasks as well. In the widget, don't forget to include all statuses, otherwise completed tasks will disappear."
— Olle W. Strahle, Wolfgang strategic design agency
8. Respect sensitive HR issues with Private Folders
"We share everything with everyone, in order to make sure the various projects are as transparent as possible. However, sometimes you just don't want people others to know what you're discussing, especially with sensitive HR issues. For this, we've recommended our employees use a private folder, and for each sensitive/private discussion creating a task within this folder, just shared with the people who need to be involved."
— Name withheld, Environmental NGO
9. Sprint Folders save time spent on task management
"We have started using 'Sprint' folders, a folder where tasks from our various projects are dropped to show what we are working on now. Works great when you aren't in a mode to assign and maintain dates for every task."
— John Hansknecht, University of Detroit Jesuit
Folder Tags Tips
10. Forget Folder organization and just use Tags
"Once I realized that folders were like Tags on Evernote (or Gmail), the usefulness of having tasks in multiple folders expanded. Instead of having folders as the primary structure, now the tasks are the primary object, and I tag them with folders. We do a lot of task oriented bookkeeping work, and now I can have a task such as "2 items for bank reconciliation" tagged with the Client's job, the site visit, each person at the Client I need to meet with about it, and the work type. Following this, I use folders more liberally for events such as meetings. If I meet with someone about it, I can include the task in the meeting folder, then again later in a follow-up meeting folder. I can look back at that meeting folder next month and see what we talked about, and see the status of each tasks we discussed."
— David Prins, Mindful Financial accounting services
11. Track the physical location of objects with Folder Tags
"We started using Wrike for tracking Computer equipment. Create a differed task with title "Equipment ID - User's Name", the description has information on purchase date, special software, room located, links to drivers, etc. We then use folders to tag PC/Mac, Desktop/Laptop, Computer/Server/Printer, Department."
— Justin Rentmeester, University of Wisconsin
Apps & Integrations Tips
12. Wrike+Wufoo+Zapier = automation magic
"I just started using Wufoo+Zapier to bring tasks into Wrike, and I have to say my life just got so much easier. My team supports about 30 clients, with between 5 and 10 project requests a day. With Wufoo+Zapier, I can automate a larger percentage of the reoccurring projects, without having to manually forward project emails. So happy!"
— Joshua Van Horsen, Drury Hotels
We hope you learned something interesting from some of our more unique use cases. If you have your own special way of using Wrike, share your story with us in the comments below. We'd love to hear how you use Wrike to suit your work style.
Image Credit: Mary Margaret on Flickr. Some rights reserved. Changes made.
