Wrike Blog

  Ever left an important project meeting with a notepad or Wrike task full of notes, but no idea what the actions items are... or even where to begin? You're not alone. Here's a hint: your first step should be to create a project work plan.   .  But what is a project work plan, you ask? A project work plan allows you to outline the requirements of a project, project planning steps, goals, and team members involved in the project. This provides visibility to everyone involved, kee...

It's not often that the fastest way is also the best way, but thanks to Eric Verzuh, project managers can have the best of both worlds. Bestseller The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management pulls ideas from one of the masters in project management to deliver a comprehensive guide to succeeding in the industry — at top speed. Summary and Book Review of The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management Effective project management is essential in today's competitive business world. Taking p...

Planning and overseeing a project so that it’s completed on time, within budget, and meets expectations is not an easy feat. The best project managers know how to balance stakeholder communications with preventing scope creep, watch out for risk, and clarify roles, responsibilities, and priorities within their team. Steal some of the secrets to their success by using these 10 best practices in project management.  1. Communicate with stakeholders early and often This includes everyone...

If you think overseeing creative projects and supervising creative teams is the same as managing a project with software developers or a manufacturing crew, you may want to think again. Every group has its own quirks and unique concerns that must be taken into consideration if you're going to be an effective leader. Below are the three crucial keys to successfully managing a project with creatives: Creative project management requires empathy It needs outstanding communication sk...

In a perfect world, creatives would spend 100% of their time doing what they love: write, design, film, build, and create! However, this isn't the reality for most creatives. There are client requests, feedback, edits, and meetings on top of meetings. Some creatives don't even have enough time left to actually be creative. What's the solution to this? To be honest, there must be a change in perspective before there is a change in action. If creatives and clients continue to look at a job...

Visual timelines are essential tools for planning, tracking, and managing a project. You can map out dependencies and milestones to get an accurate overview of progress and deadlines. But while using these Gantt chart-style timelines for project management is fairly easy, creating one in Excel can be tricky. We'll walk you through the process of how to make a timeline in Excel and share a project schedule template you can reuse for future work. How to Create a Timeline in Excel  Step 1...

Looking for a way to quickly mass create Wrike folders and tasks and rename them easily? Here's a trick: use Microsoft Excel. One of the tips we mentioned in our blog post 4 Common Mistakes New Wrike Users Make, was to include the project name in the names of its subfolders. For example, under the "Client A" project folder you can have subfolders such as: "Client A Content," "Client A SEO," and "Client A Social." This way, any notifications that are sent will include the necessary con...

Freelancing has its perks: be your own boss, enjoy work flexibility, work in a private space with everything from the tilt of your desk to the room temperature and lighting exactly how you like it. What we can often overlook are the immense challenges that come with going it alone, especially as a freelance project manager. Finding work is only the beginning: the ebb and flow of your income, managing multiple deadlines that don’t inform each other, and making a mistake means fully owning...