TaskManagementGuide.Com Articles

Tools for doing a successful Research Project

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Whether you are a student or a qualified scientist you can face necessity to carry out a research project.No matter if your search project is dedicated to some serious scientific problem and big investments or you do it in order to graduate � anyway you need to manage it in a smart and careful way, so you or/and your workgroup can smoothly run through this process from planning to completion. Any research project refers to the collecting, selecting, processing, interpreting and reporting of information. Well-organized research project is actually a half-done project. One of your first steps towards successful research project is identifying of means, procedures or techniques that will be used to carry out this project in a logical, consistent and systematic way. There are hundreds of tips that explain how to conduct a successful project, but they rarely suggest tools for doing a successful research project and handling research information. Consider following software products as the tools for carrying out a research project both in collaborative and individual manner.

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan research tasks, set priorities and manage checklists. You can use this product as personal research project management tool that will help you to monitor your accomplishments, collect and organize information, documents, build personal schedules and much more.
VIP Task Manager is real-time teamwork research project management tool that allows you to manage research projects tasks, to control and analyze performance of scientific workgroup in order to identify its efficiency. With a help of this groupware you can set research roles, assign tasks, share scientific research schedules among team members, share documents and track project evolution.

To monitor Research Project within your workgroup do the following:

start your research project management tool
create research tasks for you and other team members
use Task Tree to break-down your projects into doable activities
plan timelines, costs and set priorities
assign tasks to performers
control research project evolution in terms of tasks completion, time and costs
organize project documents, notes and files
make a comparison between the estimated and actual outputs

Scientific and technical work management instruments

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

There are a lot of government and private organizations that manage scientific and technical work as a part of their day-to-day activities. Usually such work involves workgroups of qualified analysts, engineers, scientists of different professions, technical experts etc. Basically scientific and technical work is peculiar for companies and departments that are specialized in development of new products, all kinds of research, technical support and repair, quality improvement etc. therefore scientific and technical work is characterized by big amounts of information that should be handled and processed. Actually this kind of work may include collecting, organizing, selecting, processing, interpreting and reporting of information. Normally scientific and technical work is performed according to defined processes, so all work can be performed with minimal time response and minimal efforts. As far as scientific and technical work in many respects is collaboration- and process-oriented it can be easily managed with a help of specific software.�

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan your scientific and technical work, set priorities and manage checklists. You can use this product as personal work management instrument that will help you to control your accomplishments, collect and organize information, documents, build personal tasks schedules and much more.
VIP Task Manager is real-time teamwork scientific and technical work instrument that allows you to manage scientific and technical work processes, to control and analyze performance of scientific/technical workgroup in order to identify its efficiency. With a help of this groupware you can set working roles, assign tasks, share scientific and technical schedules among team members, share documents and track project evolution.

To manage scientific and technical work you need to do the following:

start your scientific and technical work instrument
create working tasks for you and other team members
use Task Tree to create project break-down structure
plan timelines, costs and set priorities, assign tasks to performers
control scientific and technical work evolution in terms of tasks completion, time and costs
organize working documents, notes and files

Performance Activator for your company personnel

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Many of enterprise managers seek for some magic performance activator that can make their employees more effective and productive. There are a lot of various business trainers and theorists that have made a fortune by giving lectures and selling books on the subject of activating and mobilizing your personnel. If you are sure that your team can work better and some part of its potential is still hidden you should seriously consider a lot of different factors that influence your teamwork in order to realize hidden opportunities. Perhaps there is no universal performance activator that will solve all problems, but you should consistently experiment with leadership, monetary and moral incentives, working climate and many other things. The good basis for any development is the transparency and maybe this is one of the real performance activators that you should use � basically start from transparency of work planning, tracking and controlling because this is what can really play a part of performance activator.
VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan tasks, set priorities and manage checklists. You can use this product as personal performance activator that will stimulate you to achieve your goals, meet your plans and track how well you perform your schedules.
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to manage business and projects tasks, to control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this group performance activator you can share business and project schedules among team members and improve team performance.

To activate performance of your team do the following:

start your performance activator
create tasks for you and your employees
use Task Tree to break-down your projects into doable activities
plan timelines and set priorities
assign tasks to performers
control project evolution in terms of tasks, time and costs

Ideas capturing tool � how to make your thoughts and actions consistent

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Ideas capturing tool is what can be really useful when we want to analyze our flow of thoughts in order to find some helpful ideas that can easily slip our mind next moment so we need to record them promptly. The simplest ideas capturing tool is just a piece of paper that we can use to write �down our ideas. This way of making notes is convinient when we need to make quick notes on the fly but in prospect it is not effective. According to getting things done theory of David Allen you should avoid mistaken including of projects (tasks that require more than just one activity to be done) instead of small doable activities into your to do list. This is really great idea because only in that way we can actually know what we should do step-by-step and this allows making our to-do lists really effective. However, this method may require collection of ideas for your next projects or next actions and for this purpose the ideas capture tool is necessary. The advisable way to manage your tasks according to GTD method is to use software. You can collect your ideas during the day by writing them down into your notebook, but then you can enter your ideas into software (create a special list of tasks and project which you would like to perform some day), so all your prospective and current tasks will be included into one consistent system.�

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan activities, set priorities and manage checklists. You can use this product as a personal ideas capturing tool for tracking your ideas, accomplishments, setting goals and planning how to achieve them.�
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to manage business and projects tasks, to control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this tool you can capture ideas of your team members, customers, partners etc. Use this tool to capture some good ideas and then to manage their realization.

To capture ideas and manage their realization you should do the following:

start your ideas capture tool
create task group "Ideas" and enter there all prospective ideas you have collected during the day
use Task Tree to break-down your projects into activities
assign tasks to performers
plan timelines, set priorities, plan costs
control work performance results in terms of tasks completion, time and costs

Incentives Management � how to use special tool to detect who deserves a reward

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Incentives management is an essential part of managerial activities within modern enterprises. �Incentives is proper way to stimulate your team to work better. Both remunerative incentives and moral incentives are good for this, because rewards and recognition are instruments that allow employees to feel themselves appreciated and satisfied with the jobs they do. The general rule is that you should motivate your managers with monetary incentives tied to their individual success.In other words one of the tasks of incentives management is to measure success of employees so they can be fairly rewarded. The natural way to measure success of employees is making comparison between planned and actual results. For example incentives management can be interested in measuring of income gained by each manager or to know if performers forestall the project schedule. Such analysis and much more can be easily done with a help of work controlling software.

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan tasks, set priorities and manage checklists. You can use this product as a personal incentives management tool for tracking your accomplishments, rewarding and stimulating yourself to achieve new goals and meet your plans.
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to manage business and projects tasks, to control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency to find who deserves the reward for good results. With a help of this group performance management tool you can control productivity of your employees, share business and project schedules among team members.

To plan and track performance of your team do the following:

start your performance management software
use Task Tree to break-down your projects into activities
assign tasks to performers
plan timelines, set priorities, plan costs
control work performance results in terms of tasks completion, time and costs

� When you are delegated a task, think if you are able to accomplish it

Business case histories � tools that help you to study history of your business cases

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The proverb: "live a century - learn a century" is correct for business case histories. This is even more essential for business managers who aim to real improvement of their businesses. Each business or project "amasses experience" during its life. This experience includes histories of cases that refer to various fields of company life. Business cases history is a kind of "capital" that company collects during its functioning, but in many respects it is the most important capital, because it is the basis for unceasing improvement. Business managers should thoroughly research and document both typical and unique business cases that company and personnel face. These cases can be related to relationships with clients, partners, suppliers etc, to marketing, to operational practice and so on. Business case histories belong to the company�s experience portfolio that should be properly organized and studied so then it will be easy to learn any business case that happened before in order to identify problems, research previous experience and find correct decision. 
 <a href="http://www.todolistsoft.com/organizer/?r1=tmg&;r2=txt3&r3=org">VIP Organizer</a> is individual task list manager that allows you to plan tasks, set priorities and manage checklists. You can use this product for tracking your accomplishments, researching your life cases and improving yourself. 
 <a href="http://www.taskmanagementsoft.com/products/taskmanagerpro/?r1=tmg&;r2=txt3&r3=tm">VIP Task Manager</a> is teamwork management groupware that allows you to manage business and projects tasks, to control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this group performance management tool you can control productivity of your employees, make project notes, make notes about business cases, archive and research executed work, track and study history of tasks.
 <div id="adv2_left">
 To manage work cases of your team do the following: 
 <ul type="disc">
 <li>start your business management software </li>
 <li>use Task Tree to break-down your projects into tasks</li>
 <li>assign tasks to performers</li>
 <li>plan timelines, set priorities, plan costs</li>
 <li>control work performance results in terms of tasks completion, time and costs </li>
 <li>capture project evolution by making regular reports and tracking of tasks history</li>
 </ul>
 <h3>See also:</h3>
<a href="/reporting-tasks/easy-and-quick-report-on-particular-tasks.php" title="Easy and quick report on particular tasks">Easy and quick report on particular tasks</a></div>

Project condition monitoring tool � tasks completion, time tracking, results

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Project is like a machine that consists of separate details which only together can produce an output. This project machine includes different important details such as workgroup members, managers, tasks, processes, procedures, organizational and managerial features etc. All these details should be properly adjusted, configured and installed in order to collaborate with highest possible effectiveness. As any other machine the project requires condition monitoring to ensure its best operating and output. Project condition monitoring is a complex method to scan the details of the project and to define how well they work and collaborate. Project condition monitoring includes controlling of working process � monitoring project evolution in terms of separate tasks completion, meeting schedules, meeting estimated costs etc. Other side of project condition monitoring is analyzing of team members' individual and common efficiency - researching individual and team productivity, learning work results, scanning issues and quality etc. This complex project condition monitoring process can be facilitated by special software for monitoring of all mentioned factors.

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan tasks, set priorities and manage checklists. You can use this product as personal project management tool that will help you to monitor your accomplishments, personal schedules and much more.
VIP Task Manager is real teamwork project condition monitoring tool that allows you to manage business and projects tasks, to control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this groupware you can set roles, assign tasks, share business and project schedules among team members, share documents and track project evolution.

To monitor accomplishments of your team do the following:

start your project condition monitoring tool
create tasks for you and your employees
use Task Tree to break-down your projects into doable activities
plan timelines, costs and set priorities
assign tasks to performers
control project evolution in terms of tasks completion, time and costs
make a comparison between the estimated and actual outputs

� When you are delegated a task, think if you are able to accomplish it

How to use Cheat Sheets in your daily work?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Cheatsheets may appear very useful tool in the case when you have some irregular situation at your work. Sometimes when we work with abundance of terms, commands, symbols, instructions etc. we may need to know definition and purpose of each one at any moment, so we need tool that can provide us with necessary information, because we cannot fully rely on our memory. Cheat sheets are used to help you remember information that is used from time to time in your workflow. �Competently prepared cheat sheet can provide great support to your memory in any intricate situation. Such cheat sheet should contain summarized information that you may need at some moments, but it is not necessarily to have memorized all this data. You can use just a sheet of paper to create simplest cheat sheet, but the better way (if you use computer) is to use some software. For example you can use task management software both for managing tasks and for making effective cheat sheets.

You can use VIP Organizer that is individual task list manager that allows you to plan time, control priorities, to create checklists and effective cheat sheets. With its help you can create list of tasks that represent terms you need to use, add necessary information to notes and attach to tasks documents with full definitions and details.
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to plan time and tasks, control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this software you can create quick cheat sheets and share them with your team members.

To create cheat sheet do the following:

start you task management application
create new tasks and enter names of your matters (terms, commands, symbols, instructions, documents etc.)
enter quick definitions to Notes sections
attach documents with more details to each task (if required)
use Search function (VIP Organizer) and Filters (VIP Organizer and VIP Task Manager) to search matters by names and details
use special hyperlinks to quickly open required documents with more details

How to correctly break down goal-achievement into specific steps?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Often when we create action plans we make a lot of mistakes and as a result we get cumbersome and unclear plan that cause completely demotivating effect. To avoid this situation you need to examine your action plan according to the following tips. First of all you need to make sure that all steps in your action plan start with action verb. In this way you will better feel what you actually should do on this step and "active" name will stimulate you to act! For example it is better to use name such as "Step 1: Go to cafeteria to buy a dinner", instead of "Step 1: Dinner-time". Also avoid long sentences. Then make sure that you don�t go into too many details. Avoid breaking down your plan into micro-actions that are not really essential. Include into your action list only tasks that are directly connected to goal-achievement. Next you should ensure that your tasks are specific and short enough � tasks should not be too complex and long. If you have such tasks consider breaking them down into more specific and clear actions.
VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan tasks, set priorities and manage checklists. With its help you can create good goal-achievement plans and track how well you perform your schedules.
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to manage business and projects tasks, to control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this software you can share goal-achievement plans among team members and improve team performance.

Action plan

To manage goal-achievement and project plans do the following:

start you task management application
create your tasks
use Task Tree to break-down your projects
plan timelines and set priorities
assign tasks to performers
control project evolution in terms of tasks, time and costs

Define tasks that deserve to be put off for 'the last minutes'

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Usually postponing tasks "to the last minutes" of the project is considered as a bad practice that can cause procrastination, but you need to remember that some of your tasks just should be put off for the last minutes because of their specificity. You should learn to clearly distinguish tasks that can grow larger if you let them stay on the list and tasks that it is advisably to postpone until good moment. Of course, your ability to distinguish such tasks is defined by your specific professional experience, but there are several features that may fully or partially characterize tasks that can/should be put off:

Such tasks can be very important, but they are not urgent.
Such tasks do not generate or accumulate problems while staying unfulfilled.
Details of such tasks depend on changeable circumstances that can change many times before deadline of the project.
Quality of fulfillment of such tasks depends on certain experience that can be gained only closer to deadlines of the project.

VIP Organizer is individual task manager that allows you to plan, categorize and prioritize your tasks and appointments, to manage checklists and personal projects. This software will help you to control your time, personal project deadlines and see what tasks you have put off.
VIP Task Manager is team management groupware that allows you to plan individual and company tasks, to manage and share work schedules, to control priorities and productivity, to monitor performance in real-time regime and to analyze efficiency of teamwork. This software will help you and your project team to review what tasks are postponed closer to deadlines.

Action plan

To manage your tasks you need to do the following:

start you project organizing application
plan your project appointments and tasks
create your activity schedule for day, week or month
set priorities and details
decide what tasks deserve to be put off
change deadlines of the tasks and set reminders
control your and your team�s performance and productivity

How to become an Achiever

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

There are a lot of things that prevent us from being effective with our time and attaining our goals. To become real achievers we need to understand several simple things and then aim to implement them on practice. Probably one of the most harmful things is our bad habits that kill our time and sabotage our goals. Honestly identify what can be considered as bad habits in your life and try to systematically reduce them. The best way to eliminate a bad habit - is to replace it with a better habit. Remember that "to be efficient" doesn't always mean "to be productive". If we are just busy and getting some things done we can feel deceptive content, but this doesn't mean that we achieve anything significant. Besides we need to avoid perfectionism, because there are a lot of tasks that do not require our best efforts. Learn to understand what tasks deserve to be done excellently and what tasks should not take any more than a few minutes of your time.

VIP Organizer is individual task manager that allows you to plan, categorize and prioritize your tasks and appointments, to manage checklists and personal projects. This software will help you to control your time and become the real achiever.
VIP Task Manager is team management groupware that allows you to plan individual and company tasks, to manage and share work schedules, priorities, to increase productivity, to control performance in real-time regime and to analyze efficiency of teamwork. This software will help each member of your project or business team to become the real achievers.

To manage your tasks you need to do the following:

start you time organizing application
plan your appointments and tasks
create your activity schedule for day, week or month
set priorities
use Calendar mode of VIP Task Manager to review your schedule
control your and your team's performance and productivity

What to do if you don�t like your task because it is unpleasant or boring?

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Very often we face tasks that do not seem pleasant or fun for us, but anyway we have to perform these tasks.� First of all you should ask yourself "why" you actually need to do certain task and what prevents you from doing this task with pleasure. Define task results and make sure that task is not irrelevant to your main goals, to your core values etc. (in other words make sure that results are really needful or important for you). The best way to perform boring or unpleasant task is focusing on benefits that successful performance of this task can bring you. Clear understanding of why you have to do this will stimulate and motivate you! For example you are not over-enthusiastic about cleaning at home, but you actually like to live in cleanness, because it is pleasant and it is good for your health. So think about this and contribute a little bit of your time and efforts into achievement of desirable goal!
VIP Organizer is individual task manager that allows you to plan, categorize and prioritize your tasks and appointments, to manage checklists and personal projects. This software will help you to control your time, to keep diary of activities and see what boring and entertaining tasks you have in your schedule.
VIP Task Manager is team management groupware that allows you to plan individual and company tasks, to manage and share work schedules, to control priorities and productivity, to monitor performance in real-time regime and to analyze efficiency of teamwork. This software will help you to motivate your project team and make them aware of what tasks and why they have to do.

To manage your tasks you need to do the following:

start you time organizing application
plan your personal/team appointments and tasks
create activities/work schedule for day, week or month
set priorities and details
control your and your team's performance and productivity

Be flexible with your goals - do not completely change them, try rather to modify

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes goals that we were trying to achieve for a certain time may become just unnecessary because of some life circumstances. When such situation happens we may behave counter-productive: we regret our wasted time, feel disappointment, abandon things that we have already done and start pursuing some other goals. This is a wrong approach, because in this way we probably would not achieve any goals. Usually life requires flexible thinking from us and likewise we should be flexible with our goals. We should remember about energy and time we spent to make progress towards old goal and we should not give up, because goal that seems to be useless now can appear really essential as a part of new plan. Instead of canceling, we need to modify our old goals according to new circumstances. If it is still possible to achieve old goal you should consider all benefits that it can bring and decide if it is expedient to proceed (perhaps this goal can bring you some new opportunities or it can just become a step towards a new better goal), also consider benefits and experience that you have already gained (remember that there is no useless experience).

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan time, control priorities and create checklists. With its help you can set and review your goals, plan achievement and modify goals according to new circumstances.
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to set business and projects goals, plan time and tasks, control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this software you can range your business goals and objectives, plan achievement and modify plans according to new circumstances.

Action plan

To manage your objectives and tasks do the following:

start you task management application
set your goals and tasks
set timelines and priorities
consider benefits
create and control action plans

Keep the records of office life in a digital archive

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

There are many reasons to digitize records of office work and securely store them in a digital archive. For example, the reasons may be as following:

To preserve the records from ageing and damaging
To make several duplicates that can be stored in separate safe places
To synchronize the records with digital organizers and task managers
To provide sharable and secure access to documents in digital format

For an office manager the question of keeping documents in digital format is vital since he can review the history of office work and track document flow. Besides, if using an office task organizer, the digital archive will server as a task history database or a document repository. The office manager will combine the digital archive and the office task organizer to get a universal, digitalized task and document management tool for office administration.

As a great example of this tool, VIP Task Manager provides the office manager with flexible task management and document archiving options.VIP Task Manager is an office activity management program that allows to manage office tasks, organize electronic document flow and keep all tasks and related documentation in the digital archive. To move tasks to the digital archive, you can use Archive Mode in VIP Task Manager. In this mode all information is securely stored and protected by Permissions settings, so only the manager or an authorized person is able to access information.VIP Task Manager creates a single office database on local or dedicated server in the Internet, so the manager can enter the digital archive from a remote computer which has LAN/ Internet connection.

Action plan:

Run VIP Task Manager
To switch Archive Mode on, go to File � Archive Mode
To move a task or task� list to the digital archive, choose the task, right-click on it and select �Move to archive� item
Use Filter Panel in Achieve Mode to find any task by attributes (ID, Name, Status, Resource, etc.)
Any document can be attached to tasks and then moved together to the digital archive

Make task expense report to calculate expenses per task and total task list expenses

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Task expense report helps with the financial analysis in a company.� It lets analyze expenses per task per assignment and review common task list expenses in the chronological order. �A typical structure of task expense report consists of three main task columns:

Budget
Actual
Variance

For accountants such a structure of task expense list is useful as it allows to track budgeted resources and get variance between the actual expenses and the budget. The structure is a convenient source of comprehensive information on the tasks as task expense report shows scheduled time and assignment per task.

To build the task expense report, you can use VIP Task Manager. This task and time management software allows to create a structure of task expense report and export it to Excel/HTML file. The Custom Field functionality allows to create the three main columns of the report. All information in the task list can be denied or allowed to be viewed/edited/created by a user. Task expense report can be sent by accountant to financial manager through e-mail.

Action plan:

Start VIP Task Manager Professional
In Task Tree View, create a tree-like structure for the report. Use Permissions Panel to allow or deny employees to access the report
Use Custom Fields feature to add three new task columns: 'Budget', 'Actual', and 'Variance'
Use 'Export to HTML/Excel' option to send task expense report to Excel or HTML file (shown on the screenshot)

Finding optimal team size

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

If you are a team leader or a manager, you probably faced the issue of selecting team members and finding optimal team size. When it comes to the ideal size of a team, we try to find a balance between the number of team members and the number of outstanding tasks. Based on the observations of researchers who study well-functioning teams, the optimal team size may have five persons plus a team leader. Five is the common number which is based on the studies around employee communications and team structures. For example, Scrum recommends the team size to be 5-7. Another researches related to the Parkinson's Law suggested that the optimal team size is below 10 except for 8. All teams or subgroups which have above 10 persons in their structure will face a natural digression and no consensus will be found. When the team consists of 8 members, people usually face decision-making issues and deadlocks.

So the optimal team size is the number between 5 and 7. Now you need to build such a team or divide existing team into several subgroups of 5-7 members. VIP Task Manager will help cope with it. This is teamware designed to manage single-team projects as well as multi-team projects. By using VIP Task Manager, you can create roles and set permissions for the team members and assign tasks according to the duties of each team member. If your project has several teams (subgroups), you can appoint supervisors per team by using Watch List. This capability will let you efficiently manage performance and project tasks between the subgroups.

Action plan:

Launch VIP Task Manager Professional
In Task Tree View you can create a tree-like structure for the projects. Use Permissions Panel to allow or deny team members' access to the projects
Use Roles panel to create permissions for each subgroup. For example, you can create such roles as 'Subgroup 1', 'Subgroup 2', etc.
Use Scheduler view to schedule tasks and to-do lists
Use Watch List tab to assign supervisors to subgroups.

�Set the list of responsibilities for each position of your staff

Manage your enterprise at the highest level by using enterprise level software

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Any enterprise that uses an enterprise level software solution can focus on the alignment of real enterprise's capabilities and business requirements. Enterprise level software enables to implement a systematic approach to planning, creating, doing and supporting critical tasks and processes. Advanced versions of enterprise level software allow managers to proactively control, monitor and remediate the enterprise's functioning. Software embraces the whole enterprise and detects issues on each business level, so its capabilities of primary cause analysis enable the issues to be identified in advance and corrected for the long term. The complex approach on enterprise management allows to avert appearance of imbalance and improper allocation of resources.

With help of VIP Task Manager, which is a good example of enterprise level software, you can get your enterprise well-managed and out of uncontrolled environment.VIP Task Manager is a network, server-based application that allows collaborating with each business unit, department or employee online and managing the enterprise at the highest level. The software creates common corporate database with a possibility to access information through personal login name and password.VIP Task Manager allows to implement rules of line management and create a group of supervisors who will be assigned to a set of definite responsibilities and subordinated to a manager.

Action plan:

Run VIP Task Manager
In Task Tree view you can create a hierarchical view structure of your company. The structure will be divided into categories and subcategories
In Resource List view you can add users who will access the corporate database by using log-in name and password
Use Roles panel and Permissions panel to set user's privileges
Use Watch List tab to assign a supervisor to a task

Set the list of responsibilities for each position of your staff

A unified team management platform

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Those companies which run multiple projects feel a strong need to control their project teams by using a unified team management platform. Such a platform is like a central dashboard that gives universal opportunities to manage, run, control and track the projects. The team leader will be able to track each phase of a project and coordinate actions of the team members, making the project course smooth and actions synchronized. The team members will be able to get accurate tasks to do and execute their duties per task as scheduled. The unified team management platform is a real opportunity to put the project in accordance with the project plan. It allows to schedule tasks, compare actual characteristics with planned values, and make analyses of the actions done by using reports.

To get this opportunity realized, you can implement VIP Task Manager into project management of your company.VIP Task Manager is a unified team management platform that creates server-client connections for team collaboration and information interchange. You can use LAN or/and Internet to collaborate with the team members and manage their actions from a single dashboard. VIP Task Manager allows to run multiple projects and manage several teams at once by allocating managerial duties between supervisors. So team management becomes more effective and projects become more feasible.

Action plan:

Launch VIP Task Manager Professional
In Task Tree View you can create a tree-like structure for the projects. Use Permissions Panel to allow or deny team members' access to the projects
Use Calendar View to schedule and print out the tasks and to-do lists
If you need to send task lists to remote team members, you can use �Sending tasks by e-mail' function. There is also e-mail notifications to track task statuses, so you can use your mobile phone or pocket PC to be aware of ongoing changes in the projects
Use Watch List tab to assign supervisors to a task.

Do you use a work practice control program to manage your people?

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Work practice control is a set of precautionary procedures and measures that reduce the risk of failure at the workflow by altering the ways in which a task is performed. Examples of work practice control can be the following measures: real-time monitoring of task progress, analyzing monthly reports, setting task reminders and e-mail sending notifications, communicating with employees online, using charts and diagrams, etc. There are special work practice control programs to get work practice control realized. An office or department manager can use such programs to create an effective and transparent workflow where each task is monitored, checked and verified by a supervisor or a responsible person.

VIP Task Manager provides functionality to manage workflow and control work practice. This program allows to collaborate and communicate in real time by providing client-server online connection.VIP Task Manager is simple in use and has a user-friendly interface. The manager can use e-mail notifications, reminders, charts, reports, filters, resource list, and other features of VIP Task Manager to control, track and analyze workflow and its separate tasks.

Action plan:

Run VIP Task Manager
Use Task List view to filter and sort task lists. There you can create column layouts to simplify tracking of tasks
Use e-mail and pop-up notifications to send alerts to assigned employees
Use task Watch List to assign supervisors
Regularly use Report builder and Charts panel to create text and visual reports

Easily organize office entertainment and corporate holidays by using entertainment organizer

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Entertainment organizer is a special kind of event management program which is designed to provide a manager with tools and abilities to organize holidays and parties at the office. Besides proper organizing of office workflow and providing daily task management, any office manager should also remember about necessity to arrange corporate parties and special events (birthdays, anniversaries, religious holidays, etc.). A well-organized event at the office becomes a good basis to maintain office environment and deepen communications between colleagues.

With help of VIP Task Manager, office entertainment can be organized in an effective manner.VIP Task Manager is an entertainment organizer software product that has task management functionality to arrange, schedule and manage events at the office.VIP Task Manager has built-in e-mail and pop-up reminders to alert about upcoming events. The office manager can use priorities and due dates to plan corporate events. The Custom Fields function allows calculating budget for each event as well as making total cost calculation of the office events.

Action plan:

Launch VIP Task Manager Professional
In Task Tree View you can create a tree-like structure for office events. For example, in task group �Birthdays� you can input tasks associated with the birthdays of the office employees. In task group �Corporate� you can add tasks related to the corporate events.
Use Due date and Priority to plan entertainment
Always set pop-up/e-mail reminders to avoid missed events
Use Custom Fields function to create event budget

Manage your business expenses efficiently with business cost calculator

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Business cost calculator is a digital tool, often a built-in module of task management software, which helps identify and calculate the costs per task per employee. It provides an automated and convenient way for measuring costs on business by using a task-based cost calculating methodology. As a composite module of task management software, business cost calculator allows to verify costs spent on a task by an employee within a definite period of time. For a manager or accountant this tool brings sufficient information for decision-making; for example, whether there is a necessity to re-finance a project or to re-allocate a budget.

The calculation tools of VIP Task Manager and its task management capabilities allow to apply business cost calculator to manage your business expenses per task per employee. In this software you can create task lists and assess each task by using Custom Fields. For example, you can add new custom fields 'Cost', 'Budget' and 'Difference' to the task list. For each custom field you can set Name, units (USD, Pounds, Euros), number of digits after coma (100,00 USD), and a formula.

Action plan:

Launch VIP Task Manager Professional
In Task Tree View create task lists
Go to Tools � Custom Field and add new columns ('Price', 'Budget', 'Sponsored', 'Spent', etc.)
Use formula to specify any custom field with special calculation way (e.g. the difference between 'Budget' and 'Spent' gives amount of money left)

Get office work tracked by using office work tracker

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The overall aim of the office work tracker is to support the management of changes in office workflow with help of intelligent task management, work scheduling and tracking technologies. The office work tracker is a special kind of office management software that provides this support in a realistic business environment and creates real time communications between office employees. As an office manager, you can use the software to organize office workflow, coordinate tasks of office employees and track the work progress. You will get direct control over the tasks and the dynamic tracking tools to support the tasks, making office workflow feasible and explicit.

The use of the office work tracker likeVIP Task Manager will bring all necessary tools to make office work effective.VIP Task Manager is a teamware product that provides the explicit management of tasks and the use of tracking technologies to allow office employees to contribute to common office workflow. This teamware has good task management tools, allowing you to track and analyze tasks. For example, Notifications Panel is a tracking tool that sends pop-up notifications to system tray or/and e-mail address. There is also Task List view with filters and layouts that allows to track tasks of each employee as well as common office work in real time.

Action plan:

Run VIP Task Manager
In Task List view you can use Filter Bar and Layouts to track tasks of office employees
Use Notifications panel to get pop-up alerts at the system tray. You can also receive notifications by email
Use Watch list to assign office supervisors
Regularly use Report builder and Charts panel to create text and visual reports

Are you looking for a collaborative multi-enterprise workflow management system?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

High business standards and close economic connections between separate enterprises or divisions of a holding company require implementation of a collaborative multi-enterprise workflow management system that allows to create a unified business environment to manage collaboration and workflow. By using such a system, the business units can coordinate tasks and synchronize actions to fulfill orders on time, avoid delays in deliveries, optimize operation schedules, and minimize downtime costs. The system stores all information for workflow management in common database file, and a plurality of enterprises can be managed through task management and resource assignment from a single center. If you are looking for the system described above, then try VIP Task Manager.

A multi-enterprise workflow management system 'VIP Task Manager Professional' can be distributed around the business units which are enterprises. This system provides collaborative workflow through built-in Workflow Editor, allowing to adjust the business workflow according to specific needs of enterprises. For example, to manage tasks related to sales process, the manager can create the 'Sales process' workflow and specify it with such task statuses as 'Created', 'Paid', 'Dispatched', 'Cancelled', 'Sold' and 'In Stock'. Each task status lets understand the stage of selling process. The seller and buyer can use VIP Task Manager as a collaborative workflow management tool for multiple enterprises to manage and synchronize the tasks of staff members who are responsible for ordering, paying, shipping, tracking, delivering, and warehousing of goods.

Action plan:

Run VIP Task Manager
Go to 'Tool' - 'Custom Workflow' to create new workflow types
Use Resource List view to add employees of the enterprises to multi-enterprise database. Permissions panel will allow you to manage employee access to information in the database
As a manager or supervisor you can assign and track tasks in real time. You can use 'Comments' and 'Notes' task fields to communicate with employees of the enterprises and leave recommendations/directives on the fulfilment of current orders.

Note:VIP Task Manager stores the database file on a server machine (or a regular PC) so make sure the enterprises can connect to the server through Internet or/and LANSet the list of responsibilities for each position of your staff

Set your goals rather in positive, than in negative context

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Setting goal is a square one for your any affair or work. Incorrectly defined goal can direct you to wrong way and you will not be able to achieve positive result. There are a lot of rules that were elaborated to help us with goal setting. One of the most important rules says that you should see your goals and plan your future in positive way, not negative. In other words you should make sure that your goal is rather something that you want to achieve than something you want to avoid. For example your goal should not be like: "I completely hate this job and I will not stay here for next two years", instead of this, your goal should be defined in such way: "I will improve my professional skills and qualififcation, so I will get a better job in the nearest two years". This rule is simple, but it has potential to cardinally change your life in positive way.

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan time, control priorities and create checklists. With its help you can set and review your goals, create achievement plans and learn to manage your life in positive manner.
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to set business and projects goals, plan time and tasks, control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this software your can range you professional goals and objectives, plan achievement schedule and manage your business activities in positive context.

Action plan:

To manage your objectives in positive manner do the following:

start you task planning application
set your goals and tasks in positive manner
create action schedule
prioritize your schedule
set timelines and track progress

How to overcome indecision and select right solution?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Often we have to make decisions and sometimes it can be a very stressful process, because we suffer from indecision. Usually we hesitate because of variety of alternatives � we know: if we make certain decision we will get certain result and if we can get completely another result, so which one is better? The more alternatives we see (especially if alternatives are equal) the more time we spend for making decision. First of all we need to get clear with our alternatives, perhaps we even not sure about what we really want. First of all ask yourself these questions:�

Am I clear with my goals? (What I want to get by making this decision?)
Have I examined all alternatives?
Have I considered potential risks?

If you are clear with these questions and you have two or several equal worthy alternatives you can ask yourself the following key question: What new opportunities I might gain from each one of my alternative decisions? In order to overcome indecision you should consider selecting of alternative that can provide more opportunities!

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan time, control priorities and create checklists. With its help you can set and review your goals, list alternatives and potential risks, create achievement plans and learn to make right decisions.
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to set business and projects goals, plan time and tasks, control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. With a help of this software your can range you business goals and objectives, list alternatives and potential risks, manage achievement schedules and learn to make right business decisions.

To manage your objectives and tasks do the following:

start you task management application
set your goals and tasks
list alternatives and risks
consider them and get right decision
create and control action plans

How to successfully plan out a corporate event?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

It�s quite a natural thing when companies, especially large corporations, invest their money to hold regular corporate events with purpose to boost up their awareness, to strengthen corporate image and to deepen corporate culture. Success of any corporate event depends on how it was planned out. Any business owner or manager understands that event planning requires money as well as organizing abilities of staff members responsible for planning it. A well-planned corporate event leaves a memorable experience for the guests, helps increase the company goodwill, attracts new partners and investors, etc. One of the key points in organizing corporate events is to use proper event management software that helps implement organizing abilities and skills of the engaged employees.

The purpose of such software is to provide the employees with the tools that enable event scheduling, task planning, resource assignment, task tracking, process monitoring and task reporting. A great example of the software is VIP Task Manager. It supposes to use task management and time management tools for organizing corporate events. Task Tree view will help you create a coherent group structure that shows stages of the corporate event. This view is perfect for global task planning and resource assignment. To schedule events by week, day, hour or even minute, you can use Calendar view. It displays all tasks related to the corporate event in common scheduler, so you can track all assignments through single screen.VIP Task Manager is a groupware so you can share event calendars and tasks between all engaged employees.

Action plan

Run VIP Task Manager
Use Task Tree view to create the event structure. Use Resource Assignment panel and Watch list to assign tasks to the employees and to appoint supervisors
Use Permission panel to configure employee access to the tasks and task groups in the structure
In Calendar view you can switch events between monthly, weekly and daily views.

Get your work simpler with work simplification software

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Work simplification has saved billions of dollars through providing efficiency for companies, which are focused on their people, and given instruments for further improvements. A modern enterprise run processes which change so fast that many managers have failed to stick to the changes. Often changes in the processes are undocumented, and it creates higher complexity. The workflow becomes complicated, unmanageable and hardly trackable. The simple and effective tools of work simplification provide solutions to keep up the workflow, control every existing process and detect any changes occurred at the workflow.

A great example of work simplification software is VIP Task Manager. This program creates collaborative task management and real-time workflow control.VIP Task Manager allows to immediately react to changes at the workflow. The manager can track tasks of the workflow and monitor the work progress. Any change occurred during the working process will be detected by the manager.VIP Task Manager keeps all history of changes giving the manager more options for better task analyzing and tracking.

Action plan

Run VIP Task Manager
Use Custom Workflow Editor to specify a workflow or create a new one
Use Notifications panel to track changes
Use Attachment panel and Notes panel to document tasks
Regularly use Report builder and Charts panel to create text and visual reports

Human expenses management: treat your human resource as expenses rather than resources

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Human expenses management lets you look at employee management from a new side. There is a new vision in enterprise management theory stating that human resources are not actually resources but expenses. Over the past decade, the glamour of electronics has convinced many companies to treat their people as expenses. For those companies in which managers believe that their employees are the most valuable asset, the new vision tools of human expenses management are still available and important. The charts are the lifeblood of the new vision. Charts guide the managers how to properly spend money on employee management basing on the completed tasks and jobs. For example, the line chart can show the process progress which includes a set of tasks. Each task has some expenses needed to stimulate an employee to do it.

To put human expenses management into practice, the companies can use VIP Task Manager. It allows to create custom workflows and build the line charts to track the progress of processes.VIP Task Manager provides a real-time control over the workflow so the managers can do immediate analysis of the workflow. Custom fields help to account costs spent per task per employee. The Chart panel allows to build diagrams to visually track individual and total expenses.

Action plan:

Start VIP Task Manager
Use Filter bar and Notifications panel to track tasks and expenses of your employees
Use Chat panel to build Line diagrams
Create a custom workflow through using Workflow Editor

Set the list of responsibilities for each position of your staff

Fighting a mess in your business by using a multi-task journal

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Live business practice shows that utilizing of a multi-task journal can be advantageous in terms of higher performance and lessened number of downtimes. An approach to multi-task management, which is based on minimization of the number of engaged employees, improvement of their productivity, and regulation of workload, is opposite to single-task management techniques. The approach is carried out by the multi-task journal � a tool that allows to model the relation between tasks and resource assignments in terms of planning, scheduling, tracking and reporting. In a company, this approach results in matching the number of employees and their qualification to the number and difficulty of the tasks. In other words, a manager can assign multiple task lists to an employee while being assured that this assignment is optimal and aligned with the skills and abilities of the employee. In such a way the company will fight any disorder in its activities, save money and optimize workload.

To build the multi-task journals in your company, you can use VIP Task Manager. This is task management and resource assignment software based on client-server technologies. Your multi-task journal may include task lists, schedules, task-related attachments (files and links), specific directives and recommendations, history log and alerts. VIP Task Manager allows to share the multi-task journals and assign supervisors who are responsible for tracking feasibility of the journals.

To create and manage the multi-task journal, do the following action list:

Run VIP Task Manager
Go to Task Tree view. Here you can create groups, sub-groups and tasks for the journal. Use 'Permissions' panel to share/restrict employee access to the journal
To assign a supervisor to the tasks in the journal, use 'Watch List' tab
Calendar view will help you schedule the tasks
Use 'Attachment' panel to enclose files and links to the tasks in the journal

Use 'Comments' panel and 'Notes' panel to specify the tasks with directives and recommendations

Set the list of responsibilities for each position of your staff

Make collaboration easier with team task viewer

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Anyone who has ever been engaged in collaborative working in a team can tell what a nightmare the team collaboration can be without a team task viewer. Tasks are sent to improper employees; team members cannot communicate to each other; delays in reporting are long; a team leader cannot view current progress of tasks; the project becomes too expensive because efforts are utilized inefficiently; etc. This list of negative impacts is just a portion of the issue which is called 'poor collaboration'. The companies lose their profits and the teams lose their focus as there is no collaborative mechanism to prevent misunderstandings and coordinate smooth communications.

To find and introduce such a team task viewer collaborative mechanism into your team, you can try VIP Task Manager. This teamware is a server/client based program and designed to manage multiple task lists and projects which have lost of people engaged. The collaborative mechanism of VIP Task Manager allows to communicate with team members in real time. The task status and project progress are fully trackable by the team leader. He can receive pop-up and e-mail notifications as well as watch tasks in real time. The VIP Task Manager's team task viewer keeps all task changes in a history log, so the team leader can analyse task history and print out short reports.

Action plan

Run VIP Task Manager
Use Task tree view to create project tree
Use Task List view to plan, manage and do tasks
Use Comments panel to communicate with team members
Use Notifications panel to receive task notifications
Assign supervisors by using Watch List tab
Use Permission panel to delegate tasks. The team task viewer of VIP Task Manager will notify of all changes in project so each team member will be aware of new assignments.

Lay out schemes of work by using task templates

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

A scheme of work (a work scheme) is a plan of actions and tasks which an employee will do during every work session or a shift throughout the month. It is a vital and useful document that allows the employee to be organized and do his job as scheduled. The scheme of work helps the manager coordinate the tasks and see what his subordinate is assigned to do. The employees might have a special way they would like the schemes of work to be outlined, and the task template is one of the ways to get it. The task templates allow to create typical work schemes and duplicate them each time when a new work session begins.

There is a task management tool that lets use the task templates to create, assign and print out the schemes of work. It's VIP Task Manager. This software is designed to manage and do office tasks as well as control the work of remote teams.VIP Task Manager allows to build a tree-like structure of the work schemes, set user's permissions to each level of the structure and email the work schemes to field employees. The scheduling capabilities of the software let schedule and print out the schemes of work.

Action plan:

Run VIP Task Manager
In Task Tree View you can create structure of the work scheme. Use Permissions Panel to allow or deny employee's access to the work schemes
Use Calendar View to schedule and print out the work schemes
If you need to send work schemes to remote employees, you can use 'Sending tasks by e-mail' function
To copy typical schemes of work, you can use 'Duplicate' function.

Set the list of responsibilities for each position of your stafff

Use hotlists to arrange document management and web surfing

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

We use internet and various documents each workday to do our job. To help ourselves cope with the routine tasks, we can use hotlists. A hotlist stands for a list of frequently used documents and hyperlinks. It is a convenient tool to arrange piles of documents into an organized documenting workflow and to keep favourite web links near at hand. Internet browsers and some specialized online services offer various bookmark options to store documents, favourite links and web sites in one convenient place. Such services are very helpful; however, they don�t offer task management options to manage to-do lists and combine a task list with a hotlist. So if an employee could use a single program to create tasks and hotlists, it would be a flexible task management tool.

VIP Task Manager combines task management with hotlist creation. In this flexible task management software you can attach files and hyperlinks directly to tasks. You and your employees can use VIP Task Manager as a link and document organizer to create hotlists and store documents in a database file.VIP Task Manager allows to share tasks and related hotlists between multiple users, so you can assign tasks to a group of employees, specifying the tasks with web resources and required documents.

Action plan:

Run VIP Task Manager
Open a new task and go to 'Attachment' tab
To create a new hotlist, use 'New Attachment' button. You can add so many as you need files and links to the hotlist
If you attach a document as file, VIP Task Manager will store this document in the database
To share the task and related hotlist, use Permission panel. This panel allows and denies access to the task

Keep your schedule in connection with your personal values

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In modern circumstances of accelerating rhythm of life, when many people feel themselves overloaded with professional and home tasks, when intensive informational flow can make us forget really important things - it is necessary to have effective method of schedule prioritizing, which allows us not to "lose" our personality and keep our activities aligned with our core values. There is such a method and it is quite simple. First of all you should make a list of your most important life values, for example it could be values like family, health, professional growth etc. Then you should study schedule of your activities. Consider deleting or rescheduling tasks that are not aligned and connected with your personal values. Owing to this method you can make your agenda more effective.

VIP Organizer is individual task list manager that allows you to plan time, control priorities and create checklists. With its help you can review your schedules, list and sort task in accordance to your personal core values.
VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to set business and projects goals, plan time and tasks, control performance in real-time and to analyze efficiency of time spending. With a help of this software your can range you professional values and objectives and prioritize your schedules in accordance to your business or personal core values.

To manage your schedules in connection with values do the following:

start you task planning application
set your goals and tasks
use Task Tree to allocate task to task groups
create action schedule
set time and priorities
review your schedule with a help of Calendar view

Get more benefits out of remote team management by using task e-mail notifier

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Task e-mail notifier sounds strange, doesn't it? However, it is an effective way to be aware of task status and all changes in the task lists of your team. Task e-mail notifier is a perfect tool for those managers who often work out of office or have a remote team, so e-mail notifications will be helpful to track the job the team is doing at the moment. If the task management program that you, probably, use for team management and collaboration has such functionality, then you can receive task status notifications by e-mail on your mobile phone, pocket PC or laptop. Just having internet connection in you mobile device, you are able to track task changes and watch completed tasks of every employee of the team.

A good example of task management software that has a built-in task e-mail notifier is VIP Task Manager. This collaborative software unites the remote team members and team leaders through the automatic e-mail notification sending function.� The program sends notifications to task supervisors, task creators and assigned employees.VIP Task Manager allows to configure notification events so you can customize which event notification the software will send to you or supervisors. For example, you can receive notification of task completion only, while notifications that inform of changes in task priority, assignment, time, or whatever else are ignored and not sent to you.

Action plan

Start VIP Task Manager
Create and assign tasks to the employees
In Resource List view you can configure e-mail notification settings per resource per event
While editing a resource record, use E-mail address column to input e-mail address of the user. The software will send notifications to this address
Note that Notifications Panel allows also to get pop-up notification messages in Windows task tray

Reminder system that works for you!

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes, owing to intensive agenda, we may have dozens of working and home tasks that should be done and it is normal that even people with much trained memory cannot remember everything. In this case we resort to the help of reminder system. It can be a system of paper tools such as calendar, cheat sheets, note cards posted on your fridge and monitor etc. But it is obviously that such reminder system can be not effective as far as it has a number of weaknesses. You have to handle all these papers all the time and this can be quite laborious when you have a lot of tasks. For example such system can cause littering your desk and monitor full of sticky notes. Sometimes you may just have no time to prepare next sticky note. One of the main disadvantages of such system is that papers are silent � they cannot act and cannot effectively attract our attention! Really effective reminder system that you can use without fear to miss appointments is a special time and task management software with respective function.

Such software as VIP Organizer is simple individual task list manager that allows you to plan time, control priorities and create checklists. With its help you will not miss your appointments, because software will attract your attention with sound or pop-up reminders.�

VIP Task Manager is teamwork management groupware that allows you to set business and projects goals, plan time and tasks, control performance in real-time and to analyze team efficiency. This software is effective reminder system that will help your team members to know about timelines of business tasks and events.

To manage reminders for your tasks do the following:

start you task management software
create your tasks
use Task Tree to allocate task to task groups
plan timelines and set priorities
assign tasks to performers
use special section of each task to set reminders (pop-up with sound or e-mail)

The task overlap: reasons and solution

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Organizations which have unbalanced and uncoordinated workflows often suffer from negative consequences of task overlapping. The task overlap is a situation when an employee, because of a set of reasons, cannot perform one task and start doing another one while the first task is still being in progress. Such situation results in overdue tasks and procrastinations. The reasons for task overlapping lie in the following:

not enough time has been allocated to completing tasks
the employee has faced the work overload issue because his manager has made mistakes in task assignments
the employee couldn't organize his tasks in effective manner
poor delegation opportunities have been implemented in the team
a lack of proper coordination and close connection between the team members and the team leader

The negative influence of these reasons may force the employees to procrastinate tasks, do fewer jobs and reduce the job quality. The elimination of the reasons is vital for preventing the task overlaps and avoiding task procrastinations. By using VIP Task Manager, the issue of the task overlapping can be overcome. The Calendar view allows to schedule tasks in an effective manner. The employees will get a to-do list where each task has due date, priority and resource assignment. The manager or team leader can track work overload and task procrastinations in the to-do list. In Task Tree view he can delegate tasks from one employee to another. If needed, the manager can comment tasks of a team member and leave recommendations to the task. VIP Task Manager allows to coordinate tasks of the team in real time and receive pop-up or e-mail notifications.

Action plan

Run VIP Task Manager.
Go to Calendar view to create task schedules. You can display tasks in daily, weekly, monthly and yearly views, so it will be easier for you to schedule tasks.
Use the 'Due Date' column to show the team members the task deadlines.
Use the 'Priority' column to increase or decrease priorities in the to-do list.
Use Permissions panel in Task Tree view to delegate tasks and jobs.
Use Comments panel to comment tasks and read employee feedback.