This is the first in a many part series of how I keep my life together as a freelance project manager.
I’ll go over all of the tools that I live and die by, because it’s the question I get asked most often.
What tool is going to be my magical robot pony and fix all of my project management woes?
I’m sorry, but I’m going to level with you here: There is no ‘project management tool to rule them all’. It’s going to be the one that has enough of the features you really need (and this list is different for everyone!): time-tracking, ticket creating, milestone making, invoicing, version-control connecting, report making, whiz-bang graphical burndown charts, etc… But it also has few enough features that you don’t get distracted by what else the tool could do for you.
Resist the urge to go all in and find the tool that does absolutely everything. My biggest line for a tool is: Am I decently happy when I’m using it? This is very nebulous, but I want something that doesn’t frustrate me. It doesn’t have to think as fast as I do, but it shouldn’t get in the way of getting my work done. Thus far, only Klok and I have stayed friends. And Klok’s just a beautiful time tracker.