As a Project Manager of small single-man projects, what is the best way to track the status of all of my projects at once?

I tried to use things like notepad (or vim) and just keep notes in text files. Lately I have been researching the David Allen GTD methodology. I’ve adapted our corporate email system to allow for it; Novell Groupwise. It’s not too bad, but doesn’t give a 30,000’ overview of all projects.

Try looking into xmind or other mind mapping software, too.

Hmm, interesting question. I have a similar position to you, but probably not as numerous ongoing projects.

What type of improvements are you looking for? Or what are the features you would like to have?

i.e. One place to track all the different things, be able to access same database on the road, most customization, etc.

I’ve often thought of creating something in Filemaker just for my own use. That way I could customize it to exactly the way I like.

The best one for you probably depends on your learning style. I am a very visual person so it helps me to have mine at eye level where I can review them all at once.

I think it depends on your style and the tracking needs you have. You could use MS Project, or Excel or Access. I think there are templates for these things available online that can be used in Excel or Access. Project has a steeper learning curve, but is more sophisticated. If you are really into customization and know a database product, you can build your own to meet your needs. It’s really hard to say without knowing what your specific needs are.

I use Base Camp and from my experience it’s the best thing out there.

http://www.basecamphq.com/

Try it out, they have a free account option. I promise you will love it.

Have you ever thought the problem has nothing to do with software but the WAY YOU WORK?

What exactly is the PROBLEM you want to address? Is it the boss stopping you in the hall and asking “Where are you with Project XYZ”? In that case, I would send him weekly status reports updates BEFORE he asks, then carry a copy around with me should he catch me in the hall. You do NOT have to commit it to memory, but it WILL make you look good.

Are you forgetting to do things related to a project? The moment you identify action items, schedule them on a calendar which you check EVERY DAY at least once.

Color code. I would be lost without a Bic 4 color pen. On my calendar, a green entry is something that repeats (like a weekly meeting). When I get to a green entry, I make SURE to copy it to the next date it will happen. Red is urgent. Black is a meeting. Blue is everything else.

I make sure to bring my calendar home every night in case I think of something i want/need to do.

Finally, you don’t HAVE to use software. I use a Day Timers and I love it. If someone wants to schedule a meeting with me, I have to know right away if I’m free and I need to write it right away.

Good luck.

@sullivant I read Allen’s GTD and I’m trying to integrate a lot of that methodology, just trying to find the best tools to do so.

@NerdRageIT: I used Basecamp in grad school, and really, really liked it, but found that for people outside of project teams it was a major problem. Because they weren’t signed up for Basecamp, but were still responsible for a task or two, they were hard to communicate with. Also, they get WAY maxed out on all the update emails if their task is small.

Maybe they’ve since updated this issue, and if not, how have you worked around it?

If so, I’d highly recommend Basecamp to Nocatharsis.

@se_ven It sounds like your projects are more software-based. I’m a mechanical engineering project manager, so our industry is a little more hindered in the technology department. That’s also why I’d like to start using it more and wake up some of these 50-year-old engineers who think a calendar on the wall and a pencil in your hand is the only way to manage anything.

On a separate, I would love to set up my own database here at work to manage my projects, which I guess is what Filemaker is? Maybe I’ll post a question about that. I know some SQL and some programming, as I was a software consultant in my previous life.

@NerdRageIT It sounds like this is for larger-scale projects, though. I read about Basecamp on Lifehacker, but I turned away from it since it’s not totally free. Too many free solutions out there to pay for something at this point, and I would really need to show I could improve productivity with software before convincing my company to pay.

@Quagmire I have to think there are technologically superior methods to what you’re suggesting. If nothing else, putting everything on Google calendar has helped me a lot. And yes they have color-coding.

@NoCatharsis yeah Filemaker is a database product similar to Access. I’ve been using it for about 2 years and found it to be easier, more powerful, and more flexible than access. It’s a good way to tinker with different workflows, processes, and/or software ideas without having to know much about databases/programming.

@NoCatharsis For a single person, I’ve found Things to be the very, very best.

For more than one person, Fluther uses Pivotal Tracker.

@se_ven Is there any sort of free solution like Filemaker?

What worked really well for me was a very big and detailed planner and a great secretary.

I do a lot of PM work, and like OmniPlan

Haha, ” Project Manager of small single-man projects… ” ?
To my mind there is not such a thing: a single-man project. If you are the project manager of a single-man project, who is doing the work then ? What I actually mean: any real project should have a project team with at least a few people, otherwise I would not call that a project.
But your point probably is that you are simply assigned to multiple projects and nobody is managing your assignments properly, thus you have to manage it on your own. That I guess sounds familiar to many of us.
Lots of good recommendations have been provided here already. Since Quagmire mentioned color coding: Lifehacker recommended a nice new tool last week: The Big Picture. Looks like it is great to manage multiple projects and come up with color coded slots in your calendar.

@amagard Well these are “projects,” they’re just not full-scale Exxon-sized projects with 100 engineers. The more experienced PMs at my company have one assistant, so I guess those are 2-man teams. But everything I manage is small enough for 1 person to handle usually. And yes, a project is defined as a group of tasks striving for an ultimate goal, at least from my understanding of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, and that’s what I’ve been trying to incorporate into my methodology lately.

I tried The Big Picture, and it’s really cool on its visual element, but it’s lacking a lot. Given, it was just released and there’s plenty of room for improvement. I guess I just wish I had a good application to put everything together. And no, Outlook, you are too slow and bulky.

Do you have SharePoint at your company? That has a lot of good tracking tools. workflow, lists, libraries, etc.

@PandoraBoxx No I don’t, but we used it at my last company. Never used it enough to understand it fully though.

You probably do not need full fledged Project management tool. We have been using Basecamp for sometime now and it works well mostly, but a lot of times it makes us move away from inbox to create tasks and assign them. This is a time sink at times.

Most of our project communication happens over email. We have started using a tool GrexIt (http://grexit.com) to manage projects. The good part being, it works right from the inbox itself. No going back forth anymore from from inbox to the tool now.