Delegating isn’t easy. There is a lot to juggle in business anyway and delegating can seem like one more thing. There are tools that can help you to delegate more successfully. We’ll look at some of them here. However, be aware that tools change all the time. These are tools that we (or people we know) have found helpful in the past but these tools might change or better tools might come along.
Project Management Tools
These tools have proven helpful when we wanted to monitor a lot of projects at once. You might find one of these useful, too.
Spreadsheet: A good, basic tool to help keep track of multiple projects is a spreadsheet. You can use an Excel spreadsheet and simply send it back and forth or you might want to use a spreadsheet created in Google Docs (it works just like Excel but is stored online) and shared with your VA. Visit http://docs.google.com.
Basecamp: Basecamp is a popular project management system with a variety of tools (like to do lists, calendars, file storage, message boards, etc.). There are free and paid options. Visit http://basecamphq.com
ActionMethod: This is a stylish looking site with a clever methodology. There are also paper products, too, if you want to balance online and offline project management. This one is just as much about personal productivity as it is about collaboration.Visit http://actionmethod.com.
Wrike: Wrike offers fairly simple, intuitive project management. It’s easy to create projects and assign them to others. Visit http://www.wrike.com.
RememberTheMilk: If you’re just after a really basic, free list to track projects and check off stuff when it’s complete, this one’s for you. It’s really simple but it does the trick. It’s more for personal productivity but we have used it for project management successfully. Visit http://rememberthemilk.com.
Show and tell
When describing a project to your VA, it’s sometimes easier to show them than tell them. If you want to just provide screenshots, Screenshot Pilot (http://www.colorpilot.com/screenshot.html) is a free, easy to use piece of software that allows you to take different kinds of screen shots and save them in different formats. If you want to show what’s on your screen and demonstrate (in a video form) how you do something, Camtasia (http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp) works well. You can get a free trial or a paid version and if you use it frequently, you’ll find that it’s well worth the price tag.
File sharing and Collaboration
Sending files back and forth isn’t always the most helpful, especially if they’re bigger files or if you don’t want to fill up your inbox. Sites like Box.net (http://box.net)or YouSendIt (http://www.yousendit.com) give you options to send larger files. Or you can use GoogleDocs (http://docs.google.com) or Zoho (http://zoho.com) to create and edit files at the same time.
Keep in Mind:
Sometimes it’s well worth the small investment to acquire a tool that can help you and your VA function more efficiently.