Results tagged “productivity” from Missing Manuals Blog

Author Nancy Conner offers 10 reasons why you should consider making the leap from Microsoft Office to Google Apps.

1. The vast majority of Google's services are free, as in totally, completely, won't-cost-you-a-dime free.

2. With a Google Account, you get a lot of the same basic features as Office--like word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation, email, and calendar programs--as well as a few Office doesn't have, like a way to chat with your friends online (Google Talk) and create your own customized home page on the Web (iGoogle).

3. Unlike Office, Google's programs live on the Web, not on a specific computer. That means you can access your documents, spreadsheets, calendar and so on from any computer that's connected to the Internet. And with the help of Google Gears, you can work on your word processing documents even when you're offline.

4. It's super easy to collaborate on Google Docs documents. You and a group of friends or coworkers can work on the same word-processing document or spreadsheet simultaneously, and Google will keep track of all your edits. No more emailing spreadsheets around and getting confused about which version is most current, or waiting for somebody to check a report back into SharePoint so you can have your turn with it.

5. When you and others are working on a document at the same time, you can chat about it online, so questions can get resolved right away. Chat is built right in to Gmail and Google Docs.

6. All your data gets stored on Google's computers, not yours. So if your hard drive crashes, you don't lose all that precious information.

7. Google takes data security very seriously. Google operates a grid of servers in several locations around the world. So instead of storing your Google Apps data in one place, it distributes your information across this grid, making it harder for hackers and other nasty types to get their mitts on your info.

8. If you switch from Office to Google Apps, you can still access your Office files: It's easy to import Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files into Google Docs.

9. Not surprisingly, Google's Web-based services have some of the same searching power as its famous find-anything-on-the-Web search engine. That makes it easy for you to search your documents, email, and more. For example, a Gmail search makes it a snap to find any email in that haystack of messages.

10. The Google applications play well together. So, for example, if someone sends info about an upcoming event to your Gmail account, it's a snap to add that event to your Google Calendar without ever leaving Gmail.

Whether I'm cooking a sumptuous Indian dinner, trying to run five errands while I'm in town for a client meeting, or preparing for two weeks of sun-drenched, rum-punch-filled vacation, I can't help but plan things in detail and check things off until everything is perfect. During darker moments, I assume people call me a perfectionist, hard to please, obsessive-compulsive, or any number of less complimentary terms. When I'm full of myself, I think I'm organized, get the seemingly impossible done, and herd cats with the best of them. The rest of the time, I accept that I'm simply a project manager.

I know lots of people who are organized and get things done. So I'm not surprised when they, like me, end up with projects to run. I assume that they have their own crises in confidence and ask questions like Why does my boss think I can do this?, What am I supposed to do?, and Now, what the hell do I do? I empathize with the guy who supervised the construction of the Great Pyramids when he found out what he was doing the rest of his life.

Project managers have bigger problems than moving 20-ton stones, keeping thousands of slaves productive, and making sure the Pharaoh approves of his eternal resting place. We have to learn how to manage projects as well as how to use Microsoft Project to do so. It's hard enough when the person sponsoring the project isn't quite sure about the desired result. It's darn-near impossible when we're knee-deep in Project wondering what effort-driven scheduling is, exactly, and why we can't assign people to tasks the way we want.

I've figured out the answers to some of these questions. However, I know that whenever I think I know all the answers, something blindsides me without fail. So, I plan to share a few things I've learned about managing projects successfully and enlisting Project in the effort--with appropriate humility and deference to the project management gods.