My journey – Page 5 – Michele Christensen

Product review: Google tasks

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Google products. I use gmail even though my email appears to come from my domain. I use Picasa for photos, Google Calendar, Google keyword tool, Google analytics, Google docs and Google contacts. I love that almost everything they do, aside from being free, works great.

When I switched to an Android phone, I was stymied by what to do with my tasks and projects. I had been using a Blackberry before that, and while the task function wasn’t overly impressive I was able to make it work. If I wanted to stay with Google and make full use of the seamless sync between my desktop and phone it seemed that Google tasks was my only option. The problem was that Google tasks is such a low-feature system that I had to really do some serious work-arounds to get it to even come close to my needs. A lot of people were complaining about it, and it seemed really out of sync with the high level of quality of their other services. I decided to gamble and set myself up on Google tasks with the hope that soon they would upgrade the functionality and it would be as good as all the other products I use and love.

Almost a year later, I decided to switch again because it was just too hard to stay on top of everything I had to do with the system I was using at the time. There hadn’t been any pending upgrades to the task manager announced, and a year was the longest I was willing to wait. Things that are weak on Google tasks include:

There’s no way to put a recurring task in, so you can create a task that occurs every Monday, every 3 days, or 5 days after the last time you did it.
You can create several different lists of tasks, but only one can be viewed at a time, and if you want to view them on your calendar along with your appointments, only the list currently open in the tasks pane shows up. If you don’t think to check all of your task lists, you could be missing things you need to do today.
There is no way to add a tag or a priority to a task. This are pretty basic functions of most task managers, so it seemed like a big sacrifice to not have these functions.
There was no home-screen icon on the Android for tasks from Google like there was out-of-the-box for contacts, Gmail and calendar. It seems to me that a task function is an equally important sibling of these 3 and for some reason Google treats tasks differently.

After nearly a year of making due with a task manager that just wasn’t up to the job of managing my life, both personal and business, I finally gave in and decided to look for another option. This process will be the topic of a series of posts for which this post is first. I just love peeking into other people’s time management systems, so if you want a peek into mine, look out for the next post.

What task management system do you use and why? Do you sync it with your smartphone?

Are you an introvert?

If so, come out of hiding and treat yourself right!

I read this article this morning on how to care for an introvert, and in addition to giving tips on how to care for an introvert, there’s great information introverts can use to care for themselves. Have a read and come back to the rest of the post.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/03/caring-for-your-introvert/2696/

First of all, let me say that I am an introvert. If you know me in real life, that may be shocking because I’m social, have friends, love to talk and even love public speaking. But as pointed out in the article, there’s a lot of incorrect ideas about what an introvert is. I’m not shy, housebound or miserable. I am exactly like the introvert described in the article. When I do social things, I need lots of time by myself to recover. There’s a limit to how many social events I can do in a day or a weekend.

You can tie this into your business by making sure your business aligns with your natural, comfortable personality type. I love working one-on-one with people, but only have so much energy for that. I realized late last year that I was spending too much time working one-on-one with people, and now I’m leading group programs and working on information products as well as working with just a few one-on-one clients.

Does your current business work for your personality? If you are an introvert, are you draining yourself by spending too much time with people? If you are an extrovert, are you feeling like you’re missing out because you spend too much time working alone at home? Have you adjusted your business to a better mix for you? If so, tell me about it in the comments.

If you recognize yourself here and want to adjust your business accordingly, let’s talk! Click here to schedule a free strategy session.

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to my site!

I wanted to start my blog by explaining why I love solopreneur businesses. I spent the first few years of my career working for corporate America, and by the time I escaped I was so miserable I never wanted anything to do with business again. I took a few months off to travel the USA, and then some temp work led to a small consulting practice. By then I was in LA, where there were loads of creative types needing business help.

I still hadn’t quite gotten the right mix of services in my practice though, and closed the practice to spend a few years working in a non-profit serving the clients of the facility. I began getting interested in blogging, social media and web 2.0 stuff in early 2008, and in January of 2009 I launched my own solopreneur business as a professional organizer. Over time, I niched down further and further until I was just providing time management and productivity consulting for entrepreneurs.

From that specialized practice came my current business combining business experience, strategic thinking and productivity. I did a lot of masterminding with trusted colleagues, past clients and people who would be ideal clients. What came out of it is that my mission is to help solopreneurs with the business side of their work so they can focus on bringing their unique gifts to the world. I believe that solopreneur businesses are going to be a powerful force in the post-recession economy, and I see the amazing, positive change they bring to the world. I want to be part of that, to help you create a solid business foundation so you can do your work in the world.