There are so many different tools available to you and I when it comes to managing our projects, but sometimes, simpler is so much better.
In today's video, I wanna showcase with you a very simple yet very effective tool for managing projects and especially for communicating with your team or perhaps with your clients.
I want to give you a full tour of an application called AirSend.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
And one of the things that I like about AirSend is that it combines sort of three major components that I think truly we are all looking for in a project manager.
We want effective communication.
We want to be able to track and manage our tasks and our actions.
And we also want a place to store our files and to be able to reference those files as well.
And I think AirSend does a really great job of combining all three of those components.
So let me give you a little lay of the land here.
Here I am within my AirSend account.
On the left hand side, we have our different channels.
Now, you may be familiar to channels when it comes to other applications such as Slack.
This can be very, very helpful because you probably have either different departments or different themes or different projects that you want to keep separated.
You don't want all of that information coming at you in the exact same channel or the exact same messaging feeds.
So, whether it's a marketing project, whether it's a PR team, or here I've selected something that's called the Simpletivity Community, I can now focus on this task or this area of my business, and then jump into the other ones as I need to with just a simple single click.
Now, in the middle of the screen here, and the bulk of our screen here, is really our communication feed.
But it's a lot more than just comments.
It's a lot more than just texting.
This area is also going to give us updates on when people add or complete actions, when they upload files, and when they respond to other things as well.
And what I love about this type of activity feed is it allows you to catch up very quickly and easily.
I can just scan up perhaps a few hours and see what were the most recent comments that were related to this particular channel, or who completed a task, and it's going to show up right here in this feed.
So often I hear complaints from people saying that they didn't get a notification from their project management tool, or they didn't know where to find out the latest information and what was going on.
It's really hard to ignore that.
It's hard to miss that in a layout such as this within AirSend.
We're going to dive into this in a little deeper in just a minute here, but let's look at the right hand side here where we have our actions.
Now, it is a fairly simplified task list.
I'm going to show you how to set up an action in just a moment.
But the nice thing is is that nothing here feels too squished, right?
I can see my channels, I can see the feed, and I can see my actions as well.
And this area on the right also will give us our full file folder menu.
And yes, you can upload as many files as you like, both the ones that are attached or mentioned in the comment, or you can add additional files as well.
And we also have a Wiki available to us as well.
So if you want to create something that is maybe semipermanent, or maybe you just want to post an update, a weekly update or when the next weekly meeting is, you can do so here as well.
And again, it doesn't feel too squished.
When it comes to the file format here, I can easily dive down and select the file that I'm looking for.
I can preview it here.
It also comes with a handy search bar as well.
So if I want to search for that recent file that I just pulled up, I can search and quickly and easily pull it up.
And here you can see sort of the full file folder structure that is available right here within AirSend.
So let's dive in a little deeper into some of my favorite features here within AirSend.
First thing first has to do with the comment section or the activity window here.
Of course I can quickly and easily reply or react to any of the messages up above, and I can start and I can attach other documents right here to a new message.
But one of the things that I like here is that I can actually choose if I want to post this message just here within the activity feed, within AirSend, or if I select this option, I can also post the message and send an email.
The reason why I like this option is that you're probably aware that we all work a little differently.
And you probably work with some individuals who just don't spend much time in your chosen project management tool.
So depending on the message, you can choose this option.
You can see the icon turns to an envelope, and now everyone within this community is going to receive an email in addition.
Now, it is going to stay with this until you change it back at your own choosing.
But what I've been doing recently is that depending on my message, I may select it to an email, just if I want to ensure that everyone is going to get that message regardless of the last time that they've logged into AirSend.
Now, the other thing that I want to look at here has to do with our actions.
Here on the right hand side, you can see a combination of some actions.
Some are overdue, in fact, a number of them are overdue.
That's why they're listed with a red color.
This one is an orange color because it's coming up in about a week's time.
But let's start by adding a new action.
And it is fairly simple, right?
Let's email out our latest newsletter, and I can add an additional description here if I want to.
I do like that it's fairly easy for me to find people.
I don't need to know their username.
I can just go and grab them here and attach them to my list just by typing in their name.
And then I'm going to say, yeah, let's include a due date to maybe a week from today and set okay.
I can create that action.
And of course it is going to be added here at the bottom of my action list.
But of course, you'll also see that it is updated here in the activity feed.
And I think this is what's so helpful is that others can be notified immediately of what's going on or the next time that they jump into the channel, they can see what's happening as well.
Sticking with the actions, you can also separate between an actions, all of the actions for your community or your channel, I should say, and also your individual actions.
So here you can see, here is a task that is assigned just to me.
So if I want to work in this mode, I can do so as well.
But another nice thing is that you can create those actions directly from the activity feed.
So here you can see this little icon.
If I select it, all I need to do is select reminder, and I can immediately start creating this new action.
I can give it a name, but it's already helped me out in a few ways.
In the description, it will reference, or it will include the comment that I just clicked on.
And it already has my dummy username here because I was the one on who made that comment.
So it's assuming that I may want to assign that task or assign that action to that individual, something else which is really helpful just to save you a few steps when you are creating those new actions.
So if you are looking for something that is not only simple, but something that's going to keep everything on the same screen so that you don't have to jump back and forth between a project management tool and a communication tool, or, chances are, your project management tool already has some communication built in, but it's buried in the back, AirSend may be a great alternative to you.
If you want to learn more, you can try AirSend for yourself at AirSend.io.
Thank you so much for watching today's video, and remember, being productive does not need to be difficult.
In fact, it's very simple.
