In this clip I would like to introduce two new updates that we’ve added to the new Issue Form and also talk about an important topic – Backup.
The first update brings some cool new options to the file attachment feature. When attaching files, you can now see the files you just uploaded before submitting them to the system. This way you can make sure that you attached the correct files. For example, when attaching a screenshot, you want to make sure you uploaded a screen image and not an embarrassing picture from your last vacation. If you change your mind about the file, you can easily delete it by clicking on the delete button. All done before updating the issue.
By the way, did you know that you can increase the file attachment size limit from 1MB to 50MB by adding File Sharing to your account? Adding File Sharing is easy. Simply go to Control Panel (only administrators have access to the control panel). Click on Edit Accounts. Go To Manage Account List and add File Sharing Premium to your account. Click on Update when done.
The second update is in the form’s customization option. We received feedback from clients asking us to bring back the option to display short fields in three columns in the main section of the form as used to be done on the old issue form. So we did. Now you can have three columns of short fields right at the center of the form, giving you additional customization flexibility. You can add fields to this section by simply dragging and dropping them into the field containers. So easy!
Lastly, I’d like to talk about an important subject – Backup. As you may know, our privacy policy dictates that when you delete information from your account, it’s being deleted immediately and permanently from the website. This means that if you trash issues, remove a field from the form, delete users from the account, and so on, these changes are permanent. Sometimes we receive calls from clients asking us to restore data that they deleted by accident. For example, a few weeks ago a client deleted one of the fields on her issue form and called to ask us to restore the field. Well, unfortunately we can’t do that because in order for us to protect your privacy, data cannot be restored once deleted.
But there is a solution for this. Elementool enables you to download a self backup file with all the information from your account. You can download your backup file at any time. And we recommend that you do that at least once a week. This way, if something has been deleted by mistake, it can be restored from the backup file. To download a backup of your account, please follow these steps: Click on Control Panel. Click on Edit Accounts. Click on Download Database. Select the account you wish to backup and click on Download. Elementool will send you a link to the backup file. There, all done! Now just make sure to do these backups regularly so you don’t lose anything important.
In a few weeks I’ll send you another update about the new search feature that we’ve been working on.
Being a project manager is really a pretty tough job. Every day is stressful because there’s a ton of responsibility on your shoulders when you’re in charge. And no matter how good the work is, people always remember that one little thing in the project that didn’t go right. It’s like they don’t even notice the thousand things that DID work perfectly!
Being a project manager is really pretty tough job. Every day is stressful because there’s a ton of responsibility on your shoulders when you’re in charge. And no matter how good the work is, people always remember that one little thing in the project that didn’t go right. It’s like they don’t even notice the 1,000 things that did work perfectly. When you manage a team of people like I do, there are hundreds of tasks that have to be completed for each project. And honestly, it’s impossible to keep track of them all. I’m constantly running around, chasing people down, trying to make sure they’re all working on the right tasks. It’s extremely stressful. I feel like I spend half of my day saying, “What are you working on?” And you wouldn’t believe how many times, when I do ask someone what they’re working on, I find out that they’re putting all their time into a low-priority task which just wastes valuable time and leads to more delays in the project. It’s frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I need to do everything myself, and that’s exactly why I have to make sure I’m checking up on the team all the time. I’d really prefer not to because it’s time consuming for me and aggravating for them, especially since it interrupts their work. I have to admit that sometimes I feel lost. It’s hard to keep track of so many tasks. I have times where I don’t really even know who’s working on what, and that can keep me up at night, especially when we’re close to a deadline. Next to “What are you working on,” the second question I catch myself asking people is, “When will it be done?” I have to run a super tight schedule, and I need to know whether or not the project is actually going according to plan. I’m constantly fielding phone calls and emails from clients wondering when the latest feature that they asked for will be ready. You’ve probably heard this phrase so many times from your clients– “I need an ETA.” So for me to keep them up to date, I always have to be on top of the progress of the project. And if it’s not running on schedule, then I need to have enough time to make changes to the project. There’s no question, project managing is a high stress job. But fortunately, I finally got all that stress to go away when I discovered Elementool’s Priority List feature. It gives me laser-focus control over the projects and my team. I can define a unique priority level to each issue. That way I can make sure that people know exactly what to work on at any moment of the day, so I don’t have to worry anymore that they’re wasting time doing things they’re not supposed to. Sometimes an urgent issue comes in, and that means making changes to the project plan and having people stop what they’re doing to move on to the new task. The Priority List allows me to make those updates in just a few seconds on the team’s work plan. I can also see at any given moment the progress of the tasks that each team member’s working on and the date that they’ll be completed. In fact, you can wake me up in the middle of the night, and I’ll be able to tell you who’s working on what. It’s really brought back the feeling that I’m in control. Now I feel more confident that I can finish my projects on time. When I go home at the end of the day, my mind is free, and I can play with my little girl, and not worry about work. I just love it. Thank you, Elementool. In order for you to get laser-focus control of your projects, all you need to do is click on the signup button below to get a free trial.
When you manage a team of people like I do, there are hundreds of tasks that have to be completed for each project, and, honestly, it’s impossible to keep track of them all. I’m constantly running around, chasing people down, trying to make sure they’re all working on the right tasks. It’s extremely stressful. I feel like I spend half my day saying “What are you working on?” to everyone in sight.
And you wouldn’t believe how many times when I do ask someone what they’re working on, I find out that they’re putting all their time into a low priority task – which just wastes valuable time and leads to more delays in the project. It’s frustrating. Sometimes I feel like I need to do everything myself. That’s exactly why I have to make sure I’m checking up on the team all the time. I’d really prefer not to do it, because it’s time-consuming for me and aggravating for them, especially since it interrupts their work. I have to admit that sometimes I feel lost. It’s hard to keep track of so many tasks. I have times where I don’t really know who’s working on what. That can keep me up at night. Especially when we are close to a deadline.
Next to “What are you working on?” the second question I catch myself asking people most is “When will it be done?” I have to run a super tight schedule, and I need to know whether or not the project is actually going according to plan. I’m constantly fielding phone calls and emails from clients wondering when the latest feature that they asked for will be ready. You’ve probably heard this phrase so many times from your clients: “I need an ETA”, so for me to keep them up-to-date, I always have to be on top of the progress of the project. And if it’s not running on schedule, then I need to have enough time to make changes to the project. There’s no question, project managing is a high-stress job.
But fortunately I finally got all that stress to go away when I discovered Elementool’s Priority List feature. It gives me laser focused control over the projects and my team. I can define a unique priority level to each issue. That way I can make sure that people know exactly what to work on at any moment of the day. So I don’t have to worry anymore that they’re wasting time doing things they’re not supposed to.
Sometimes an urgent issue comes in and that means making changes to the project plan and having people stop what they’re doing to move on to the new task. The Priority List allows me to makes those updates in just a few seconds on the team’s work plan.
I can also see at any given moment the progress of the tasks that each team member is working on, and the date that they’ll be completed. In fact, you can wake me up in the middle of the night and I’ll be able to tell you who’s working on what. It’s really brought back the feeling that I’m in control. Now I feel more confident that I can finish my projects on time. When I go home at the end of the day my mind is free and I can play with my little girl and not worry about work.
As a programmer, I’m constantly juggling a million tasks. Well, not exactly a million, but it really feels like that sometimes. And even while I’m juggling all of the tasks that I have to do, things are often changing during the day when new tasks are created and have to be added.
That means that prioritization is really important for me. But the problem is that I frequently have multiple tasks in the same priority category that need to be dealt with. For instance, there are times when I might have as many as nine or 10 High priority tasks to work on. Often, it seems like everything is the most important thing to do – so I end up with a whole lot of Very Important Things To Do and I don’t know which one to start with! It gets pretty confusing. And when I don’t have anyone to ask for help, sometimes I have to make an educated guess at which one to start with.
That doesn’t always work out so well. The other day, I made the wrong choice and my team leader was angry that I didn’t finish the right tasks. I was upset the whole day. I felt guilty for wasting everyone’s time, but I really was trying to do the right thing. It completely stresses me out and makes me even more nervous each time I have to pick a new task to work on. A lot of the time I just end up multitasking, going back and forth between different items since they all seem important. Unfortunately, the reality is that multitasking is very unproductive and it ends up taking much longer for me to get anything accomplished at all that way.
Fortunately Elementool has become a huge help for me and my team members when we’re dealing with this situation. It has a feature called ‘Priority List’ that makes it simple to sort same-priority level tasks in the ideal order for them to be completed. The Priority List makes it possible to define that order by just assigning a priority level value to each issue. So Priority Value 1 means that the issue should be finished first, Priority Value 2 means that it should be completed second … you get the idea. Each issue has its own unique priority level value, which is set by our team leader, so it’s impossible to have two issues with the same priority level. And that takes the burden off MY shoulders because I don’t have to guess anymore what I should work on.
Now all I have to do is look at the Priority List to see exactly what I need to be working on at any moment of the day.
There’s no more confusion now because I don’t have to do all that guesswork. And my stress has gone WAY down since I know that I’m always doing things according to plan. Overall, it just makes my life much, much easier. Instead of juggling multiple tasks or worrying that I’m not even working on the right task, I can simply focus on the details of the task at hand and concentrate on doing my job well. Even my boyfriend told me that I seem a lot more relaxed when I come back home from work. Now I finally feel like I’m doing the right thing every minute of the day.
