I've used <a href="https://trello.com/" rel="nofollow">https://trello.com/</a> for most of my projects even when I am working with a team. We love it. Here are some basics on how to manage a project with Trello: <a href="https://trello.com/inspiration/project-management" rel="nofollow">https://trello.com/inspiration/project-management</a>.
Org mode. I put a Readme.org in every project I start, and it can help with most project management tasks. You can also hook these files up to your Org agenda, so that issues (i.e. TODO items) show up there.<p>Edit: I should also mention the Dired mode in Emacs, which is a directory browser. I use "% g" quite frequently, and it has useful extensions like wdired and dired-hacks.
Not Google Keep, but part of "Simple tools/hack for small project management".<p>I do a lot of work from the commandline, and have a few simple macros to do simple timestamped tags. Eg "ttag started on proj ABC", "ttag debugging this", "ttag stopped for today". The tags are stored in a text file. Some work when going back to sum up hours spent on project X, hours on Y etc, but very simple.<p>Here:<p><pre><code> alias ttag='/cygdrive/c/Dropbox/tools/ttag/ttag.sh'
alias ttagcat='cat /cygdrive/c/Dropbox/tools/ttag/ttag-logfile.txt'
alias ttago='open /cygdrive/c/Dropbox/tools/ttag/ttag-logfile.txt'
</code></pre>
and<p><pre><code> >cat /cygdrive/c/Dropbox/tools/ttag/ttag.sh
#!/bin/sh
LOGFILE=/cygdrive/c/Dropbox/tools/ttag/ttag-logfile.txt
TIMESTAMP_NICE=$(date +"%F %H.%M.%S - %s:")
echo $TIMESTAMP_NICE "$@" >> $LOGFILE
</code></pre>
works well enough for me.
I wholeheartedly recommend WorkFlowy - <a href="https://workflowy.com" rel="nofollow">https://workflowy.com</a><p>For me, its focus on text and deep hierarchical breakdown, in combination with tagging is potent. You may need to figure out your own way to adapt to your PM style though. For example, some common tags I use are "#next", "#someday", "#2018-02-08" and such.
I just keep a text file near the project and jot down notes / other things accordingly in free form.<p>This even includes recaps for freelance work. Like I would have an entry of:<p>2/7/2018: 3 hours<p>- Did such and such<p>- Implemented this and that<p>- Fixed foobar to return foo<p>I keep to that exact date / hours worked format so when I invoice clients I just grep the file and cut / sum the total hours (if I'm not doing project based pricing).<p>It works really well for the solo developer / freelancer. No time is wasted on BS and there's a log of work rendered + notes + TODOs + etc..<p>I like it because I can do all of this from within my code editor which is where I'm doing the work. The efficiency level is very high.
Here's my project: <a href="https://www.contabulo.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.contabulo.com</a>.<p>It hasn't gotten any love via Show HN, but it's relevant to the thread, so :)<p>Basically I wanted something sort of like Trello, but more geared toward Knowledge and Content management and collaboration. I was unaware of the existence of Google Keep at the time, but it does look vaguely similar, doesn't it?<p>Oh yea, example (read-only) board: <a href="https://app.contabulo.com/boards/a5e413d1-8fe3-4b42-a8f1-b4f83cd1aff5" rel="nofollow">https://app.contabulo.com/boards/a5e413d1-8fe3-4b42-a8f1-b4f...</a>
I recommend Asana. It is simple when you get started, but can also grow with you as your project increases in complexity with numerous task organization options.<p>Useful features:<p>- Browse tasks with keyboard like a text file.<p>- Tasks can be in multiple projects.<p>- Tasks can have sub tasks.<p>- Big ecosystem - lots of integrations with other tools.<p>I use the following alongside it:<p>- Everhour for time tracking.<p>- Unito to sync my tasks to Github to track commits.<p>- Github issues.<p>- Instagantt for gantt charting the Asana tasks to see how reliable your time estimates were and plan ahead.
I'm a fan of OneNote for this. It's not perfect but it checks all the boxes I need and it's free.<p>Rather than making a list of tasks I have a whole section of them, and so I can attach files or notes to each one. This makes context switching between tasks fairly efficient.
<a href="https://kanboard.org/" rel="nofollow">https://kanboard.org/</a> as self hosted trello alternative, very good and obviously completely private.<p>Org-mode or <a href="https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jceb/vim-orgmode</a> if you are using vim (I do).<p><a href="http://tailordev.github.io/Watson/" rel="nofollow">http://tailordev.github.io/Watson/</a> for cli time tracking. Works beautifully.
I use (and develop) Standard Notes (<a href="https://standardnotes.org" rel="nofollow">https://standardnotes.org</a>). It's dead simple, but that's good enough for me. I use the task editor to keep track of todos for updates and other projects.
I open a Gdocs page and start writing a project diary. It serves the same purpose as the recording of transactions in accounting: rather than try to skip to a summary of tasks, bugs, or features, first I have to develop a "primary source of truth" about the project as a narrative - what I am developing, why I should prioritize something right now, and the feedback I hope to get from developing it.<p>As aspects of the project turn into specific tasks and data I can consider making formal artifacts for them, but it's unwise to do it too early in a solo project because of the added overhead and distraction from overall priorities. Structurally, coding on your own is really different from having a team to communicate with and leads or managers to specialize time allocation. You have the freedom to automate everything you are working with, and that's your biggest advantage. Where formality is added, it should be done with the support of a script that takes care of the technical details and keeps your friction down - it is not hard to automate turning TODO or FIXME source comments into a report, for example.
A simple GitHub or Gitlab repository is all that I need. Gitlab has the added advantage of a free CI (with 2k free build minutes per month), but for me git hosting + issues and boards + wiki pages are all I need for any project. I have used many, many project management solutions before, but if you use a sane methodology you don't really need anything else.
I'm using <a href="https://www.paymoapp.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.paymoapp.com</a> for time-tracking and project management.<p>Next to that using <a href="https://trello.com" rel="nofollow">https://trello.com</a> for setting up Agile boards.
For small/solo projects I prefer to use a notebook with the first few pages reserved for an index. I complement it with a kanban board on the wall (post-it notes).<p>What I like about it:<p>No procrastination in a management tool (over-planning, formatting, etc).<p>No illusion of order (technology/computers have a tendency to make you appear disciplined, or to pretend you will be more disciplined by using them… I think it's bullshit. Discipline is a core skill, not the ability to use a tool).<p>No software can provide the feel of moving a post-it note to the "Done" column. Physical data (pages) is also supposed to help memorization.
We have been using Teamwork for a couple of years. It offers kanban card based paradigm as well as PERT/CPM. Our PD teams like the former while we in Consulting services like the latter best. One can project delivery dates in a timeline and with that do more refined risk management. Currently there are 455 running projects and 1603 stakeholders using the system including internal, customer and partners teams.
We built <a href="https://usebx.com/app" rel="nofollow">https://usebx.com/app</a> for managing a small business. It includes a simple to do list type of project manager. Most of our users love the simplicity and the fact that it integrates with time tracking and invoicing. You may find it useful too.
If it was just me, I’d use plain text files like people are suggesting in this thread. In particular, if you want to be able to track and do retrospectives of what’s been done, consider using jrnl[0] to log what you’ve done.<p>For small teams, I really like Dropbox Paper. It’s better than text files here because it’s real-time collaborative, but retains nearly all of the flexibility. It supports Markdown syntax, checkboxes, etc. You can tag members of your team, comment in the margins, and link to one doc quickly from another. For small teams that don’t need a heavyweight process, Dropbox Paper fills fits my needs here rather well.<p>[0] <a href="http://jrnl.sh" rel="nofollow">http://jrnl.sh</a>
If you want a card-based planner, take a look at our Hyper Plan software:
<a href="http://www.hyperplan.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.hyperplan.com</a><p>Where it differs from most other card-based planners is:<p>-any number of custom properties per card<p>-powerful visualization (layout and color your cards automatically by their properties or connectivity)<p>-powerful filtering<p>-supports dependencies between cards (including support for PERT type project scheduling)<p>-store different combinations of layout, coloring and filtering as 'views' you can swap between with a mouse click<p>-highly customizable appearance<p>-runs locally on Windows and Mac (which makes it very responsive) but plays nicely with DropBox
Telegram's Saved Messages feature (which is basically a chat with oneself) helps me a lot - it loads in the web interface instantly and works like an ultra-light notes app, where you can also post files and images, search your notes, edit and delete items. Everything is instantly shared between web and mobile.<p>The drawback is that you can have only one Saved Messages chat and no way to tag messages by project - it becomes messy when you use it for several projects at once.<p>For a small team, per-project chats are also very helpful - you can easily recall what you were discussing or planning to do several months ago.
I'm from a small remote team of 8 employees, we use Riter (<a href="https://riter.co" rel="nofollow">https://riter.co</a>). It provides a basic set of necessary features for project management, time tracking, estimation and control. Here's an existing demo company for quick review <a href="https://demo.riter.co/login" rel="nofollow">https://demo.riter.co/login</a>
VivifyScrum - <a href="https://www.vivifyscrum.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.vivifyscrum.com</a>. It's free for smaller projects (and very feature-complete) but robust enough for the largest of projects (and very affordable @ $8/user/mo.). They also have a native app for both desktop and mobile. I'm not affiliated with them in any way. I'm just a very satisfied user.
I design the workflow first. Starting sparingly with Github and G-Suite.<p>You can build your own webrtc-enabled video chat room in under 100 lines of javascript with PeerJS or the Twilio API. Or use Talky, Cyclops, etc.<p>If you need invoices, time tracking, and reports. You can always jump into something like Avaza<p><a href="https://www.avaza.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.avaza.com/</a><p>Keep it simple. And don't be afraid to roll your own tools. Good luck!
So what exactly are you looking for?<p>If Google Keep is what you're looking for, then use Google Keep.<p>If you want to share to-do lists, then use Asana or Trello.<p>If you want to manage tasks, I'd recommend <a href="http://clubhouse.io" rel="nofollow">http://clubhouse.io</a><p>It's hard to say what would fit your needs without saying what you need or want from a product other than "project management".
Invite URL for my project:
<a href="https://ixberg.com/#/invite/2018-hn-1" rel="nofollow">https://ixberg.com/#/invite/2018-hn-1</a>
(click sign in to do anything)<p>Make (sharable) projects. Add tasks. Break into subtasks (recursively). Defer anything you don't want to see yet. Focus on what you can do next and get things done.
Not sure if you are working on a software related project or not. One of my favourite tool is GitHub Project Boards<p><a href="https://help.github.com/articles/about-project-boards/" rel="nofollow">https://help.github.com/articles/about-project-boards/</a>
Use Quip for documenting features, ideas, check-listing, task tracking
<a href="https://quip.com/" rel="nofollow">https://quip.com/</a><p>Having one place for chats, documents, tasks is great. Its fast, simple and real-time!
<a href="https://www.getflow.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.getflow.com/</a> is pretty nice. But almost any kanban tool will do the job
excel/LO as a list of @#@#-that-needs-to-get-done. next column over is a r/b/g traffic lights. move them around in rough order. highlight those that are fixed dates. scribble on post it notes. lots and lots of post it notes and physically screw them up and throw them away. you'd be surprised how robust this is for single owner projects. managing a team? need different tool. i've used basecamp and was v happy.
If you're on a Mac, Things.app is great.<p><a href="https://culturedcode.com/things/" rel="nofollow">https://culturedcode.com/things/</a>