Vincent's Reviews: March 2017

Friday 31 March 2017

Create a Painless Backup Plan in 5 Minutes

March 31st is officially World Backup Day, but whether you're reading this on this unusual holiday or any other day of the year, now's as good a time as any to think about your backups–or lack of a backup plan.

I know computer backups are about as interesting to think about for most people as flossing, doing your taxes, or changing your passwords. But think of it like insurance: You hope you'll never need it, but sure would be glad if you get into a situation where you did. According to the World Backup Day website, 30% of people have never backed up their data, 29% of disasters are caused by accident, 113 phones are lost or stolen every minute, and 1 in 10 computers are infected with viruses each month. "One small accident or failure," the site notes, "could destroy all the important stuff you care about."

Backups of your important files are the solution. For peace of mind, just set up your backups now, if you haven't already. Or test your backups now if you already have a system in place; after all, your backups are only as good as your ability to recover files from them.

The good news is it's easy to create a solid backup plan that covers all your most important data. As a rule of thumb, think 3-2-1 for backups:

3 copies of your most important files
2 formats: for example, an external hard drive plus DVDs
1 off-site backup, such as using an online backup service such as CrashPlan or Backblaze

You'll want to back up all your important documents, such as your photos and financial statements, and perhaps also create a system image of your computer so you can quickly recover in case your computer crashes.

Here are guides to help you get started right away:

How to Back Up Everything from All Your Apps and Devices, which covers backing up data from apps like Office 365 as well as your phone, tablet, and Mac or PC.
Archive and Back Up Your Work, which offers one-click Zap templates for you to instantly back files from one online storage service to another, save a second copy of your notes in Evernote or OneNote, and keep a spreadsheet archive of anything.
How to Back Up and Export Your Google Apps Data, which shows you how to automatically back up your emails, contacts, and calendar events saved with Google.

Happy backup day!

source https://zapier.com/blog/backup-plan/

Thursday 30 March 2017

The 19 Best Free Project Management Apps

Projects can quickly take on a life of their own, spiraling out of budget and taking far more time than planned. Project management software can help—but it adds an extra item to your already-strapped budget.

Don't worry. There are still great, free project management apps for you. From kanban board apps to Gantt chart software, here are the 19 best project management apps for teams on a budget.

Everything for Free: 5 Fully Free Project Management Apps
Start for Free: 8 Project Tools to Get Started for Free
Self-Hosted: 4 Free Project Management Apps to Run On Your Servers

7 Fully Free Project Management Apps

You've got too much to juggle and need a project management app to sort it out into projects, tasks, and deadlines. And you need your entire team to help you get those tasks done.

These project management apps are the ones for you. They're free for unlimited projects and users, so you can plan as many projects with as many people as you need—and only upgrade when you want more features.

App	Quick Description:	Free for:
Trello	Quickly create customized Kanban boards	∞ projects & users
MeisterTask	Create projects from mind maps	∞ projects & users
KanbanFlow	Track time spent on tasks	∞ projects & users
Freedcamp	Schedule tasks and manage notes	∞ projects & users
Allthings	Organize your task lists	∞ users & 5 projects
Bitrix24	Powerful project & task collaboration	∞ users, projects, tasks
Producteev	Organize company projects	∞ users & projects
Avaza	Manage client projects	∞ users & 5 projects

Trello

to quickly create customized Kanban boards

Trello is a simple way to start organizing your projects in kanban boards. Start out with a handful of lists for your tasks, and customize those lists with steps in your workflow (perhaps to-do, doing, and done) or as separate parts of your project (say development, design, and distribution). Then add your tasks—with labels, due dates, checklists, and comments to keep everything in one place—and drag them to the appropriate list. Then, you can keep track of all comments on tasks that mention you from the notifications menu.

For more features, Trello's power-up options (in the web app's menu) let you view tasks on a calendar, include voting options on tasks, and let older tasks fade away automatically. You can make Trello boards for everything—personal and work tasks alike—and get your work done in a way that fits your team best.

Free for: Unlimited projects and users
Upgrade for: Larger attachments, custom backgrounds, and extra power-ups for $9.99/month per user
For a deeper look at Trello's features and pricing, check out our Trello review.
See Trello integrations on Zapier: Connect Trello to Google Calendar, Evernote, and more

MeisterTask

to create projects from mind maps

MeisterTask is one of the newest project management apps, with a fresh approach to kanban boards. With brightly colored lists and a dashboard wallpaper, your projects will look more fun than ever. And your team will be more productive, too, since MeisterTask includes automations that are triggered when you drag tasks to new lists. You can send emails, reset due dates, and more just by moving tasks around. You can also see all the tasks you need to do from every project in your dashboard.

If your projects start life in brainstorming sessions with mind maps, you'll have another reason to try MeisterTask: MindMeister integration. Plan your project in a mind map, then drag it into MeisterTask to turn each idea into a task. It's one of the quickest ways to jumpstart your ideas.

Free for: Unlimited projects and users
Upgrade for: Workflow automation and unlimited integrations for $7.50/month per user
For a deeper look at MeisterTask's features and pricing plans, check out our MeisterTask review.
See MeisterTask integrations on Zapier: Connect MeisterTask to Gmail, schedule new tasks every week automatically, and more

KanbanFlow

to track time spent on tasks

Wondering how long your tasks take to complete? KanbanFlow includes a timer that logs how long you spend on each task—and how long it stays in a particular list. The timer also includes a pomodoro mode to help you work in sprints and remind you to take breaks every so often.

Those tools together in one web app will help you stay productive while pushing your projects towards completion. You'll find and nix bottlenecks in your workflows by watching the time tasks spend in each column, while staying refreshed with regular breaks.

Free for: Unlimited projects and users
Upgrade for: Swimlanes to add horizontal organization, email integration, calendar view, and more for $5/month per user
For a deeper look at KanbanFlow's features and pricing plans, check out our KanbanFlow review.
See KanbanFlow integrations on Zapier: Connect KanbanFlow to Slack, Google Calendar, and more

Freedcamp

to schedule tasks and manage notes

For a more full-featured project management tool, Freedcamp gives you place to manage tasks along with calendar and milestone tools to plan your project's schedule. Tasks can be organized in a standard to-do list or a kanban board, while your most important dates can be split between milestones or the calendar to help with short and long term planning.

Freedcamp can easily be your project hub, holding everything you need to get work done. Bring in your files, keep discussions inside your projects, and upgrade to add extra tools for invoicing, CRM, and more, and you'll only need to check one app each day to get your work done.

Free for: Unlimited projects and users
Upgrade for: Extra storage, wiki, invoice, CRM, and other tools starting at $3.99/month per user

Allthings

to organize your task lists

Want the simplicity of a to-do list with the workflow features of a kanban board? Allthings combines the two for a simple way to complete your tasks. Quickly write everything that needs to be done in a list, then tag tasks with categories or workflow steps, and use the kanban board view to see tasks by group or status. You can even save searches as customized sub-boards to see specific parts of your project with a click.

It's not fully free—you'll only get 5 projects with a free account, but that's enough to get started and manage a standard workload for a small team.

Free for: Unlimited users and 5 projects
Upgrade for: Unlimited projects, templates, and attachments from $3.99/month per user
For a deeper look at Allthings' features and pricing plans, check out our Allthings review.
See Allthings integrations on Zapier: Connect Allthings to Evernote, Salesforce, Office 365, and more

Bitrix24

to collaborate on projects and tasks

Have a large or distributed project team to keep on track? Bitrix24 is here to help by combining classic project management features with native collaboration tools. From a social Intranet to in-app video conferencing and screen-sharing to HR and client-management tools, Bitrix24 is designed to be a one-stop shop for managing projects, teams, and your company as a whole. Organize tasks within your projects, then use a Gantt chart view to keep everything on track. You can even track employee workload and deadlines, to avoid burning out team members.

Free for: Unlimited users and unlimited projects and tasks
Upgrade for: Task dependencies, custom fields, enhanced reporting and time management features from $39/month
Learn how to integrate Bitrix24 with Zapier on Zapier: Connect Bitrix24 to MailChimp, Dropbox, Slack, and more

Producteev

to organize company projects

If your entire company is using the same project management software, things can quickly get confusing. Producteev is a full-featured to-do list style project management app that solves this problem by providing extra layers of organization in the form of "Networks." With Networks, you can organize projects by department, team, product, or anything else you want. From there, you can add projects, tasks, and people. Quickly add team members, due dates, and labels when you create a tasks, and then use a filter to find the tasks you need later.

Free for: Unlimited users (up to 100) and unlimited projects
Upgrade for: Personalized support and 24hr response time, customizable network colors and logos for $99/month
For a deeper look at Producteev's features and pricing plans, check out our Producteev review.
See Producteev integrations on Zapier: Connect Producteev to Toggl, Gmail, HipChat, and more

Avaza

to manage client projects

Designed to fit organically into your client lifecycle, Avaza organizes client projects from submitting a quote to accepting payment—and everything in-between. Send and track detailed estimates to potential clients, which you can then convert into a project with just one click. Manage your tasks in a to-do list, with sections to break up your work into timeframes or workflows. Sections can include a start and end day as well, so you can plan out a week's worth of work at a time. Keep track of client or team member questions via a Questions tab, where you can keep communication focused and close to your tasks.

In addition to project management features, Avaza also provides native tools for client management, such as a Time & Expenses tab, invoicing tools, and direct payment through PayPal or Stripe.

Free for: Unlimited users, 5 active projects, 10 customers
Upgrade for: 20 active projects, unlimited customers, and more from $9.95/month
For a deeper look at Avaza's features and pricing plans, check out our Avaza review.
See Avaza integrations on Zapier: Connect Avaza to Google Drive, Quickbooks, Xero, and more

Manage One Project—or a Small Team—for Free

Need a project management app with more features, but only need to use it with a small team or on a single project? These tools are perfect for you. They include extra features, and are free for a single project for a team of 5 users—and are perfect when you're first starting out.

Use these tools to get your team started on your first projects. Then, as your team grows, you can upgrade to bring on extra team members and start your next projects.

Free Project Management Apps for Small Teams:

App	Quick Description:	Free for:
Asana	Organize all your tasks in one place	15 users
Wrike	Outline your tasks	5 users
Podio	Build a customized project management tool	5 users
Redbooth	Collaborate on complex projects	10 users

Asana

to organize all your tasks in one place

Your to-do list isn't bad, you just need a few more features to manage your team projects. Asana offers just that. It's a project management tool that lets you break projects down into sections and sub-lists, along with dashboards to see how much of the project has been completed already. You'll add, rearrange, and complete tasks the same way you would in a to-do list app, with the collaboration and organization features you need to work as a team.

For your personal tasks—or the things at work that don't fit into a precise project—you can make extra lists in Asana that are shared with specific people. Your own assigned tasks will also show up in your My Tasks view for a quick way to see the things you need to do most.

Free for: Core features for 15 users
Upgrade for: Private projects and company-wide dashboards from $21/month for five users
For a deeper look at Asana's features and pricing plans, check out our Asana review.
See Asana integrations on Zapier: Connect Asana to Google Sheets, Trello, Gmail, and more

Wrike

to outline your tasks

Have you ever managed projects in a spreadsheet? Wrike offers you the same flexibility of a spreadsheet—with columns for every bit of info you want to track about tasks—combined with the reminders and Gantt chart views that will keep your work on track.

Instead of checking off tasks when they're finished, Wrike has you track each task's status to show how close it is to being completed. Just click the arrow beside a task to mark it as in-progress, deferred, canceled, completed, or any other status you want. And each project list includes a spot for rich text notes to keep track of the extra info needed to get that project completed.

Free for: Core features for 5 users
Upgrade for: Dashboards and advanced integrations starting from $9.80/user/month for up to fifteen users
For a deeper look at Wrike's features and pricing, check out our Wrike review.
See Wrike integrations on Zapier: Connect Wrike to Slack, Google Calendar, Wufoo, and more

Podio

to build a customized project management tool

Want something a bit more customizable? Podio lets you build a hyper-customized project or task manager. With a form style builder, you'll drag-and-drop the fields you want in your projects and tasks to gather the data your projects need. You can then visualize your projects and tasks in lists, cards, or calendar views, and use Podio's built-in search to find any item you need in any of your custom apps.

Tying it all together is Podio's internal social network where you can post updates, ask questions, and chat with your team members. You can use it as the one place to keep track of all of your team's work, with tools for each thing you're working on and the discussions about them all in one place.

Free for: Core features for 5 users
Upgrade for: User management and larger teams from $9/month per user
For a deeper look at Podio's features and pricing plans, check out our Podio review.
See Podio integrations on Zapier: Connect Podio to MailChimp, Slack, Gmail, and more

Redbooth

to collaborate on complex projects

Redbooth is a project management tool designed around collaboration. Hold discussions that are organized by task or project, or just use group chat to quickly communicate with your project team. View your tasks for the day, as well as new notifications and messages, with a personalized project dashboard. Leverage long-form notes to keep track of important project or client information.

Arrange your tasks via a kanban board or a task list, depending on your needs for the project. With detailed task management, communication tools, and flexible reporting, it's everything you need to keep your projects on track in an easy-to-use interface.

Free for: Up to 10 users and 5 workspaces
Upgrade for: Unlimited workspaces, 5GB+ of storage, reporting, and more from $5/month per user
For a deeper look at Redbooth's features and pricing plans, check out our Redbooth review.
See Redbooth integrations on Zapier: Connect Redbooth to Google Sheets, Github, Wufoo, and more

Free Project Management Apps for a Single Project:

App	Quick Description:	Free for:
Teamwork Projects	Break your work into sections with milestones	2 projects
Basecamp	Chat with your team inside projects	1 project
Zoho Projects	Visualize tasks the way you want	1 project
Projectplace	Quickly reschedule tasks when needed	1 project, 5 users
Pivotal Tracker	Organize group projects in public	2 projects, 3 users

Teamwork Projects

to break your work into sections with milestones

Sometimes you need something more specific than a deadline for your full project, but something less specific than dates on each task. Milestones in Teamwork Projects are the perfect fit. They let you group tasks into a list, and give the entire set a deadline for a common goal to work towards. That way, if one task isn't finished today, there's nothing to worry about as long as you're on track to finish the milestone on time.

Teamwork Projects also helps you save time, with templates for everything: projects, task lists, welcome emails, and more. It also helps you keep track of what everyone's working on, with Twitter-style status updates to quickly jot down today's work or questions for the team.

Free for: 2 projects and unlimited users
Upgrade for: File storage and 40 projects starting at $49/month
For a deeper look at Teamwork Projects' features and pricing, check out our Teamwork Projects review.
See Teamwork Projects integrations on Zapier: Connect Teamwork Projects to Trello, Slack, JIRA, and more

Basecamp

to chat with your team inside projects

Basecamp tries to keep everything about a project in one place. You can organize your tasks and schedule, discuss the project in forum-like messages, write rich-text documents, or save attachments to the project. There's also a check-in feature to ask your team a question or have everyone regularly report about their work, along with Campfire live chat to discuss the project in real-time.

That can easily get overwhelming, so Basecamp includes an extra feature that's especially handy for remote teams: Work Can Wait. It's a smart notification scheduler—similar to the Night-time mode on your phone—that will only send you notifications when you're supposed to be working. If a new message comes in during the evening, Basecamp will save it until the morning. Your project can wait until you're ready to work again.

Free for: 1 project and unlimited users
Upgrade for: Unlimited projects for $99/month (with a 50% discount available for charities & non-profits)
For a deeper look at Basecamp's features and pricing, check out our Basecamp 3 review, or check our reviews of Basecamp 2 and Basecamp Classic for a look back at older versions of Basecamp.
See Basecamp integrations on Zapier: Connect Basecamp to Slack, Trello, Google Calendar, and more

Zoho Projects

to visualize tasks the way you want

Can't decide if you need task lists, kanban boards, or Gantt charts most? Don't try to choose, since Zoho Projects includes them all. You can write tasks down in a list, organize them into a kanban workflow, then make sure everything will be done on time in a Gantt chart.

As part of the Zoho suite of apps, Zoho Projects includes tools for almost anything you could need. There's a forum, wiki, discussions, and live chat to collaborate on projects in the way you want. Client projects can fit too, with invoicing and timesheet tools. And it's deeply integrated with both Zoho Docs and Google Docs—and lets you save Microsoft Office files, as well—so you can work on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in your favorite tools.

Free for: 1 project and unlimited users
Upgrade for: File storage and 20+ projects starting at $25/month for your entire team
For a deeper look at Zoho Projects' features and pricing, check out our Zoho Projects review.
See Zoho Projects integrations on Zapier: Connect Zoho Projects to JIRA, Slack, Google Calendar, and more

Projectplace

to quickly reschedule tasks when needed

Projectplace blends workflows and deadlines together in a unique workflow that helps you focus first on breaking your project up into sections, and then adding tasks to complete those sections. You'll list the main goals of your project, add a start and due date to each, and mark which of those goals are dependent on each other.

To add tasks, you'll use the kanban-style board view to arrange the things you need to do in columns. Each column can include a work in progress limit, to make sure you don't have too many tasks in one workflow stage at a time. You can then zoom out to your dashboard and see tasks from every project and section in one place, or reschedule today's tasks by dragging them to the Tomorrow list.

Free for: 1 project and 5 users
Upgrade for: Gantt charts and 3+ projects from $49/month for ten users
For a deeper look at Projectplace's features and pricing, check out our Projectplace review.
See Projectplace integrations on Zapier: Connect Projectplace to Google Sheets, any email app, Slack, and more

Pivotal Tracker

to organize group projects in public

Pivotal Tracker is a tool to keep track of all your projects in customizable dashboards. Each project includes your tasks in a list, divided into sections that show what needs done next. You can pull multiple projects in at once and see as many task lists in one page as you want. Or you can use the Icebox feature to store your extra tasks that you'd like to do someday in an extra list outside your projects.

Pivotal Tracker is free for 2 projects with 3 users. Or if you want to share your projects publicly with the world—perhaps to show your users a roadmap that you're working on or to plan community projects—you can make as many projects as you want for free, and let the entire world join in via shared links.

Free for: Unlimited public projects, or 2 private projects with 3 users
Upgrade for: Full features and 5+ private projects from $12.50/month for five users
For a deeper look at Pivotal Tracker's features and pricing plans, check out our Pivotal Tracker review.
See Pivotal Tracker integrations on Zapier: Connect Pivotal Tracker to Asana, Slack, Trello, and more

Run a Project Management App on Your Own Servers

Want to customize every part of your project management workflow, and make sure your team's work stays private inside your company? Self-hosted project management tools are a great way to accomplish both goals.

Each of these apps let you install them on your servers, for free, and customize them with code or add-ons to make them a perfect fit for your team's work.

App	Quick Description:	Free for:
Taiga	Plan projects in scrum sprints and kanban workflows	1 project hosted; ∞ self-hosted
Lavagna	Design your own customized kanban boards	∞ self-hosted
Redmine	Get just the project management features you want	∞ self-hosted
Odoo	Run all your team's apps in one place	∞ self-hosted

Taiga

to plan projects in scrum sprints and kanban workflows

Taiga lets you choose how to manage each project. It includes a scrum mode, to manage tasks in sprints that help your team focus on what can be accomplished in a specific timeframe, as well as a kanban board for organizing tasks into a workflow. In either mode, you'll find tools to manage issues, write documentation in wikis, and integrations to add features you want.

If you're not quite ready to run Tagia on your own server, there's a hosted version to help you start out. You can run 1 private project on Tagia's servers—or unlimited public projects—and then upgrade for more projects. Or, to customize everything, you can run it on your own servers and tweak every part of its design.

Free for: 1 private hosted project, unlimited public projects, or unlimited private projects on your own server
Upgrade for: From 5 private hosted projects from $19/month

Lavagna

to design your own customized kanban boards

Lavagna makes it easy to manage your projects using your favorite tools. Even with it installed on your own servers, you can use GitHub, Google, and other OAuth providers to log into your projects, so you don't have yet another account to keep track of. It also includes an ics feed of your task due dates, so you can see your deadlines along with other events in your favorite calendar app.

You can break each project down into both kanban workflows and milestones, and get a quick overview of how the project's going with reports. On your dashboard, you can get a quick at-a-glance view of each project's progress, along with a list of your own tasks that need done next.

Free for: Unlimited self-hosted projects

Redmine

to get exactly the project management features you want

Redmine is one of the most customizable self-hosted project management apps. By default, it's a bit bare-bones, with a design reminiscent of the original version of Basecamp. Install some of Redmine's hundreds of plugins and themes, though, and you can turn it into the project tool you want.

By default, it includes the tools you need to manage tasks and issues, plan your work on Gantt charts, and collaborate in wikis and forums. With plugins, you can add checklists to tasks, track time, organize tasks in a kanban board, and even add tools for CRM, code, and more.

Free for: Unlimited self-hosted projects
For a deeper look at Redmine's features, check out our Redmine review.
See Redmine integrations on Zapier: Connect Redmine to Trello, Slack, Gmail, and more

Odoo

to run all your team's apps in one place

You need a tool to manage your projects, but you likely also need tools to sell products, track your inventory, log your accounting data, and more. Odoo is an all-in-one app that includes tools for these and more—and with the self-hosted Odoo Community Edition, you can get them all for free.

The project tool includes everything you need to manage projects in kanban boards and Gantt charts. For everything else, there's always an Odoo app that can handle the task. You can track time and link it to the accounting app or log notes to the discussion app. Working on client projects? You'll manage the contacts in the CRM, and link them to their projects in the project app. It's a simple way to link all of your work together.

Free for: Unlimited self-hosted apps for projects and more
Upgrade for: Hosted versions of each app from $25/month per user for each app
For a deeper look at Odoo's open-source features and pricing plans, check out our review of the self-hosted version of Odoo, OpenERP.
See Odoo and OpenERP integrations on Zapier: Connect OpenERP to WooCommerce, WordPress, Google Calendar, and more

Add Extra Features to Your Project Management App

Need more features from your new project management tool? Zapier integrations can help by connecting your project management app to the other tools your team already uses.

Say you want to add tasks to projects via email, but your new app doesn't include that feature. Just connect both your email and project management tool to Zapier, then have Zapier watch for new messages and turn them into tasks in your project management app.

Check out Zapier's app integrations to find your favorite apps, then use these examples as inspiration to make your project management app even better with integrations:

Track Time & Send Invoices

Whether you're working on client projects and need to bill for each hour spent, or are working on your own projects and want to know how long they take, time tracking apps can help you see where every minute goes. Hook up your projects to your time tracking app, and you can log time just by checking off to-dos.

Chat With Your Team

Team chat apps are a great way to make sure everyone knows what's happening in your projects. Zapier can connect your project management tool to Slack, HipChat, and other popular chat apps so you can notify your team about new tasks and deadlines, or start new projects right from your chats.

Organize Project Data

Projects include a lot of moving parts, and Zapier can help pull them all together. Whether you need to add notes to your project, create contracts and other template documents, log your work into a spreadsheet, or anything else, there's a Zap for that.

Learn More About Project Management

Get the Free eBook!

Project management is far more than just an app—it's a way to take your project from idea to completion. You could just grab a project management app and start using it at random, but your projects would be far more successful if you break your tasks down into steps, add milestones and due dates to keep things on track, and use checklists to ensure each task is completed with the same quality and care.

Zapier's Ultimate Guide to Project Management teaches you that and more. It walks you through the best project management systems, teaches you how to manage projects effectively, and shows you the best tools to get things done.

Download a copy today, and take the guesswork out of your next projects.

source https://zapier.com/blog/free-project-management-software/

Wednesday 29 March 2017

Quantified Self 101: 3 Steps to Using Your Personal Metrics for Self-Improvement

How do you define a productive day? How does your coworker define one? How about your mom?

There’s no right answer. All of us have different goals, different work styles, different priorities. The only constant factor is this: We want to do more important work, with better results, in less time.

There are a lot of different factors that affect your productivity, from mood to environment to health to distractions. To be more productive, you first have to understand the conditions and elements that contribute to your best days—and your worst.

The Quantified Self (also known as lifelogging) movement advocates knowing yourself better through self-tracking with technology. The idea is that, the more you know about yourself—your inputs (ie, food consumed), states (ie, mood), and mental or physical performance—the more you will be able to improve your inputs and affect your behaviors in ways you desire.

The theory is solid, and has led to the popularity of tracking apps. There's one catch: Having the right data won’t change your life. You have to interact with and apply it in meaningful ways.

These three steps will help you do just that.

Step 1: Gather Data

First, ask yourself: What are you trying to improve? Make the answer as specific as possible. "Get healthier" is not as powerful a goal as "eat 8 servings of vegetables every day" or "do 30 minutes of cardio daily." Don’t be afraid to break an aspiration down into small, SMART—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound—goals.

Once you have a specific goal, you can determine what data to track. There are a lot of excellent tools that can help gather this data—everything from devices like smart watches and Fitbit to software like RescueTime.

The key is to look beyond the numbers themselves, and look at the trends and patterns they reveal over time. While you can chart this data in a chart or spreadsheet, an easier option is to use a dashboard app like Exist, Gyroscope, or Instant. These tools gather data from multiple sources—including your smartphone, Fitbit, or online accounts—and process them into usable reports.

Once you’ve decided on the apps you’ll use and have started collecting data, you’ll want to wait somewhere between a week and a month before you move on to Step 2. This gives the apps enough time to collect enough data to accurately reflect your daily life.

When you have this snapshot of your activities and metrics across weeks and months, you’re ready to really dive into the data and start looking for trends.

Step 2: Don’t Make the Data Too Easy

If you’ve ever tried to track personal metrics, I’m sure this statement won’t surprise you: it’s not enough to have access to the data. It’s easy to think that tracking calories, exercise, or productivity at work will automatically lead to changes in behavior, but that almost never happens.

The reason for this, some psychologists now say, is that the data is just too easy to absorb. Recent psychological literature shows that when information is easy to consume, it’s actually far less effective.

In his Psychology Today article Online Behavior and Disfluency: The Ugliness Payoff, psychologist Diogo Gonçalves describes it this way:

When it comes to learning and memory, making things easier is not always ideal, because fluency makes people less likely to comprehend and remember what they read. Thus, contrary to the idea that the easier the better, making material harder to read—what researchers in cognition called disfluency—might actually improve comprehension.

This principle is contrary to the design theory that governs most popular apps, which says the interfaces and interactions should be as easy to use as possible. This means that, as a rule, the apps you use to gather your data will make the data simple and easy to process.

But if you really want this data to make a difference in your life, you’ll have to dig past the visually pleasing reports and dashboards.

Author Charles Duhigg, in a segment with 538’s "What’s the Point" podcast, explains why.

Often, paradoxically, to make data work for you, you have to slow it down and make it harder to absorb. […] In order to learn something, you actually have to play with it, and to play with it, you have to use it in a way that is not simple at first.

Duhigg goes on to use the example of a bathroom scale that automatically sends your weight to your iPhone and creates beautiful charts with it:

It’s so easy to see how your weight has changed over the last two weeks. But it turns out that the correlation between that and actually losing weight is almost non existent. That’s because it’s so easy to look at that chart, that you look at it, and then you just look at something else.

A researcher colleague of Duhigg's experimented with this problem, and found a solution when he asked his study group to recreate these weight charts by hand every Sunday night. Seems almost stupidly simple, right? But the results spoke for themselves:

This caused a bigger behavioral change, because when people are drawing that chart, they think to themselves "Oh, my weight went up on Wednesday, and I remember on Wednesday I woke up late and I got something disgusting to eat and I was rushing to work and I didn’t get a chance to work out."

You start seeing these connections. But you only see those connections if you interact with the data. So in many ways the question isn’t just can you collect the data, but can you collect the data and then force yourself to do something with it that turns it into actual knowledge.

Find a way to interact with your data that works with your schedule and personality; just make sure it’s not too easy. Here are a few ideas to get you started.

Chart the Data by Hand. Using the research of the study group mentioned by Duhigg, even doing something as simple as copying your app data by hand will make you interact more with the data, which leads to more of the behavioral changes you want.
Look for Outliers. When you look at your data, keep an eye out for days or metrics that stand out from the rest, or were very different from what you expected. Take the time to look for patterns among these outliers. Figure out why they occurred, and what you can do about them (either to recreate them or eliminate them).
Identify the Variables. Your data will be constantly shifting. It’s your job to figure out why it shifts the way it does. Go beyond just noticing weekly or monthly patterns—dig in, and look for the "why" behind the patterns.
Take Notes. By journaling, or even just jotting down some notes on a daily basis, you are consciously giving your attention to the qualitative variables in your day.

Once you start to understand your data, you’re ready to move onto the last step: experimentation.

Step 3: Experiment with the Data

"When we encounter new information and want to learn from it, we should force ourselves to do something with the data."Charles Duhigg

So now you’ve gathered data and you’ve studied the data, but you’re still only two-thirds of the way there. After all, what good is knowing if it doesn’t translate to doing?

In his book Smarter, Faster, Better, Charles Duhigg summarizes his findings when studying people who used data effectively. The key, he says, is:

The people who are most successful at learning […] are the ones who know how to use disfluency to their advantage. They transform what life throws at them, rather than just taking it as it comes. They know the best lessons are those that force us to do something and to manipulate information. They take data and transform it into experiments whenever they can.

This is the key to using personal data to make changes in your life. It’s not enough to know your health or productivity trends and then try to "do better." Once you have gathered and studied your data, it’s time to run some experiments.

Experimenting with your life forces you to engage more fully with your daily experience. It forces you to pay attention to the little details that have a big impact on your life.

For example, if you’re tracking your sleep via an armband or app, don’t just accept the data—play with it. How does the data (your sleep quantity and quality) change if you turn off all screens an hour before bedtime? How does it change if you use a new pillow, or adjust your sleep schedule?

Or if you’re trying to reduce time spent on Facebook, don’t just use your RescueTime reports as shock and awe. Run experiments. How does your usage change if you move your phone away from your nightstand? How does it change if you turn off notifications, or if you delete the Facebook app? (For example, I found that deleting my Facebook app and not checking Facebook until after 11:30am led to a significant decrease in how much time and attention I gave the app later in the day.)

The variables may seem small, but they are the knobs and levers that you must use to adjust yourself to peak productivity. It will take several experiments, and you’ll hit a lot of dead ends, but if you refuse to become passive about your self-data, you will continue to find new ways to improve your productivity.

Now you know how to start changing your life through self-knowledge, but the "how" won't matter unless you attach it to a "why"—the reason you want to change—as well as "when" and "where" you'll get started. So pick one problem you’re facing and walk through these steps. Tweak them, customize them for your life and personality. But above all, never stop learning and experimenting.

Chart image by William Iven.

source https://zapier.com/blog/quantified-self-101/

Tuesday 28 March 2017

PORTER-CABLE 690LR Router Review: RAW Powerrrrrr….

A router is one of the most useful tools in your arsenal, especially a compact router that will allow you to move the tool around freely and especially a plunge router that will allow you to begin cutting at any point on the material that you want to work with.

Routers allow you to hollow out grooves or ‘routes’ and this allows you to trace all manner of complex shapes. You can use them to cut the ends off of pieces of wood as you would do a saw, or you can cut intricate patterns as you might do with a jigsaw. Moreover, you can use them for making attractive fluting patterns, for rounding off corners, for punching holes…

In short, this is one of the most versatile tools out there and it’s something you definitely want to invest in. But if you’re going to be buying a tool that’s so important and so valuable, then of course you need to ensure that you’re buying one that is going to be up to the challenges that you throw at it.

The PORTER-CABLE 690LR is a nice looking router but is it one that you can actually use on a daily basis? It’s affordable, but are you making big compromises in terms of power here?

Great Design & Extreme Power

The PORTER-CABLE 690LR is a slick looking piece of kit with a chrome and black colorscheme. This is a small detail but I am personally a big fan of any tool that uses a monochrome aesthetic. Why? Because normally, tools will tend to use the colorscheme of their particular branding. Dewalt is yellow and black for instance.

This is fine, except when you have tools form a few different companies, you end up with a very colorful workshop which isn’t a great look!

The PORTER-CABLE 690LR is nice and conservative in its color palette and that is ideal for a tool that’s going to fit in no matter how you decorate. It also looks good in terms of the obvious build quality and it feels equally good in the hands.

In terms of performance, it has pretty much everything you could ask for. The 11 amp motor offers up 1 ¾ peak horsepower. That’s some pretty good performance and especially for the price. Excellent power to cost ratio right here! The speed is 27,500 RPM which is also pretty good but something missing here is adjustable speed settings. A bit of a bummer seeing as you can get that option in cheaper devices but not the end of the world for most people who will be working primarily with wood.

There’s also a cam-lock lever which allows for simple adjustments of the coarse height and motor release. Micrometer depth adjuster is accurate to 1/128 inch, which is perfect for getting a very precise looking groove in your wood. Bit removal is fast and easy too and in short, it has a lot going for it.

Pros and Cons

So what are the pros and cons of this device?

The pros are the power, the excellent build quality (it’s machine cut aluminum, which explains the great look and feel) and the look of the thing. This is a nice premium feeling and looking tool with enough power to make easy work of most jobs.

The cons are the lack of speed adjustments, which is a bit of a shame and there’s no mention of electronic speed control. In our experience, we found that the cuts were very clean and smooth and generally we had no trouble with it. But if you’re looking for the most consistent cutting possible, then that is something to consider.

A few people have also mentioned that the position of the switch placement and the convenience of the lever release are not as useful as on previous models. We didn’t find this to be a problem but it is something to consider.

Conclusion

Overall, this is an excellent tool that provides great speed and power for the price and that has a particularly premium feeling build-quality. The only real disappointment is the lack of speed adjustment, while some find that the position of buttons and levers could be better. If you’re not picky though, you’ll love this router!

from Toolerant http://www.toolerant.com/porter-cable-690lr-router-review-raw-powerrrrrr/

source https://toolerant.tumblr.com/post/158917217400

PORTER CABLE PCC670B Review: Too basic for a Reciprocating Saw?

A reciprocating saw is an incredibly useful tool to have around the house. This is a tool that isn’t particularly precise and that doesn’t have much finesse but that makes up for it with sheer versatility. In many ways, this is just as versatile as a hand saw but then adds a lot more power on top of that and gives you something that you can use to cut through pipe, branches, thick pits of wood, sheet metal and more.

And that’s precisely what you will need for a lot of jobs – something that’s ready to go and that can reach into small gaps or be used at odd angles. Perhaps the best way to describe this tool is as being ‘unfussy’. And that’s an incredible advantage for a lot of home improvement and DIY tasks.

But while the tool might not be fussy, you’re still going to have some minimum requirements here and there are still some basic things you need to look for. The question is whether the PORTER CABLE PCC670B is up to the task and whether it can become your new partner in crime for a wide range of household tasks.

Product Description

It must be said that this is a nice looking tool. We’ve reviewed a huge number of tools and I’ve always wondered why they don’t have nicer designs. This is a hobby for a lot of people and that means we want to feel good while we’re at work! Why give us plasticky tools that look cheap and that have ugly, worksite colorschemes. These are powerful, beastly machines… why not make them look like it?

Well this one kind of does. In fact, it looks a little like a prop from the next Ghostbusters film. It’s off to a good start.

The tool is also capable of some fairly decent power to match the beefier design. It has a max speed setting of 3,000SPM and a good stroke length of 1”. Importantly, you also get variable speeds to help you cut through a range of materials, which means it is suitable for use with sheet metal. The tool is also surprisingly small and light, which is great for reaching into smaller spaces. In fact, it is just 14.5” in length, which is perfect for getting into small spots.

As you would expect, the blade exchange is tool free, which means you can quickly and easily swap out the blade to ensure you have the right one for the job.

But the real question is what this tool is like to use. And the answer is that it is really rather nice. The power is impressive in action and you’ll have no problem sawing through branches and through a wide range of piping, metal and thick wood. Of course this still finds itself at the budget end of the spectrum but it feels very good to use and being so light combined with the power means that you’ll have no problem working in a range of different settings.

Pros and Cons

The pros and cons here are what you would expect from a mid-range recip saw but with a few more positives than negatives. We really enjoyed using this cordless recip while we reviewed it and especially because it was so light, so relatively powerful and so easy to use. The stroke length is decent too.

But of course the drawback is simply the limitations that are inherent for a tool of this nature. You could get more power if you spent a little more, it would be nice to have a light for instance or a rotating shoe – and you could always get a better stroke length too which would mean your blades lasted longer.

But then you’d pay more. For this budget, this is a great deal.

Conclusion

Overall, the PORTER CABLE PCC670B is a great reciprocating saw. It is rather basic but it offers decent power and decent portability at the same time and it doesn’t cost the Earth. What’s more, is that it sports a really awesome design that looks a lot nicer than most of the other reciprocating saws on the market. That’s not important but it’s certainly more than welcome!

from Toolerant http://www.toolerant.com/porter-cable-pcc670b-review-too-basic-for-a-reciprocating-saw/

source https://toolerant.tumblr.com/post/158917217240

Milwaukee 6955-20 Miter Saw Review: Awkward to use?

Miter saws can help make life easier for DIYers and woodworkers in a vast number of ways. First and foremost, these types of saws allow you to enjoy absolute precision in your cuts and even in your bevel cuts without having half the headache that you would have otherwise. Sure, you can make precise angled cuts with a jigsaw or even a handheld saw if you have a ton of patience and you’re willing to draw a ton of pencil all of your wood and rub it out a thousand times, but with a miter saw, there’s no need to show your working and there’s none of that headache. Instead, you simply place the wood onto the base, angle the saw precisely where you want it and then push it down to cut through the material.

This means that you can focus more on the parts of woodwork you enjoy (because making perfectly angled cuts is probably not it!) and it means that the end result will be something that’s a lot more precise and a lot more attractive.

So a miter saw is a considerable upgrade for your workshop that will fundamentally change the way you work in a very positive way.

The big question though, is what kind of miter saw you need, how much you’re willing to pay and what features you can’t do without. In this review, we’ll take a look at the Milwaukee 6955-20 to see if it is the one for you.

Product Description

This is a 12inch sliding dual bevel miter saw with a digital miter angle fine adjust. What does all that mean? It means it’s got pretty much all the bells and whistles attached. Unlike those bare bones 10” miter saws that don’t slide and only bevel in one direction, this will let you cut through larger pieces of wood, it will let you create bevels at multiple angles and it will save you even more time. The 12 inches of steel cutting through your wood also means you can make deeper cuts and gives you considerably more power and weight to work with.

The design looks impressive too. This is an industrial looking piece of equipment in red, silver and black and it has a weighty construction and good quality feel. 15 amps of power isn’t shockingly high for a 12inch blade but it should suffice for most and combined with the well-made design, it’s enough to cut through most materials you’ll throw at it (note: throwing things at it is not how you use this tool!).

Some nice extra features are also included, which you might expect of a relatively higher-end tool like this. For instance, you get dual ‘job-site lights’ which will help to illuminate the workspace. There’s also an integral dust channel which the manufacturer states will hoover up 75 of all dust for you.

Pros and Cons

The power is quite good here at 3.3HP, the build quality is nice and the size, sliding and bevel options are all good. There’s a sturdy fence too and good capacity. The 9 positive bevel stops are welcome too. So what, if anything, is missing?

Well, the first thing that is a little less than stellar is the position of the handle. This isn’t a big issue and it will also be a matter of opinion. But in our testing, we found that the handle was in a bit of an unusual angle which made it somewhat awkward to use. The vertical capacity could also be a little better and the increment on the bevel scale leaves something to be desired.

There is also a slight omission in the lack of a laser. Now, there’s no hard and fast rule that all miter saws must have a laser and you may find that you personally don’t need one. But we do like to see them and it is something that we felt was missing during our review.

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great miter saw – don’t let our few complaints put you off! Sure, there’s no laser and in a couple of ways the design could be better. But the overall message here is that this offers great power and versatility in a well put-together package!

from Toolerant http://www.toolerant.com/milwaukee-6955-20-miter-saw-review-awkward-to-use/

source https://toolerant.tumblr.com/post/158916911840

Use Your Work and Learning Styles to Build Better Professional Relationships

Everyone has their own unique preferences, habits, and strategies for getting work done. These range from small things—like you can’t concentrate without ambient noise—to bigger ones—like you’d rather sit in a two-hour presentation about a topic than read a 50-page report about it.

The better you know your personal work style, the more you can tailor your approach and environment.

But it’s not so simple as soon as you introduce other people into the equation. Your team members have their own preferences, habits, and strategies—and those idiosyncrasies will occasionally clash with yours.

Maybe your boss sends you emails filled with half-baked ideas. She loves getting her thoughts down so you can run with them; however, you find it much easier to sit with her one-on-one and learn more about what she’s envisioning and which ideas you should prioritize. Or maybe you prefer to get everything in writing and skip real-time conversations altogether.

If you ignore these differences, you’ll sabotage your productivity. But if you insist on your way or the highway, you’ll sabotage your professional relationships.

Luckily, there’s a third option: finding a happy medium between your colleagues’ work styles and your own.

Forget the Golden Rule

Most of us know the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

While the sentiment is right, this principle can steer you wrong at work. After all, it takes for granted that everyone has the same preferences and goals as you—which isn’t the case.

Dave Kerpen, author of The Art of People: 11 Simple People Skills That Will Get You Everything You Want, explains we should instead follow the Platinum Rule: Do unto others as they would want done to them.

In practice, this means continually questioning your assumptions about how your coworkers want to work with you. Before you make a decision involving someone else, ask yourself, “Am I doing it this way or making this choice based on their work style or mine?”

For instance, maybe you always schedule meetings in the first half of the day because you like uninterrupted work time in the afternoons.

But if your report doesn’t feel truly awake until 11 a.m., an early morning check-in might not be productive.

Being aware of potential work style conflicts will help you avoid them. That’s not to say you should let others’ styles override your own all the time. To reach a happy equilibrium, know when you should compromise and when you shouldn’t.

Identify Your Deal Breakers

Before you can figure out where you’re willing to adapt, you need to identify your “deal breakers.” In other words, what are the work habits or practices critical to your productivity and happiness?

For example, a sales manager I know refuses to use Slack. He’s discovered it’s too difficult to get his everyday work done while fielding constant messages from his sales reps, the product team, customer success associates, marketers, etc. If you want to get in touch with this manager, you need to email him.

While this might be an extreme example, it gives you an idea of what your line in the sand might be. On the flip side, you could have a coworker who vastly prefers communicating over Slack. She thinks it’s far more efficient to answer a quick message than read and respond to an email.

To hone in your dealbreakers, ask yourself:

How do I like to send and receive information?
Which productivity tools do I use frequently?
Have I replaced or changed any work habits because they weren’t efficient?
Looking at the last few times I was frustrated with a team member, can I find any trends?
When do I feel the most and least focused?

Identify Your Non-Deal Breakers

Once you’ve pinpointed the elements of your work style you’re relatively unwilling to modify or cut out, think about what you’re less tied to.

To give you an idea, maybe you’re equally happy starting a project with a loose outline and timeframe as an extremely detailed, structured action plan. Or perhaps you don’t mind whether your coworkers want to collaborate in a shared Google doc or hold an in-person brainstorming team and whiteboard your thoughts.

Having this personal knowledge is incredibly powerful. Now, you can essentially negotiate with your team members to find a work style that suits you both.

Develop Compromises with Your Coworkers

Consider letting your coworkers know you’d like to talk about their work preferences and how you both can be as productive as possible.

Here’s a sample email template you can use for new team members:

Hi (coworker’s name),

I’m excited to work with you on (X project, Y goal, the Z team)! :) Do you want to chat for 20 minutes or so about our individual work styles and how we can help each other succeed?

Thanks,
(Your name)

Here’s an email template for team members you’re already working with:

Hey (coworker’s name),

Working with you on (X project, Y goal, the Z team) has been great so far. I’d love to learn more about your individual work style and preferences and if there’s anything you’d like to modify about how we work together.

Do you have 20 minutes to chat?

Thanks,
(Your name)

If they agree, let them know you’ve outlined your productivity “must-haves” and would love to know theirs, too. (You can send them this article for reference in advance.)

Kick off the meeting by reiterating the purpose (to lay some collaboration guidelines that you’ll both be satisfied with), then ask them to describe their general work style.

Here are some questions that may be useful:

How do you like to run meetings (with a set agenda, over a chat platform, etc.)?
Which method of communication do you like best (phone, email, video conference, text, chat, in-person conversations, etc.)?
How often do you like to check in (once a day, once a week, once a month, when a significant milestone is reached, etc)?
If I have questions, should I email them to you, come by your desk, send you a message over chat, ping you on our project management platform, or call you?
Are there certain times of day you block aside for specific activities? Do you have any preferences about when I schedule meetings?

Note where you overlap. For instance, if you both prefer weekly status updates, say, “That’s great, I’m also a fan of checking in once per week.”

When you differ, delve into their rationale. Figuring out why they like doing something a certain way will make it easier to find a compromise.

To give you an idea, maybe you find weekly check-ins excessive. You might ask, “What are the benefits of checking in once per week versus every two weeks or month?” or “In your experience, does a weekly check-in help you catch errors before they’re a big deal?”

Once they give you some context, you may decide there’s a good reason for their preference. Here’s a handy response:

“I usually do it (other way), but I’m happy to adapt because your way makes a lot of sense.”

Being flexible in this area will make your coworker more likely to compromise in a different area.

However, if you’re still not bought-in, instead say something along the lines of, “I understand why you prefer that. I tend to prefer (other way). Can we meet in the middle—maybe by doing (middle version)…?”

By the end of the meeting, you should have created a collaboration strategy that suits both your styles.

Identify Your Boss’s Work Style

Depending on your relationship and company culture, a slightly less casual approach might be necessary with your boss. Use this template to request a meeting:

Hi (boss’s name),

I’ve really enjoyed working with and learning from you these past (X months). I realized we’ve never had a formal discussion about work style. To ensure I’m doing the best job in this role as possible, I’d like to talk about your preferences for communication, meetings, and so on. Do you have 30 minutes this (week, month)?

Thanks,
(Your name)

During the meeting, consider covering:

Their preferred method of teaching you, answering questions, and helping solve problems
Their preferred meeting format, time, length, and style
How they make decisions
Their expectations for work quality and speed (Is “done better than perfect” or should you spend additional time making sure your work is error-free?)

The initial email and the agenda focus on your manager’s work style because in many offices you’re expected to conform to your manager’s work style.

However, a good boss will take your preferences into account. If they’re in the second camp, this meeting gives them an opportunity to learn about your work style. Once they’ve responded to your questions, they’ll naturally ask questions like, “And what do you prefer?”, “How do you normally work best?”, and “What can I do to make you successful?”

Bonus: Identify Learning Styles

A quick quiz can help you find your strongest learning style

If you’re working extremely closely with someone (like a direct team member or manager), consider identifying their learning style as well. The way people absorb information is closely tied to the way they work; plus, you can use this to avoid misinterpretation and miscommunication.

According to Howard Gardner, a Professor of Education at Harvard University, there are seven (or more) basic types of intelligence. His Multiple Intelligences Theory states, “the mind is better described as consisting of eight or nine relatively separate faculties.”

While every person has every type of intelligence, they’re usually stronger in one or two and weaker in the others. Unsurprisingly, it’s easiest for them to learn in a way that reflects their primary intelligence.

Here are the seven types of learning styles:

Visual-spatial: Can understand the relationship between images and meanings and objects and space.
Interpersonal: Can recognize, understand, and influence other people’s emotions, wants, and desires.
Linguistic: Can use words (both written and verbal) to express their ideas and learn new concepts.
Intrapersonal: Can understand one’s own emotions, wants, and desires and control them as needed.
Kinesthetic: Can use their body to convey information and ideas.
Logical-mathematical: Can solve abstract problems, analyze complex information, recognize patterns, and develop calculations.
Musical: Can appreciate, create, and reproduce music.

It’s usually easiest to identify your coworker’s primary intelligence by asking them. Shoot them an email with a link to this test and pay attention to the words he or she uses.

For instance, if you say, “Could I please get your feedback on my lead gen ideas?”:

a kinesthetic person might say, “Hit me”
a visual person might say, “Let’s see what you’ve got”
a logical-mathematical person might say, “I’d be happy to review them”

Of course, a single answer can’t tell you what their primary intelligence is—but if you keep track over time, you should notice a trend.

It’s also helpful to observe how they naturally communicate.

Do they default to drawing on a whiteboard or sending you screenshots and screencasts? They’re probably a visual thinker.
Do they use their hands and physical objects to explain their ideas? They’re probably a kinesthetic thinker.
Do they send you detailed emails, write reports, and give presentations? They’re probably a linguistic thinker.
Do they spontaneously come up with jingles or raps during conversations? They’re probably a musical thinker.
Are they reflective, calm, and the go-to person in a crisis? They’re probably an intrapersonal thinker.
Are they charismatic, universally well-liked, and a natural leader? They’re probably an interpersonal thinker.
Are they one of the first to spot a pattern or discrepancy in the data? They’re probably a logical-mathematical thinker.

Once you’ve figured out which category your colleague fits into, tailor your communication method appropriately.

Let’s say your boss is a linguistic thinker. Instead of sending her your monthly report in a Powerpoint deck, like you usually do, consider sending a straightforward text document.

Whether you’re a freelancer, an individual contributor, or a leader, other people must interact and collaborate with you to get their own job done. Your partnership will be far more successful (not to mention, enjoyable), if you’re working in a way that suits you both. These strategies will help you build and reinforce mutually productive professional relationships with anyone.

source https://zapier.com/blog/work-learning-styles/

Monday 27 March 2017

How to Make Fill-in-the-Blank Questions in an Online Form

It came as a flash while reading on a lazy Saturday morning, as all good ideas do. I wonder if you could make a fill-in-the-blank question in an online form?

Sounds easy enough. Turns out, not quite so much.

Online form builders pride themselves on including dozens of question types—but as it turns out, fill-in-the-blank questions aren't that commonly supported. Most forms show questions one after another, with a title followed by a text box or dropdown to enter the answer.

I wanted a form where you could ask "How do you __ in App?", with the blank area being a text area and App a drop-down to pick an app name. The best you could do in most form apps—say, in Google Forms for instance—is to split the question into two sections. I instead wanted something more like this—which is possible with a bit more work.

Turns out, there are ways to build real fill-in-the-blank questions, though they often take a workaround. Here's how I built my form in JotForm—along with a handful of other apps that could also fit the bill.

Just open JotForm, and make a free account if you don't already have one. That'll let you get up to 100 responses to your form each month for free—perfect for starting out.

Then drag in the form elements your form will need. To make my form, I need 5 elements: Three text elements, a short text entry element, and a dropdown element. Drag them in one after the other and enter the correct text. Here I've entered How do you in the first text element, then I added a short text entry box where people can enter their question. I then have a second text element with the word in, followed by a dropdown to select their app and a final text element with a ? to finish the sentence.

The short text and dropdown elements will include a question at the top by default. Just remove that text—we don't need the question above the form field, as we're writing the question inline.

You'll only need to tweak one field's settings: The dropdown. Select it, then tap the gear icon to open the properties pane and select the Options tab there. Enter the options you want in the dropdown to finish it out. I've added the apps people can ask questions about—you might list other options or perhaps skip the dropdown if you only want a text question.

Now, let's tweak the questions to get everything in one line. Open each form element's properties pane, select Advanced, and tap the Shrink slider. That'll make the form element shrink down as small as possible.

As you do that, one by one the elements will line up in a sentence—or almost. With 5 form elements, our sentence takes up two lines by default.

To fix that, tap the paint roller icon on the right of JotForm's screen to open the Form Designer. Select the Styles tab, then enter a new width for your form. 800 worked well for our form; yours may need a different size depending on your fill-in-the-blank question.

The Designer pane includes a number of other options to tweak your form's design. You can remove the question spacing to line things up better, choose a font that fits your site's design, and select new colors for your form. JotForm also includes pre-made themes—though be careful, as your fill-in-the-blank question may look different in them.

The best way to make your form look just like you want is to select the Advanced Designer button at the bottom of the Designer pane. That'll open a full designer window, where you can select each element on your form and customize it directly. If you're comfortable customizing CSS code, you can add it from the CSS pane. Select an element in your form, and you can then directly write CSS for it without having to figure out the element name.

The JotForm forum includes a number of tips and tricks to customize your form's design, with CSS code to remove the shadow from a form, decrease padding, remove form field borders, and much more. Decreasing the padding is most important; you'll want to add negative padding to most of your form columns, to make the sentence not have so much space between elements and look more like a real sentence.

Between those tips and other CSS tricks, I got our form to look the way I wanted. The text field looks like a blank in a fill-in-the-blank sentence, and the dropdown barely looks like a dropdown. It's similar to a paper fill-in-the-blank quiz, except in a digital online form.

And that's it. With a bit of tweaking, uncovering hidden features, and coding in CSS, your new form can look like this:

Use Your Fill-in-the-Blank Questions

Send email notification after filling in form in JotForm

Now it's time to put your form results to work. Normally, you'd just need the answers—but this time, you might need to format stuff a bit different to make sure you see the question the same way your respondent did.

In JotForm's Settings, you can send an email to your respondent or yourself with details about what they entered. Normally, JotForm will show each question and answer in a table. Delete that, and instead write out your sentence, filling in the blanks with your form fields.

Want to save your form responses to a spreadsheet, get notified about them in Slack, or turn them into a document in WebMerge? You can do that and more with JotForm's Zapier integrations. Just, as in the email, be careful to recreate your full sentence from the form elements to make sure things don't get confusing.

Make a Fill-in-the-Blank Question in Your Favorite Form App

JotForm's not the only form app that lets you make a fill-in-the-blank question in your online form. All you need to make one is a form that supports multiple columns—and ideally that lets you remove the question text from above text and dropdown options.

Here are some options that fit the bill, at least in part:

PlanSo Forms may be the next best option. Use its Paragraph element to add text, and just drag-and-drop the sections near each other to instantly turn them into a multi-column sentence.
123ContactForm also lets you drag form fields side-by-side, though you're capped at 4 fields in one row—so you couldn't include the question mark in our form.
Wufoo includes CSS Keywords, which you can use to arrange up to 3 form fields in a row for a simple fill-in-the-blank question.
Gravity Forms, a form plugin for WordPress-powered sites, uses similar CSS Ready Classes to let you add up to 5 columns—which you could use to create a form like the one above.
Formstack does include multiple columns, but text and dropdown fields are required to include a header—which would require some thoughtful writing make your fill-in-the-blank question look correct.

Learn More About Forms with The Ultimate Guide to Forms and Surveys

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Online form apps are some of the most versatile tools. You can put together a quick contact form for your site or build a prototype of your next app idea all with a drag-and-drop form editor.

They're simple enough to learn how to use, but are also packed with hidden features that you'll have to poke around to find. We've done that research for you, pulling together best apps, tips, and tricks for forms and surveys in our Ultimate Guide to Forms and Surveys book. Whether you need a new app for your next form, or are wondering how to analyze your survey results, it's the free guide you should read first.

source https://zapier.com/blog/fill-in-the-blank-form/