Have you heard of collaboration tools?  Well, you may have heard their names, but not realized what they were. Collaboration Tools are what the name implies: online tools that allow your team to collaborate on projects. The beauty of these online tools is that you can collaborate across the room, across the state, across the country, or even across the world 🙂  So now, your team can be ANYwhere and still know what is going on in your project.  So yes, collaboration tools help your team stay up-to-date on all the projects they are working on in your business.

Most collaboration tools work similarly (although they may use different terms). You create a work-space and invite your team to join you in that work-space. Then, you create projects within that work-space. This can be anything from typing up your weekly blog, scheduling a book or product launch, or creating a new product.  Within each project, you can assign tasks to each team member and delegate the workload.  Most tools allow you to set up due dates and/or times so your team knows when things need to get done. The followers of that project can always see the updates that are going on, and even make comments to help if they need to.

As a Virtual Assistant, collaboration tools are incredibly helpful with my scheduling and task-work. My clients and I use them to basically make check-lists of what need to be done, when they need to be done, and stay updated on each other’s progress without having to get on a daily phone call to check in with each other.  If I need to know something, I can just go to that project and see what updates have happened since I last checked, and my client can do the same thing.

Personally, and for my business, I like to use Asana. It integrates with my Google Calendar, and sends me email notifications when I need them (you can set up your own preferences, for that, too!). It just seems to work with my organization style best. But, this is a personal preference for me. I also have clients that have used Nozbe and loved it as well. Same concept, just a different program.

So what are the differences? Here is a quick snapshot (click on the image to enlarge it if you need to):

You can visit Asana and Nozbe‘s websites for more complete information.