Great Chitter Chatter - Stories from Loud Voices

Managing a project effectively can be both extremely difficult and an organisational nightmare. Many project managers find a huge amount of their time taken up trying to organise people, information and completed or outstanding work.

But it doesn’t always have to be this difficult, as there are numerous online tools availbale to help you. Have a look through the list below and check them out for yourself. You never know, you could end up saving yourself a lot of time, money and stress:

1. BASECAMP
An extremely versatile and widely used project management tool, Basecamp is fantastic if you’re managing a large or virtual team. It contains numerous options to help you manage projects effectively, including allocating jobs to specific team-members, communicating with clients, uploading work, etc. etc. It’s not a free service, but will undoubtedly come in useful.

2. VYEW
An initially free service (although monthly fees come into force after your free trial period), Vyew is a real-time collaboration platform that allows users to meet and dicuss projects virtually, before creating content which the whole team can work on together via the excellent desktop sharing facilities.

3. TEAMWORK PROJECT MANAGER
This is essentially a streamlined version of Basecamp, where all the different people involved in a project can login and work on a project together, logging hours, completed work, notes, etc. The great thing about this site is there is a completely free version, although there are also paid memberships available (all of which have their own inherent benefits).

4.DESKAWAY
This is an excellent tool for organising and managing projects, as well as tracking specific tasks within individual projects. DeskAway has a free service which limits you to a certain number of projects and users, which can then be increased by going on to a paid subscription.

5. DROPMIND
This is a superb mind-mapping program that can be used by several users simultaneously, allowing teams to develop plans and solve problems, even if they’re on opposite sides of the World.

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If you want more information on effective project management methods, check out Prince2 and the London Prince2 training facility, where you’ll be able to gain proper project management accreditations.

It is well known that children follow the example’s set by the significant adults in their lives. Their teachers, carers and parents all have an important responsibility to set children the best example possible. So can you say that you are proud of the example that you set for your children?

It has been reported that many children born from 2001 onwards have a lower life expectancy than their parents. This is a shocking statistic. How would you feel if your child was to die young, of a weight related illness largely due to the lousy example that you have set?

Do you eat too much fatty food? Do you take little or no exercise? Do you spend too much time transfixed by the television? You need to start by being honest with yourself.

And then consider, how much time do you actually spend playing with your children. Are you so busy at work that you get home after the children have gone to bed? You may well have spent some serious money on fancy play systems and expensive outdoor play equipment but if you never join in with your children, praise them when they climb a rope or push them on their swings are you really performing a good parenting role.

Without doubt, the problem of childhood obesity is largely the responsibility of parents and carers, not the children affected. They are the victims of what some are calling the biggest crime of the 21st century.