Category: Personal Development

Best Free Trello Alternatives ( Trello vs Asana vs Wrike vs Bitrix24 ) | NicheGeek.com

One great way to find reviews of Project Management apps is to find one you like, then look for reviews suggesting alternatives. NicheGeek.com has a great breakdown of different project management/ task management options.

I love the free CRM aspect as part of Bitrix24 – it can even integrate with an online store!

On Bitrix24 vs Trello

The most powerful thing about Bitrix24 is that it is a collaboration suite, so it makes it really easy for teams to do everything (including document management) in one place. Bitrix24 also comes with free CRM that integrates with project management, something that neither Asana nor Wrike offer.

On Asana vs Trello

If Trello is too simple, but you aren’t the type who reads books about project management, GTD, Kanban, Agile – Asana is perfect Trello alternative for you.

On Wrike vs Trello

It’s kind of like a boxing champion beating up a third grader, not that hard to do and not really an accomplishment for the boxer…. Wrike’s freemium option is limited to five users, it actually comes without some basic PM features, like Gantt charts, which are available only use premium users

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via Best Free Trello Alternatives ( Trello vs Asana vs Wrike vs Bitrix24 ) | NicheGeek.com.

Blue Oceans and Lean Start-ups in my personal life

I think I love new ideas. No, I’m sure I love ideas. That is why I think my wife and I are a great team. She helps to keep me focused and enclose a lot of the ideas I have. I love putting new ideas into practice even more (unless I’m lazy). Today I came in contact with two amazing ideas: lean start-ups and blue oceans.

One of the critical differences is that while existing companies execute a business model, start-ups look for one…It shapes the lean definition of a start-up: a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

So, with lean start-ups, they are basically a group of people looking for a product and a way to sell it. Talk about lean- these people would be creating ONLY the product the customer says they want to buy!

Kim and Mauborgne recommend creating blue oceans— uncontested market spaces where the competition is irrelevant. In blue oceans, you invent and capture new demand, and you offer customers a leap in value while also streamlining your costs.

I’m curious how I can start practicing the “Blue Ocean” idea in my own life, combined with Blank’s lean startup idea. I guess if I want to make changes in my life, I usually have a reason I want something to change. It would be interesting to start a new style of art or perhaps something I wanted to improve such as public speaking, and then creatively look where I can add value into the “market” of my surrounding community. I’ve heard this is common when people want to improve a part of their own skills- find a place to volunteer to practice your skill.

As much as I love technology, it was good to hear how blue oceans aren’t technology driven. Kim and Mauborgne bring up the idea of cars (Ford and Asian manufacturers), movie theaters (Nikolodean and AMC) and the circus (Cirque De Soleil). These are established industries that were disruptive and didn’t have direct competition for 10-15 years after the new segment was created. I mean, seriously, is there any direct competition to Cirque De Soleil?

Harvard Business Review Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne

 

Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything by Steve Blank

Smoking with Brinkmann Gourmet Electric Smoker

smoker with wood chips, on top of aluminum
I used Penzy’s Spices Chicken Jerk my sister Jen got me!
Ahh all that wonderful blue smoke
I love this thermometer. It is telling me I need to leave it in longer.
Temp: 142. I need to get to 160 as internal temp so I don’t die upon eating
I was surprised how well the smoker worker- until I had a huge flame up and tried to find my water bottle to put out the flames

Put a oven heater element in the bottom of a tube. That is the Brinkmann Gourmet Electric Smoker. Unless you are a smoking snob, you will consider the things you take out of the smoker a success. Great ribs, chicken and more. The problem? No control. No ability to control temperatures, crazy flame ups when the wood chips catch fire, etc.

Isn’t that the case with any specific, quality product?

“What? You bought an automatic transmission?! Blah blah..

“What?! You let your SOFTWARE decide what is best for you?! Blah blah.

“What?! You haven’t hacked your own cell phone?! Blah blah.”

and on and on. Economists focus on the margin, the part of the bell curve that is open to change. This is why posting a far right or left wing comment on Facebook doesn’t do much- it just reinforces stereotypes. Most of us want the Gaza Strip and the middle east to compromise and figure things out. Most of us want our politicians to “walk across the isle” and shake hands with someone they don’t like for the onward movement of our country.

It is the same in smoking food. There seems to be an expectation that if you make something these days, you must be an expert or you shouldn’t share. I disagree. I think we need more comprimising politicians, more mediocre home cooks, more self-taught half-good bar-b-quers. Why? Because the more people who allow themselves the space to make a mistake means there are more people who may be willing to improve. That is the point, isn’t it? Why should we all hide out like Rocky in a secluded Russian boxing camp before we perfect our skill? No one else gets to see our mistakes and learn from them.

Interesting ways to live from Dave McRaney and James Altucher

Also, when I’m on-task and run across things online that seem interesting but aren’t related to what I am doing, I send those things to Pocket. Every Saturday morning I sit and read all the things I’ve saved that week, and if those things end up blowing my mind or seem like material for future projects, I send them to Evernote to be saved in the appropriate research folder.

via I’m David McRaney, and This Is How I Work.

And also:

If I stay physically healthy: eat well, sleep well, exercise.
If I stay emotionally healthy: being around positive people who love me and who I love.
If I stay mentally healthy: come up with 10 ideas a day. Read a lot.
If I stay spiritually healthy: always think of the things I feel grateful for and the things that bring abundance into my life.

Via I’m James Altucher and This Is How I Work.