Two days ago I installed dotProject then yesterday I added a few projects along with the main tasks needed to complete them.

Today I have been working VERY much more effectively completing over 50% of one brand new project.
My aim was to follow Jason Fladleins idea of creating one product in one sitting to solve one problem.

The product I decided to create is called Image Cropper.
And the project involves doing everything from creating software, buying and setting up a domain and blog, preparing graphics, sales page, download page, activation page, aWeber list plus web form, facebook fan page, google analytics links driving traffic and testing everything.
So no mean set of tasks.

The plus side is that I have 90% of suitable software modules fully created and tested – so that will save weeks of work.
I also have fully working copies of software I am preparing to market – Header Magic, Image Resizer, Clik-n-Snap (sorry these sites are still under construction) – that allowed me to create header and icon graphics in just a few minutes

dotProject has helped me focus on the things that I should be doing to get over half of this project up and running.
You can check out the results so far at ImageCropper.net – sorry the software links won’t be added until I decide on a launch date.
I want to initially use this as a free product for list building

I have outsourced work to prepare a Facebook fan page but that won’t be ready for about week – when I plan to start driving traffic.

I also completed 25% of another ongoing software project that I never seem able to finish – so I’m very happy with that.

At the end of the day, I decided to add estimates of time I have spent on each task to dotProject.
This should hopefully build up into some really invaluable information and help me target my work much more effectively.
Already I can see that if the two projects I have been working on today get completed at the same rate then I over-estimated how long each one will take by 30% and 20%.

I managed to find how to update the time taken for each task – but am still not sure how to enter actual expenditure into the project planner.

If I can keep up this level of productivity, I should easily be able to meet my goal of creating new software products every few weeks.

Yesterday I installed dotProject in an attempt to start managing my time working online more effectively.
Despite previously knowing nothing about dotProject, once I discovered the script came packaged with cPanel and Fantastico, it took me less than 2 minutes to install – just like a new wordpress blog.

A dotProject  user manual is available for download and more detailed information is available online – but so far I have not needed to use either.
First I entered my name and address details.
Then I started a new project, added tasks with time, dates and costs.

It took me about ten minutes to complete the first project for one of my new software products and a bit less for each of the next ones.
Adding task dependencies lets me quickly see the order I should be doing things – and probably for the first time has given me a real picture of just how much work I have to do and how long it is likely to take.

After about 30 minutes work, I now had all the project information I needed in a database.
And dotProject has tools that present it in lots of useful different ways – such as to-do lists and gant charts.

In summary, dotProject can do most everything I am ever likely to want for my online project planning.
It also provides so many extra features I am unlikely to need – such as multi-user, multi-company support.

Despite providing heavyweight features, it is so easy to install and start using – just wish I’d have found it sooner.
The one thing I haven’t yet found is a way to print out the results.
Maybe that feature is there somewhere.
Anyway, it’s no problem because I just use my new Clik-n-Snap software to snap a copy of any results I need and paste them into word for printing

Highly recommended – free, quick and easy to get started.

I’ve run successful ‘offline’ businesses and know what how much time, effort and organisation that takes.
So why haven’t I yet been able to do this for an online business?

Last year I attended Chris Freville’s “7 Figure Success Formula” course.
And one of the first things Chris advised was to ‘get organised’ and chunk down tasks into manageable one hour blocks.

Sounds easy.
Just like a training book I read over 10 years ago that started off by saying ‘make $1 passive profit online’ on page one followed by 200 pages explaining how to scale it up! Even today, I haven’t discovered a way to do that without hard work.

There are so many easy excuses I could make – shiny new ideas and toys, far too much for any one person to ever learn etc. etc.
But none of that helps to make me more productive or able use my time to earn more $ cost effectively.

I’m working harder than I have ever worked before – often 12 to 16 hours a day.
But never seem to find enough time to do all the things that are really necessary.

So today, I took a step back and decided to research Project Software.
Like most things online, I quickly became bewildered with all the possibilities and baffled by what software is really ‘free’ or a reasonable cost.

Programs such as Microsoft Project are far too expensive and cumbersome for a one man business plus the work I outsource – mainly graphics.

A Google search quikly led me to a Wikipedia page listing 140 different software products.
Quickly selecting a few free products to investigate further, I wasted a lot of time discovering most weren’t actually free – versions of interest needed to be paid for ant typically $25 a month!
And they had far too many features taking lots of time to learn.

I wouldn’t mind paying a one off fee of $25 or even $50 – but have no interest forking out $100’s or making ongoing monthly payments.

One thing that did surprise me was that almost all Project Software is now web hosted.

Next I focussed on software with open source GPL licenses.
The biggest problem I found was that most of the software was old, no longer supported or wouldn’t work with operating systems later than XP – such as Windows 7.

But in the end persistence paid off!
I found a site that explained a couple of products were readily available for installation using my hosting cpanel and Fantastico or simple scripts!
How I kicked myself for not thinking of that to start with.

Firing up cpanel on one of my hosting accounts, sure enough two open source Project scripts were available for instant installation – almost exactly the same way as a wordpress blog is installed.

Fantastico’s Project Scripts

Five minutes later I had not only installed dotproject but also fired it up and got started using it – just following my nose, without bothering looking for any manuals.

Starting dotProject Installation

I decided to install the script in a folder called ‘projects’ on an unused domain:

dotProject and wordpress Installations are alike

Now I’m busy setting up projects and tasks – already I can see just how many different things I am trying to do and how many hours it will take.

Hopefully this will help me focus on my most important tasks and reduce time I spend on other less important ones.
Tomorrow I’ll let you know how I’m getting on.