“I took my ego down a few notches and went back to what was tried and true.”
The Backstory
About a year ago I got really into project management software. I felt I needed a system that I could rely on to keep track of my life, both personally and professionally. I know there are die-hards out there that believe we shouldn’t rely on external systems to live our lives. You may be one of them; and if you are, you should know that I believe you. I don’t like the fact that I have to rely on an external system. Maybe if I had toughened up and learnt to remember things better, then I wouldn’t need one. But, I also believe that our lives are more complicated now than they used to be.
Keeping track of your expenses is more difficult now with how easy it is to spend money. Knowing what and how to do your kitchen revamp now includes Pinterest boards and keeping track of individual tasks and timelines to make sure they get done in your already busy life. Hell, even remembering your friends’ birthdays outside of Facebook is a mission now.
Life is complicated, and our tendency is to complicate it even more. We have one app for writing our notes, we have another to track our sleep cycles, and another to remind us when important dates are coming up. We write notes in journals and input events in calendars. We put our keys in a specific bowl by the door and we put our jacket on the back of a very specific chair whether our significant others like it that way or not. What I’m trying to get at here, is that we live in systems; and we have these systems because life is complicated.
I’m a fairly industrious person. I want to read more, learn more and do more. But then when I’m reading, learning and doing I can easily forget things and fall off the wagon. What was I was supposed to do today? I can’t remember, because I’m already entrenched in something else.
I had a calendar that I was using which kept track of dates and times of everything going on my life. But I was missing something. Enter stage left: project management software.
This was a game-changer for me. I could now do far more than just know dates and times; I could know tasks and tags and links and so much more. I could now manage my life far more than I could before. In fact, I loved it so much I ended up paying for the premium version for a year. You don’t get much more commitment than that.
The problem I eventually encountered, was that I outgrew what that specific piece of software could do for me. It was great for the simple stuff, ticking off boxes and deadlines. But, eventually, I needed more functionality, I needed more power. I needed a better system.
On the Hunt
So I went searching. I opened my laptop, cracked my knuckles and started where most of us do: Google. I came across articles like the 10 Best Productivity Apps of 2020, and This is the Ultimate Project Management Software. I was hooked. I scrolled and scrolled and scrolled through page after page after page of exciting visuals and promising functions. Integrations here and workflow improvements there.
I even came across one particular piece of software that was so exclusive I couldn’t find out what it was like until I signed up for a trial. Company X uses our software, blah blah blah. App after app, I thought of all the amazing things I could get done. Eventually, I settled on one and thought, “brilliant, this is exactly what I need.”
Quiet Confidence
At first, I was right. This particular app did everything I wanted it to. I could take notes, I could link pages, I could have task lists, I could use deadlines and all the features a fully-fledged piece of software like this allowed. Two months in, however, I started to fall a little to the wayside. I was slacking in areas of my work that I usually wasn’t. I was missing self-imposed deadlines and not feeling great about my progress.
I was confused. Why am I struggling more now than before? I thought this app was supposed to solve all my problems? What am I doing wrong? That’s when I started to take a closer look at how I was using it. All the features were there, but I wasn’t implementing them how I was used to. I wasn’t assigning things like I was used to. My workflow was interrupted and I couldn’t find a new one; the old pathways and habits were too strong. I was frustrated because I felt like I was going backwards. I didn’t want to go back to the old app. This one was way better, the guys on the website told and showed me so. So why was I still struggling?
Eventually, I decided to stop swimming up a stream with currents I couldn’t manage. I took my ego down a few notches and went back to what was tried and true. I had already paid for it, so what was the harm in sticking around for the remainder of my membership plan? And what was I greeted with when I dusted off the old app and signed back in?
“Welcome back.”
All my old projects were there. My templates, my tools, my tags and my lists. Immediately I felt a sense of comfort. It was the strangest feeling. It was like an old roommate was welcoming me back into his home that hadn’t changed since I left. There were a few new pictures on the walls, sure, and he did, in fact, revamp his kitchen. But what I loved about him was still there. Everything was smooth and it had felt like I never left.
New Haircut, Who Dis?
The same app was there, and it was working. I felt a weight lifted from my shoulders. But what was really great, was the trusted message you’ll receive after signing back into an old program you’ve been auto-updating while you were gone: What’s New. That brilliant piece of user experience where the app shows you what’s been updated and what’s new since you’ve been gone. And I, my friend, was very impressed. My old roommate got a new haircut, he pressed his shirts now and the kitchen drawers were now far more organised. I took the tour and finished it with nervous excitement. I thought, “let’s get back to it!”
I dived right in and I fell into my old habitual movements. Add this here and tick that off there. I entered a flow state and before I knew it I was finishing tasks like I hadn’t done in weeks. What I already knew, I ploughed my way through; and what I didn’t understand, I watched a tutorial or two and I was back on track in minutes.
I realised that what I didn’t think I could do before (and then went looking for in a new app), I could actually still do. I just had to learn a slightly different way of doing it. There was some teething, but my process is now all the better for it. I’m excited to tackle projects and I’m excited to start new ones.
I thought I wanted more. I thought I wanted better. But those two things were there the whole time, I just didn’t give them a chance because I was so ready to move onto the next biggest thing. And it made me think: how often do we simply give up on things because we don’t want to figure it out? How often do we move onto the next thing because it promises a better experience?
I think experiences and products are built for different people. There’s no one size fits all solution. So if something isn’t working for you, give it some thought before you trust the internet or the fast-paced society we find ourselves in and move onto the next thing. Maybe, just maybe, success was right under your nose. You just weren’t willing to look for it where it counted.
