I had a simple mission app-finding mission today.
The goal was to find something that had the following criteria:
An ability to create calendar entries/tasks that are visible at all times through a calendar view that can be claimed by someone to avoid scheduling conflicts
Cost nothing
Team size of up to 10
To expand a bit on the mission, we need a way to have the team post stuff to social media, while keeping track of who is posting when. We also need a way for me to block off times for paid content, and the reposting team to block off times I can’t schedule.
The task list needs to appear at all times in a shared way and each person should know what time slots are available for them to claim, and then make a post.
Turns out app makers are aware of this pain point and this is not going to be easy to do for free.
The quick and dirty Google Calendars method is free AF but has a lot of room for error
One way to accomplish this goal is a shared Google Calendar, which gives us a clear calendar view
It hits the free criteria and I don’t think there’s a limit on how many people can access the calendar to make changes.
The basic flow would be:
Create a lot of individual calendar entries for each time slot.
Each person would click into the entry they want to update and add relevant details, maybe change colour.
Manually go back after and count how many posts were made by each person.
You may be wondering why I don’t use repeating events, and the answer is anyone can accidentally update the entire series. There is far too much room for error. While seriously more time consuming to manually maintain this, it would be the only way to handle human error meaningfully.
I don’t like it, but it’s always good to know there’s a fallback.
Use Clickup or Trello to create a series of repeating tasks that can be updated
You are going to get pretty much all the functionality you need with those two apps to achieve the goal of trackable, assignable and repeatable tasks.
In this case the flow for preparation isn’t so bad (at least with Clickup) which lets you do a lot of prep work in a CSV.
Here’s how I see it going:
I’d set up Clickup (or Trello) to have an area the whole team can access.
Using ChatGPT I’d prepared a CSV that set me up for 6 months worth of posting tasks.
I’d import them into Clickup (I didn’t test it in Trello but their site says it can be done).
At this point if it’s set up right it’s good to go out of the gate, maybe a couple of tweaks in the app.
Each day as people claim a slot, they’d “assign” the task to themselves to signal it’s them and then use that individual task to track relevant information.
This option is way better for me, administrating it all. However the lack of calendar view means there’s an increased room for error as people look at lists and dates. I can’t explain it but visualizing it on a Calendar makes things clearer at a glance.
This is my favourite free option.
Lastly there is the choice to spend some money and get the wishlist but buyer beware
Chances are whatever you are doing can be done with either of the free versions.
However if you do want to spend a minimum of 60$ a year, you can get all kinds of premium features.
There are apps, for mobile, desktop or both that come with every level of customization and ease you can think of. If you want the quick and easy, you are going to have to pay for it. The question is, is it worth it?
Individually you can afford all of these 60$ a year purchases. The problem is they add up. Each ease of use app you get to solve a particular problem, that comes with a fee, is going to be money you need to make back later.
Chances are there is a better use of that 60$ if there are two free options available that will functionally handle the need.
This will definitely come down to maintenance time.
If the maintenance time is small, why spend money for nothing?
Let’s be clear if you try the free ways, and in real life they suck, go to the paid solution as fast as possible.
However chances are the free solutions will work. The Clickup solution honestly has minimal maintenance. Less than 5 minutes a week. The Google Calendar one has a time cost, but still probably in the ballpark of 15-30 minutes a month. Maybe it makes more sense to save that 60$ a year and put it towards a better tool that will save you more money.
It’s a good habit to try and stay lean with your spending. If you can do things for free, you should try and do them. Usually these things are also priced in a way where you unlock enough time that if you are really out there hustling, you can use the time freed to make more money than you spend by paying the toll.
Just make sure you take the time to see what the maintenance is. If you are worth 20$ an hour and you spend 3 hours a month to keep your flow alive, you may as well buy the app and get your life back.
The main takeaway is don’t buy apps to buy them.
Understand your needs and how long everything takes, then act.Live Long and Prosper Everyone
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