Tip of the Week: Google Sheets Makes a Great Project Management Tool

Whatever your industry, there are going to be processes that need to be followed, and this will require no small amount of organization to keep all the moving parts in tandem with each other. Fortunately, tools that can help with your project management needs are readily available, so long as you take advantage of their capabilities.

Take Google Sheets, for instance.

It’s true! Not only does Google Sheets offer fully customizable templates intended specifically for project management purposes, there are a lot of other features that are conducive to the kind of processes that should make up your project management activities.

For instance:

Google Sheets Allows You to Create Custom Dropdown Lists

With all the standard updates that proper project management will require—for instance, the status of certain goals and initiatives within your process—having the ability to select from a preconfigured list is hugely helpful. 

The existing templates that Sheets offers give you the opportunity to edit the drop-downs they come populated with. All you have to do is click the small downward arrow in the cell, select the pencil icon in the resulting menu, and edit the rules for the dropdown. For added visibility, you can even apply different colors to the different options. 

However, you won’t be able to add new options to your dropdowns or change the order in which they appear if using a preconfigured option. That will require you to create a dropdown menu from scratch. Once you’ve selected the cell or range of cells you want the dropdown to appear in, click Insert and then select Dropdown. A sidebar will appear for you to populate the data validation rules you want… or in other words, what options you want your dropdown menu to include. Once you’ve added and arranged your options, click Done to complete the process.

The Inherent Collaboration within Google Sheets Makes It Easier to Fully Plan a Project

Today’s workplace is increasingly built on collaborative work, which means that it is all the more important that the tools used therein are conducive to this kind of collaboration. Google Sheets, just as with the rest of the Google Workspace offering, is built to help you accomplish just that. Adding contributors to your spreadsheet is a simple matter… all you need to do is click the Share button at the top right of your page, select who you want to grant access to and specify the level of access and permissions you want to provide.

Once you’ve done so, others will be able to interact with a given Sheet at the level you have permitted them to—and you’ll still be able to adjust these permissions as needs change.

Google Sheets Allows You to Tag Your Collaborators

Google Sheets offers a feature called smart chips—small interactive widgets that can be embedded into your documents that link to pertinent information. You can tag different collaborators directly in the spreadsheet, and from there, email them, kick off a video chat, or (most applicable to our purposes today) assign a task to them.

We Can Help Outfit You with Proper Project Management Software, Too

Of course, you may prefer to use a dedicated software to help organize your company’s activities. Turning to us means you’ll have someone in the wings to help you procure, manage, and maintain all of the tools that your company uses.

Give us a call at 607.433.2200 to learn more.