Help me solve some workflow difficulties.
August 13, 2013 8:30 AM Subscribe
I'm encountering a few workflow difficulties for which I feel sure there are more elegant solutions than what I've come up with so far. I am trying to coordinate and communicate with a group of volunteers more efficiently, and also track my work hours better.
Problem #1
I have a part time job for which I keep track of my own hours. So far I've been doing this on my iPhone in a single Evernote note. At the end of each week I have to email my hours to my boss. Obviously, I could just manually copy and past my hours, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to automate this process so that an email would go out on a certain day with the hours I have put into a note.
Problem #2
For another job I am in charge of coordinating a large and varied group of volunteers for a weekly activity. The participating individuals change each week. I would like to send a reminder to the participating individuals for a given week. Is there a way to automate this process so I don't have to do it by hand?
Problem #3
Speaking of coordinating volunteers……I manually recruit people from week to week (via text, email, Facebook, etc.). I keep track of who participates through the year on a Google Drive spreadsheet. Are there more efficient ways of scheduling and contacting volunteers? Is there a way to automate keeping track of participation through the year?
Problem #1
I have a part time job for which I keep track of my own hours. So far I've been doing this on my iPhone in a single Evernote note. At the end of each week I have to email my hours to my boss. Obviously, I could just manually copy and past my hours, but I'm wondering if it would be possible to automate this process so that an email would go out on a certain day with the hours I have put into a note.
Problem #2
For another job I am in charge of coordinating a large and varied group of volunteers for a weekly activity. The participating individuals change each week. I would like to send a reminder to the participating individuals for a given week. Is there a way to automate this process so I don't have to do it by hand?
Problem #3
Speaking of coordinating volunteers……I manually recruit people from week to week (via text, email, Facebook, etc.). I keep track of who participates through the year on a Google Drive spreadsheet. Are there more efficient ways of scheduling and contacting volunteers? Is there a way to automate keeping track of participation through the year?
Problem #1
http://www.freshbooks.com/ works great for tracking hours. You can send an invoice at the end of the week. Not sure if you can automate the emailing but I'm not sure if you'd want to because it might be best to look everything over before you send it.
Problem #2
How do you get the list of participating volunteers for each activity?
Problem #3
Not sure about that one. I agree that SignUpGenius works pretty well but may not give you the reporting capabilities you need.
posted by dawkins_7 at 9:01 AM on August 13, 2013
http://www.freshbooks.com/ works great for tracking hours. You can send an invoice at the end of the week. Not sure if you can automate the emailing but I'm not sure if you'd want to because it might be best to look everything over before you send it.
Problem #2
How do you get the list of participating volunteers for each activity?
Problem #3
Not sure about that one. I agree that SignUpGenius works pretty well but may not give you the reporting capabilities you need.
posted by dawkins_7 at 9:01 AM on August 13, 2013
You might find a recipe (or make one yourself) with IFTTT to work on automatically sending a note at a specific time for problem #1.
posted by fantine at 10:14 AM on August 13, 2013
posted by fantine at 10:14 AM on August 13, 2013
Agree with fantine. IFTTT is an elegant solution. Also, a work tracking free online application called KLOK lets you set up projects, separates hours and keep track of your time.
posted by CollectiveMind at 11:04 AM on August 13, 2013
posted by CollectiveMind at 11:04 AM on August 13, 2013
Response by poster: dawkins_7: I more or less select and develop the volunteer pool myself.
I'll have to look more deeply into IFTTT. I've looked at it some. I'm not sure if the Evernote channel has the capability to email notes at particular times.
posted by toots at 1:03 PM on August 13, 2013
I'll have to look more deeply into IFTTT. I've looked at it some. I'm not sure if the Evernote channel has the capability to email notes at particular times.
posted by toots at 1:03 PM on August 13, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
In terms of tracking your hours, there are tons of apps available for iPhone that will allow you to track your time effectively. Definitely check out the App Store.
posted by anotheraccount at 8:53 AM on August 13, 2013