Almost two years ago I wrote about the importance of organisation in ensuring that your adventure happens. I also mentioned the importance of keeping track of your research and the information you have collated.
As we near our D-day the pace of the project is picking up and the number of threads we are keeping track of is multiplying continously. Where we once had only one task – “buy boat”, we now have a list of almost one hundred jobs and tasks that are needed to get our boat up to standard and “ready to go”. One of those tasks is to register the boat and this has now spawned a further six tasks. Many of the tasks are delegated but we still need to keep track of who is doing what and expected or agreed deadlines.
For almost a year we have been using the cloud tool moo.do to track and organise our project. moo.do dovetails nicely with Google Drive and with our philosophy of keeping IT hardware to an absolute minimum. It is available on any Internet enabled device and works offline when we have no connection. It is available on the laptop and on the mobile phone so we always have it with us and if either device should die then we just pick up the tablet and keep working. All of the complexity described above is perfectly represented in moo.do’s tree structure. By using tags for deadlines and people involved it is easy to keep track of who should have achieved what by when.
We are continually amassing data – ships papers, engine manuals, surveyors reports, logs and financial information just as examples. If we had all this in traditional folders we would need a bigger boat just to carry the paperwork around and permanently have to worry about it getting lost, burnt or waterlogged. We would also permanently be making copies to send to various agencies, suppliers or partners.
Luckily we have Google Drive and thus all our documentation permanently available on our devices. Once again a minimum of IT hardware. Everything we have can be pulled up on the laptop or phone. And worst case we can use any other Internet connected device. All the documents have been given a name consisting of date and a description of what they are. This, coupled with a minimal structure, allows documents to be easily found as needed. At an appointment with an invstment banker last week I could supply all the information and documents he needed straight from my tablet to his email.
After two years of consequently digitalising everything the result is more efficient filing and a portable system ready to “take sailing”.