Once upon a time, a lovely Dallas-based teacher saved me from my Tale of Too Many Tabs and introduced me to Toby – and my life was infinitely improved. And while we have written about various forms of organizational hubs (places employees can go to find relevant links and information quickly), I am excited to share a new innovation I recently encountered… a PERSONAL HUB!
During a recent Together Project Management class, where we were talking about how on earth to juggle multiple project plans at once, Kristen and Mark of KIPP NOLA paused the class to share Kristen’s Hub. Kristen noted why she created this Personal Work Hub, “During a check-in with my supervisor Mark, I couldn’t find a specific document I wanted him to weigh in on. He then recommended that I create a personal work hub like the one he had created for our regional office team. He also shared his personal work hub with me as a guide.”
I just about fell out of my chair with delight. Let’s peek in the following image.
Kristen’s Work Hub
So, this looks like a lot of work, right? How do you even get started in building one? Kristen says, “I started by grouping my various projects and work streams together and creating sections within an Excel doc to keep them organized. Then I started linking any and all documents I need regularly for each project and added them into the excel sections by project.”
I love how Kristen considered the various buckets of her job, and made her Personal Work Hub (can we call this a PWH?) specific to her role. She has:
- Categories for her personal Togetherness and meetings that she needs to use constantly
- Sections for various events that she leads, such as the KNOScars, board dinners and such
- Quick reference links for various websites that are helpful to have at the ready
How has this played out in Kristen’s work life? She says, “It has been life changing! I am not even kidding! I used to have 25+ tabs open in my browser at a time and even more open items if you count Word, Excel, Google docs, etc. Now I have about 5! When my computer needs to restart I don’t even panic because I know exactly where to get back into all my work. I have a few projects that won’t start until later in the year and I’ll just add those sections as I need them. Overall, I am feeling more organized and for sure am saving time and frustration because I know exactly where to find all my work, resources, websites, and other tools.”
Way to go, Kristen. I could see this being useful in so many ways – for us, for students, and for teachers! How about you? Do you have a Personal Work Hub? Could you use one?
PS I’m thinking Dr. Together and I could use a Home Work Hub?
