![]() ![]() Zengobi has put a lot into this aspect of Curio and it doesn’t feel like a hack or afterthought. If I were only using a Mac, I’d probably even leverage the built-in Curio task management options. I like them because they add valuable context to a timeline without detracting from the the milestones and pacing of the project diagram. They can be formatted in meaningful ways and collapsed when not helpful. These are essentially formatted text boxes but they add character and call out the content. I accentuate the timeline with Curio index cards too. Notes in Curio are on equal footing with the objects they are attached to and become part of the story. Search in Curio is useful enough that text buried in notes is easily surfaced and highlighted. A Curio note even hovers on-top of other windows so it’s prominent in the diagram when it needs to be. It’s a big giant block of text accessible through an obvious icon on the object. It’s not a hot-pink Sticky note of some meandering sidebar text. Just about any object in Curio can have a note attached. Now, I’ll deviate from what every other diagramming application can do, and jump into why I like Curio. Well trained humans suck even more at planning. I’d suggest then taking that schedule and doubling it again. I’ve heard people say that the best plan is to take your worst case schedule and double it. Sketching out failure points gives me an early sense of the quality of a plan. Along the way, I annotate major events and let my neurotic worst-case-scenario lizard brain run the show. In Curio, I create a formatted shape that I find appealing and start stringing together the plot points. I actually enjoy sitting down and unpacking a project from the top level down to the nitty-gritty. This is where the fun begins, and I really mean that. But I add a lot of other information that directly impacts or is an outcome of the tasks. My project flow diagrams highlight major events connected by arrows. This is the meat and potatoes of the project plan. Now you can add and move other things around on top of the timeline without moving the timeline or markers. Follow this up by using the Lock function. Now, select everything again and group it again. Format things that need to standout and leave off markers that have no actionable work or risks. Throw whatever labels on the timeline that help. Now use the Group function to seal the deal. Then use the distribute horizontally command followed by the align top edge command to finish building the calendar plane. Hit ⌘+D (duplicate) until there are enough time points. Be sure to have an outline color that stands out prominently. I’d suggest starting with the really high-level view that covers the duration of the entire project in one glance and then creating additional views as needed.įirst, create a tall and skinny rectangle with whatever styling suits your taste. ![]() For a reasonable timeline I like to break the project down into quarters, months, or whatever is the appropriate timescale. This is not that complicated and works the same in many applications other than Curio. But the timeline that informed most of our decisions was made in Curio. I created those rough timelines on paper and in OmniPlan. When we started on TapCellar for iOS, I did the normal project manager stuff like sketching out timelines and determining dependencies and risks. 2 But the application that feels the most flexible and organic continues to be Curio for the Mac. I also really like Lucid Chart as a web app. I’ve found OmniGraffle on the Mac and Visio/PowerPoint on Windows moderately good for creating project flow diagrams. I create flow diagrams for an entire project and include details like milestones, risks, trigger events and team functions. I prefer to draw timelines myself and I like to capture more than just task sequences. They have their place but I prefer that place to be on someone else’s display. I dislike them because they surface a project schedule at that cost of depicting dependencies and details. I’m a project manager that really hates Gantt charts. ![]()
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