Are you using your tools correctly?

It’s not going to surprise you that I have my tools of choice (especially if you read this newsletter a few weeks ago).

So when a new client describes the challenges they’re facing and what they’d like the end result to be like, I immediately think of my shortlist of favorite tools and how my client could use them.

Imagine my surprise (and disappointment) when one of my clients told me that he was ALREADY using one of my favorite tools, Asana [affiliate link], but didn’t like it or wanted to use it.

“That’s fine,” I told him, “We’ll find the right tool for your business, even if Asana isn’t it!”

The brilliant thing about this client was that he knew EXACTLY what his very complex process needed to be like.

He mapped out every step, every variable, every task, and every subtask that his clients might go through in their projects.

He had dozens of years of experience in his field to develop those processes.

So all he needed to do was find the right tool that would allow him to walk his clients through it, without it feeling overwhelming to anyone involved.

And so the search began!

We tried ClickUp. We tried AirTable [affiliate link]. We tried Monday.

And after all of those attempts, guess which tool he liked the most and ended up using?

That’s right - Asana.

He loved it this time around because we set it up together properly in a way that was convenient for him to work with.

Let this be an important reminder:

A tool is just a tool.

You need to understand the process you’re using it for and where it fits into your process, what happens before and after you use it, and how it’s working across the company.

If you don’t know these things, you may end up despising a tool that’s been right under your nose this entire time.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever re-fallen in love with a tool you’d just been using incorrectly? Let me know in a comment!

~ Irit.

This email was originally sent to my newsletter subscribers in May.

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