This week I have decided to share three powerful project management tools I use to manage myself and my personal projects. These tools are Jira, Confluence, and ClickUp. Each one serves a different purpose for me, and they each make me more productive and effective.

Jira

Jira is a great tool, and it is free for up to 10 users. It is perfect for managing personal projects. For example, I develop software projects in my free time, both iPhone apps and Windows apps. I track the work I want to do on these projects using Jira.

In Jira, you can create projects. Technically they are called spaces now, and you can have one space for each of your projects. Each space can have issues, like bugs, improvements, features, and tasks.

You can add custom fields to issues, such as release notes. You can even assign issues to releases. This allows me to capture release notes when I implement a feature or fix a bug. I can also review a history of what I implemented in each version of my applications by reviewing past releases for my software projects.

But Jira doesn’t have to be limited to software projects. I also use Jira to track my Toastmasters projects. I use a Scrum space in Jira, which gives me sprints, a backlog, and a sprint board so I can plan which speaking and leadership projects I am working on. I use month long sprints, so I know which Toastmasters projects I plan to complete each month.

Something I like about Jira is that it has an iPhone app. This lets me review my projects on the go without having to go to my computer.

Confluence

Confluence is a great documentation tool. You create spaces in Confluence, and you add pages to spaces. Each page in a space is a place to capture documentation and ideas. And Confluence is free for up to 10 users.

I use Confluence to track information about my Toastmasters clubs. I also use it document my vision and core values. I also have pages where I capture inspiring quotes that I review daily. This is a merely a subset of the information I keep stored in Confluence.

Having this information in Confluence allows me to quickly look it up when I need it. It is information that isn’t always easier to remember.

Something that is great about Confluence is that it has an iPhone app. This makes it easy for me to look up information on Confluence from my phone. The web app used from my computer is much more powerful than the phone app, but the phone app is a great tool for referencing my documentation on the go.

ClickUp

ClickUp is another powerful tool I use, both for my daily action plans and for managing my club building projects as Club Growth Director for my Toastmasters district. I also use it to track recurring tasks I need to perform as Vice President of Education for my Project Managers United Toastmasters club. And it has an iPhone app, which lets me reference my daily action plans from my phone.

Speaking of daily action plans, I really like the ClickUp feature that lets me group a task list by due date. I used this to schedule tasks for each day of the week. I also schedule tasks for the future. I then get a separate task list for each day of the week, including a future list for tasks that are more than 7 days in the future.

As Club Growth Director, I have a Clickup Workspace that I use as a CRM system where I track new club leads. Each task on my new club leads task list represents a new club lead I am tracking. My team and I can add comments to the task cards to share updates for these club building projects.

Finally, as Vice President of Education for my Project Managers United Toastmasters club I use a Kanban board view of my tasks and task automation to easily manage recurring tasks I have as the Vice President of Education. I also use this workspace to assign tasks to my education committee members.

Conclusion

I recommend using Jira, Confluence, and ClickUp to bring structure and clarity to your personal and professional life. Jira is ideal for tracking progress on personal projects, such as software projects. ClickUp helps you plan your days, prioritize future tasks, and stay focused on execution. Meanwhile, Confluence serves as a central hub for documenting key information and resources you need to reference regularly.

Together, these tools create a powerful system for managing your goals, projects, and daily actions with greater efficiency and purpose.