The concept of hoarding has become more mainstream thanks to reality shows like Hoarding, Extreme Clutter, and My Hoarder Mum and Me. Wikipedia defines it as “excessive acquisition and inability to dispose large quantities of objects that would seem to be of no value or worthless.”
This problem is common in our homes. If you can’t see the floor, it’s obvious that there’s a problem. What if we hoarded something at work? Would we recognize it?

I was reading a LinkedIn post by a man asking other project managers, “What applications do your use for project management?” While his colleagues offered many great solutions, one post caught my attention (we’ll refer to him Leopold for simplicity). Paraphrased:
Audionote and Dragon dictation are my preferred methods for taking notes during meetings. I use Scrumboard to keep track of tasks and subtasks. Mindjet (mindmanager) is what I use to organize it all. All files from these apps are stored in Dropbox and synced to my laptop. I use the Sophos …” security software.
Leopold uses six different programs to manage his projects. I don’t find it fun to work with six different programs and continuously migrate data between them. If I could give Leopold some advice, this would be it:
1. Don’t be afraid of exploring your resources
Although I don’t know if Leopold is aware of it, Mindjet (and virtually every other project management software) provides task and subtask tracking along with its higher-level monitoring capabilities. Leopold could use this feature to tie his tasks to his larger plan to simplify task assignment. Don’t be like Leopold, make sure you’re using the capabilities that you already have and not searching for another program to duplicate them.
2. Find ways to simplify
Leopold would be surprised to learn that almost all project management software offers document and resource management. This storage is more organized and makes it easier for team members to access resources than storage in an external program such as Dropbox.
Similar to the above, some solutions offer built-in security to protect against external and internal breaches.
Instead of trying to address each need with different apps, Leopold could find one piece to manage the four he was using (Mindjet Dropbox Scrumboard Scrumboard Sophos, Dropbox, Scrumboard, and Scrumboard). This would reduce the number of solutions he needs and improve efficiency by streamlining his operations.
3. Some extras are acceptable
Although Leopold may have a few redundant applications, his use Audionote and Dragon Dictation are completely justified. These programs have capabilities that aren’t typical of project management software. Leopold can record anything with one program and then enter the relevant information into his main PM software to keep all important data centralized.
These are the things Leopold would do to see a decrease of stress, increase in efficiency, and possibly even more time. He may also be able to sleep better knowing that his friends won’t sign him up for the next episode.
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