tl;dr
What project management tool, or tools, would you recommend for a solo-developer?
By tools I mean both software, hardware and systems.
- I'm currently rebuilding my dev webpage and my more general webpage.
- I'm (slowly) solo developing a game as well as experimenting with a couple of different game ideas/mechanics.
- I'm developing a component library together with a friend.
- I'm working on my dev ops skills by having everything on a local server, including a git repository and my own websites.
- I'm also learning more about React, Web Component, ES6, C# and C development.
- I'm building a radio for my son with raspberry pi and a timetracking device.
- I'm also slowly expanding my smart home, looking for a new job, working at a dev firm, building furniture, planning a vacation to Scotland, writing a book, becoming a healthier person and, as you can imagine, I'm not sure what I'm forgetting top put on this list.
So, you know, I'm living.
I belive in single-tasking rather than multi-tasking but, especially when it comes to the development projects, it has become increasingly harder to keep track of all the single tasks I have in front of me. I constantly have to juggle many different ideas and when I focus on one project I often remember I was supposed to have done a task in another project that I forgot about and when I'm done with the current task I forget about it again.
What project management tool, or tools, would you recommend for a solo-developer?
By tools I mean both software, hardware and systems.
Latest comments (6)
I am a solo-developer with 5 kids so I know how daunting it can feel. I talk about this on my podcast, OK Productive with my co-host. Here are a few episodes you might find helpful:
Hah, now I see that your latest podcast is dealing with pretty much what I wrote in my comment! ;) Will listen.
When I decided to create a workflow with project management I had this sinking feeling that it might just be avoiding to work. It's sometimes hard to know where preparation ends and procrastination begins.
I've been writing down a small set of rules to follow and on top is to start each day by doing one of the hard tasks, one of the ones I dread. If I put other such things off until later (tomorrow) it's ok, at least I've gotten one of those tasks done or started.
While I'm a bit worried about not working while setting this up I hope that it'll be for the better. If nothing else, since I'm doing everything self hosted (including project managing, git repository and web server for my .dev domain) I learn a lot and get some material to write about in the process.
As a solo developer myself, developing a couple of different in house systems, I use Trello to manage the tasks for each. Each application has its own board and I then I split the board into lists of "To Do", "In Progress", "For Review", "Ready For Release" and finally "Done".
Nothing ground breaking but works for me and is particularly helpful.
I used Trello a couple of years ago. Now I'm hoping for a self hosted sollution and at the moment I'm considering installing Restya
I'll second this option. I've got a collection of Trello boards for different projects and one overall "Alan's To Do's" with lists very like Jason's.
Big help when juggling a multitude of different projects for work/businesses/family/hobbies etc.