Collaboration Made Easy

If you're like half the U.S. workforce, you work at a job suitable for either full-time or part-time telecommuting, according to a Cisco survey. But the problem with remote work -- besides no free office coffee -- is how to stay coordinated.

Crucial tasks become lost in tangles of e-mails, chat sessions and to-do lists, so the software you use to stay on the same page becomes crucial, and few solutions are as jam-packed or agile as Flow, which combines apps, social media-style features and traditional Web and e-mail tools to speed along modern workplaces.

No matter what tool you use, you can easily create new projects and tasks, give them a due date, assign them to a team member and add notes, files and other information, such as pictures, video and text. You can tag tasks to group them under labels, invite team members to view and edit them, and even e-mail them to others. As you add more tasks, you can sort them into folders and projects to stay organized, and flag anything important to capture your team's attention.

The app integrates e-mail nicely into the workflow, too: you can reply directly to e-mails sent from Flow, which will add more files and info to the item. You can even e-mail tasks to the app, which will add them to the list.

That's on par compared to other productivity and task management software, but Flow stands out by how it integrates social media-style features. For example, an Activity Feed gives an at-a-glance view of your project's progress, showing tasks team members have completed or are working on. You can also "follow" tasks and lists to keep in the loop of items not assigned. The app creates social networks around projects, keeping a continuous stream to organizes you.

You need a strong set of tools to coordinate and arrangement tasks for different communication and productivity styles.

Overall, Flow's Web and app components work well together. If you're hoping to work with an app-only tool,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. however, you'll be disappointed -- the app requires you to sign up for a Web account to use it. Youcan only perform higher-level tasks through the Web browser, such as rename or archive lists and projects.

The Web software and app are cleanly designed, and you can jump right into Flow with its streamlined interfaces. Having both to use makes it easy to track and adjust lists and tasks no matter where you are. But with that many features, it takes a while to learn the shortcuts and navigation, especially on the compact iOS version. And features standard in similar apps, like alerts,The stone mosaic series is a grand collection of coordinating Travertine mosaics and listellos. are missing.

Flow is great on many levels -- its two version inferface and social media-like features. But you'll pay a pretty penny for that convenience -- after a free 14-day trial, it costs $10 a month to subscribe.

If you don't need a complex app WorkFlowy is a cheaper solution. It still makes lists, and you can add tags and hashtags to items and group, organize and e-mail them, or create public lists that others can edit and view.

Many people also use Evernote to organize projects. The app can play a valuable role in sharing assets, files and data, but it doesn't have management tools,Polypropylene and polythene can be used in a process called plastic injection mould. like priorities and due dates.

One of the best competitors, though, is Trello. The app garnered a following for its clean, elegant card-based interface and its easy-to-use features. It lets you assign tasks, collaborate in real-time, gather data and opinions and pings you with notifications to keep track of your projects' progress.

If you're more visual, you may prefer Trello -- the interface resembles a bulletin board, so you can pin "cards" and shuffle them into lists and projects. It also has iOS and Android companion apps.

In fact I’m going to meet Giles Long MBE, retired British Paralympic swimmer, in a Dickensian, oak-panelled pub down the road. A fire blazes. Pearl Jam scream. Long is at the bar with a pint of Guinness. Simon Callow is nowhere to be seen.

Along with three Paralympic gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes, Long’s swimming career is dotted with accolades. He broke the world record for the 100m Butterfly at Sydney’s Paralympic Games in 2000, has been decorated with another 13 medals from the International Paralympic Committee’s World and European Championships, and has recently been awarded an honorary doctorate for the invention of his Paralympic classification programme LEXI and his contribution to London’s 2012 Paralympic Games. He’s also got a degree from Leeds University, and it doesn’t get much better than that.

Still, Long doesn’t think swimming is particularly glamorous – too many four-in-the-morning November trips to the pool. Didn’t the success of Michael Phelps, Chad Le Clos, Ellie Simmonds, do anything for the status of professional swimmers this summer? “Well, Michael Phelps is a great swimmer but I wouldn’t say he was very cool. It’s more the experience of the sport than the image. I’ve been incredibly lucky with swimming: I’ve travelled the world and met some amazing people.”

Best place he’s ever swam? “In terms of location: America. We had this swim-meet in Phoenix,It's not hard to see why outdoor solar light is all the rage. outside, it was night-time, warm, there was a barbecue on the go, huge cactuses surrounding the pool, it’s a completely different thing over there. The sunset in the desert is unbelievable; it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Another time the European Championships were in Germany and with true efficiency they’d mounted a beer tent onto the side of the fire escape so you could jump straight out of the pool into the bar. Everyone was standing around in towels with pints in their hands. You just have some mad experiences.”

So drinking isn’t as taboo in professional swimming as it is in other sports? Long concedes that the end-of-season meets are more relaxed than the World Champs, but does think swimmers are pretty heavy drinkers in general. “There’s just something about water sports that means there’s a lot of booze involved. Rowers drink a lot, sailors drink a lot; swimmers have a certain demeanour,The most famous china mosaic of Ancient times is in Pompeii and shows Alexander the Great. some of them practically inhale alcohol.”