Jenny (00:28)
Are you tired of always forgetting things, repeating yourself over and over, doing everything yourself or managing every single aspect of your farm? Well, you are in luck because today I'm talking about the digital system that changed my business. So in today's episode, I'm giving you a behind the scenes peek into our task management system and how it's completely transformed my mental peace with trying to.
manage a million different parts of the farm business. And this is really important because a well organized task system saves you time. It reduces your stress. It prevents things from falling through the cracks and really helps your team work together better. And I just know that the mental load of managing the farm felt 100 % unmanageable before I used this task management system.
So when we implemented this, it changed the game for me. So in this episode, I'm talking about the tools that are out there, how to use them, what I use, how to use it and why it works so well for managing a farm business. So if you're someone like me who also feels like the mental load of the farm can be absolutely crushing, I think you're going to love this episode. So let's dive in, shall we? So quick story time years and years and years ago when I...
was starting to hire more and more employees. I really didn't have a system in place to manage the farm and the team and all the tasks that come with it. And the mental load of just trying to manage it felt unbearable. was crushing. And even before I had a team, I think that using a task management system or software would have been super useful for me. And we're going to talk more about that, but there are so many moving
pieces and parts to a farm business, it can be really crushing if you don't manage it appropriately. And so when I was, you know, first starting out my business, I had no idea what I was doing. I was just kind of falling into figuring out how to run this business of mine. And I was managing the whole farm basically out of my head. So I would take all the things that I knew we had to do on the farm and I would write them down on lists of paper. You know, I'd make to-do lists literally on paper.
And after a while we had a whiteboard that I would use on the farm that was helpful. But mainly I was writing down to-do lists and schedules on pieces of paper and handing them out to the farm crew. Like these little scraps of paper that would like fall in buckets and get wet or get rained on and disintegrate. And it was not a good system. You know, at one point I got really smart though and I started using waterproof paper and I thought I was a genius. Like the right in the rain brand. Amazing by the way, but.
It was still super chaotic and unorganized And I think that's just a natural progression when you grow from being a solopreneur doing everything yourself and everything is in your head to when you actually have to start delegating tasks and when you have a crew and there's just like this messy middle, but hopefully this episode will help you kind of skip or speed up that messy middle part.
whether you have employees or not. But I've learned over time that the secret to managing a smooth running farm where the mental load is not crushing you is actually just getting really organized and getting systems in place and not just letting all those to-dos float around in your head and you know, writing them on scraps of paper. So fast forward a few years. ⁓ but at some point, many years ago, we started using a task management software.
And so all that is, is a digital tool that helps you and your team organize, prioritize, and track tasks. So you can track everyday tasks, annual tasks, you can track big projects, and you can do it all very efficiently. So we use task management software for this, and I'll get more into what we use and what the options are in a second, but using a task management software tool is a total game changer because
You basically have this giant to-do list that's super organized. You can assign tasks to individuals, delegate really easily. You can set priorities and deadlines and at a glance, you can see if you're on track or not just in one interface. And so if it's just you in your business right now, this is going to help you get super clear on what needs to be done and more easily prioritize what to do first. And I know prioritization can be really hard.
⁓ especially when it's just you. So this will help with that. And if you have a team, it will help them see what needs to be done and prioritize what to do first as well. It also helps you set realistic timelines, track progress or status of certain tasks, ⁓ and communicate easily. It can also help with reporting, analyzing data, and making data-driven decisions.
So a task management software tool is basically just something that helps you get super organized and delegate and prioritize. It's just a digital tool and there's a bunch of ones out there. I would say the most popular options are Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Notion, and Monday.com. So again, that's Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Notion, and Monday.com.
So these are all popular ones and they all have free versions. I personally use Asana and I think I just started using it because I looked at a few different of these when we first started using them and somebody else told me that they use Asana and I was like, great, I'll use that one. ⁓ but they're all very similar and there are paid versions of it, but I just use the free version and it works great for us. And I highly recommend using one of these task management software is that I just listed.
There are slight differences between all of them. ⁓ I would say if you want something that's highly customizable, notion is a good one. I have heard that Trello is probably the most user friendly, but they all have a little bit of a learning curve to them. So whichever one you pick is going to work, you know, it'll be fine. You'll figure out how to use it. Some other options for task management would be something like a Google sheet. Like you could create your own Google sheet, but,
I think that there's just a lot less options with that. So as long as you're not using like paper planner, like I mentioned, or like just a whiteboard, I think using any of those task management tools would work. But when you're looking at all of the options, I would advise you to look for something that is really easy and simple to use that has a really great mobile app. So mobile app compatibility is a big one for me.
the ability to assign tasks and set deadlines or priorities, and then one that has a visual layout that you like. So all of these task management tools have some versions of this, but we use Asana because the app is really functional and easy to use. So I use it on my phone most of the time, like just when I'm out in the field, if I see something that needs to be done, I just open the app on my phone and put it in there really quickly.
Most of them have a lot of different visual layouts that you can choose from. ⁓ but you can play around with them and see what you like, but we love using Asana and this is how we use it to manage the tasks in the team on the farm. Mostly project and task creation. So crop planning is a big one.
Our crop plan is just one giant project, right? But we are able to break it down into individual tasks inside of our task management software. So things like start the zinnia seeds, transplant zinnias, ⁓ start dahlias, all that stuff. The whole crop plan is put in there and all of the greenhouse dates are in there. All the transplant dates are in there. So our whole calendar.
has a task assigned to it within our crop plan so nothing gets missed. And that's really important for executing your crop plan. But the thing we probably use it most for is just daily and weekly tasks. So usually what I do is I walk around the farm once a week with the app open on my phone, and I just look for things that need to be taken care of. And as I think of things that need to be done around the farm, I just put them straight into the app as a to-do.
And it's usually a bunch of random stuff like why are we the anemones install drip irrigation and high tunnel four spring tooth, the Dalia field, pick up T posts that got knocked over trellis, the raspberry foliage, like all these random things that take up so much space in your brain. If you can just get them out into a to do on the task management software, it's going to alleviate so much of your stress. So anything and everything that comes to mind that needs to be done, I see needs to be get done.
It gets put into Asana immediately and it gets assigned to someone with a priority and a due date if applicable. Sometimes they don't have due dates, but that option is there. And this has just been really great for a million different reasons. ⁓ But also we use it for big annual tasks. So this would be once a year stuff like ordering plugs in the fall and the summer or ordering seed or ordering our ranunculus quarms or our bulbs.
We put that in there with a due date assigned to it. So it pings me when that assignment or that task is coming up. So it's not forgotten. So you can put all this stuff in there ahead of time, like in the winter, and then it'll remind you like, Hey, don't forget to order your plugs this Friday or something like that. And it's really great for managing all those things that you just do like once a year and yet kind of tend to forget about. And I love.
The ability to assign tasks to people on the farm, because it really helps with accountability. I'm able to get all these to-dos out of my head into one place, keep all the tasks organized and assign tasks to people. So we have different sections in Asana for all the different kinds of tasks that we have. have sections for field work, marketing tasks, social media stuff, office work, just to keep it all organized. And then we also have different project.
boards in Asana. We have a field work project board, which has a lot of the sections I just talked about, plus a marketing and content board to kind of keep track of all the behind the scenes stuff as well. And then we also have a harvest report board. And this is where we keep all of our harvest lists. So the harvest crew can see in Asana what needs to be harvested, how much of it.
And then they also document what they harvest and what the harvest yields are right in that project board as well. So it's all in one place. Plus I also have my own personal project board for my own personal items too, because with my own personal life, like I'm managing my household and I've got a husband and kids and life. So things like making my kids doctors appointments or updating our family budget or making that. ⁓
Amazon return before the cutoff or whatever random stuff I have to do in my personal life. have a board for that as well. So all of these millions of teeny tiny things that take up so much space in your brain are all set out and organized in here. And it's really easy to organize as well. I love that every task has a clear assignee and due date. And this is because one person can own each task.
And is responsible for seeing that through to completion. And this is great because it really prevents confusion or forgotten jobs and promotes team ownership. So everybody knows what's expected. And that's been a huge game changer for us because in the past, when we used to go harvest, for example, ⁓ and this is also back when we used to harvest a lot more variety than we do now, but either way, we would take a harvest list with us to the field and we'd have several different people harvesting.
But since there wasn't a specific crop or amount assigned to one person, there would be this confusion where one person would go harvest all of the zinnias and then another person would also harvest all the zinnias. we'd have double harvested than what we needed, or nobody wanted to go harvest the lisianthus. And so that would get forgotten about and we'd have to go out to the field later to harvest it. And so it was just very chaotic and clearly I wasn't very good at managing things back then, but.
This task management software has really helped streamline everything. Everything is super clear. ⁓ it's just a simple checklist and everyone knows what they're responsible for. So there's a lot less confusion, which makes a much happier work culture as well. Cause people don't want to come to work and, and not know what to do. They want to have clear expectations set that they can meet. So another thing that I really like about using Asana in this task management software.
Is that notes and updates happen right inside of this software. So someone can comment on a task if they have questions and I can respond right back in the app.
We also have it connected to some other softwares and tools that we use for communication, but I can attach documents to tasks like SOPs right inside of the task. So if they need really clear instructions or guidance, I can put all of that right in there. And it's also great for me if I need reminders about stuff. There's a lot of things on the farm we only do once a year, and I forget how to do them. Things like setting up our Dalia tubers shipping software, which we do.
Once a year, like I have a step-by-step instructions written down on how to do that, that I reference every year because every time I go to do it, I'm like, wait, how do I do this again? I haven't done it since last year. So that's really useful as well. You can keep a lot of your SOPs or your employee handbook stuff organized in your task management software as well. ⁓ it's just amazing for organizing all of that stuff.
But communicating through this software just makes everything really streamlined. It's so much easier than texting back and forth or trying to remember who said what. And another thing that we do with this task management software is we have a weekly planning meeting to review Asana and all the tasks that are coming up for the week together. This really cuts down on interruptions to me as a business owner and helps clarify things for the team.
So we can sit down and run through the tasks. And if anybody has questions about how to do something or where a tool is located or where something's being planted or I don't know, anything like that, we can cover all of it in one meeting a week. So it really cuts down on interruptions in the future.
I mentioned this before, but you can also use Asana for record keeping. I mentioned that we had a project board for harvesting. So we have all of our harvest yields. It's just a note that we keep right inside of Asana. So if I'm ever wondering like what our yields were for zinnias or dahlias, it's all right there inside of the app. ⁓ but we can also use it to keep notes from the field. So I will keep notes on pest pressure when certain pests show up on crop issues.
Things that worked things that didn't, like if we planted too much of something or too little of something, I keep all my notes organized in this task management software system. So I can go back over the winter time and review my notes so I can remember, yeah, I don't need to order as much listening at this this year, or we need to plant some more zinnias and whatever it is. It's all in one place organized.
So you can also use it to organize things like files or photos or links. It can all be attached to tasks, which is really nice because we can reference previous tasks or even copy templates to use again and again from year to year. And it's great for just keeping track of what's gotten done on the farm. So when a task is completed, we simply check it off that it's been done.
And the task goes into the completed pile and you can filter all of your views inside of the software to see like what hasn't been done, what has been done, things coming up, things that are low priority.
So if you're wondering if someone sent that email or picked that lyceanthus or something like that, you can just go right into the app on your phone and see if it's been checked off or not. So it makes managing the team and the farm so much easier. So next thing I want to talk about with task management software is just a few tips on how to use it and mistakes to avoid that I made at first.
So when you first start using task management software like Asana or Trello or whatever, you need to get into the habit of using the task management software and you need to get your team on board with it first. So the first year that we started using this, I said to myself and my team, this is our task management software. It's called Asana and all of our tasks are going to go through this. All of our communication about the tasks are going to go through this.
So we had like a hard date where we just said, this is what we're going to use from now on. And I had to develop the habit of always putting everything in my brain into this app on my phone, instead of all the other places that I used to put them, which was a bunch of different places and a bunch of different scraps of paper that would get lost. And so once we got into the habit, which happened really quickly, things started to move a lot smoother.
So if you're going to do something like this, you have to make the commitment to really start doing it and not go back. It's really a habit that you have to start forming and get into the habit of. And it was definitely a little bit of a learning curve. Like at first it took a little while for us to figure out how to use Asana, how to get into the groove of different ways of using it. And of course there were a few hiccups here and there.
But basically I just watched a lot of YouTube videos on how to use this software and it worked great. So once we got into the habit of it, it went really smoothly.
One of the biggest mistakes I made when using Asana at first was over complicating it. So I want to talk about that for a second. There are a ton of different options with using a lot of these task management tools. There's so many different options and features from Gantt charts to dependencies to timelines and workloads. And we tried to get a little bit fancy with this and
kind of started putting in like our whole systems and had dependencies like, you know, we can't water the lisianthus until it's planted, that kind of thing. But it just kind of made things muddy.
so don't over complicate it. I backed off of a lot of the more advanced features and just sort of led into very simple management of it. I like simple things, I like a simple business, I like simple tools, and so we just keep things really easy and just look at our task management software like a really organized to-do list that has accountability and priorities and due dates attached to all the tasks.
And that's what I recommend starting out with. If you want to get fancy later after you've mastered using this in a really simple way, go for it. But I think starting really simple at first and just looking at it, like in organized to-do list is going to help you master using this and manage your farm a lot more easily. And why I love that approach is because it basically just helps me figure out what's a priority and what's not, what needs to get done and who owns that task.
And.
It relieves the mental load. So I'm adding stuff to Asana anytime something pops up in my head, anytime something needs to get done. And usually this is at like midnight when I'm trying to sleep or like three in the morning when I wake up and I go, I forgot to send that email or I forgot to order those promotional cards or I forgot to water the zinnias. ⁓ I just.
put it right in the task management software as a to do right away. And most of time I just complete it right there by adding a to do late, a to do date, a priority and somebody assigned to it. But sometimes I'll come back to it later and add that stuff, but it all goes in there as soon as I think about it. And so everybody on the team knows to attack high priority things on the list first before we touch any of the medium or low priority tasks.
And by doing all of that, provides a really great visual aid into what's coming up, what's important, what tasks are over or do all that kind of stuff. And this whole process of, you know, sitting down and making a plan for the week with what tasks absolutely have to get done, like high priority and which ones can wait till later. It takes me less than 20 minutes a week. And so it's all set up, ready to go. And it just makes managing throughout the week so much easier.
This has been so good for my mental health as a small business owner, because if you have your own business, you know that the mental load of running a business. And if you also have a family and a household as well, like it can be crushing at times. think, especially as a woman and a mom too, like we've got lots of other humans to take care of. And this has just been a really great stress reliever in terms of managing not only the farm better, but my whole life and household.
It really reduces overwhelm by getting everything out of your head and into a system. It helps your team help you. So there's less checking in, less micro managing, less interruptions. It helps you with delegation and training. helps you to spot like different gaps or delays or bottlenecks early. So you can fix things and just truly frees up mental space for higher level thinking for things like profitability or marketing or like a nap.
We all need a nap, right? So just to summarize, I highly recommend using a task management tool like Asana or Trello or monday.com or any of those ones I mentioned earlier to reduce the mental load of running your business and your life and making your farm a smooth operating, well-oiled machine. And you don't have to use Asana, but you do need a system in place for tracking and managing all of the various tasks with the business. So.
I recommend you just try a tool that works for you and let me know if you find something that works for you. Screenshot your task management system and tag us on social media. And if you want a tour of my Asana, my task management software setup, DM me the word task. That's T A S K on Instagram. My Instagram account is trademark farmer. So just shoot me a DM the word task on Instagram.
And I will send you a link to look at a quick little screen recording of how we organize everything in Asana and get it all done. think it would be really helpful for you. So don't forget to do that. also put a link to it in the show notes for this episode. And lastly, if you found this episode to be helpful, even in the slightest way possible, I would love it. And so appreciate it. If you could leave a review for the six figure flower farming podcast.
Your reviews really, really helped me to know what I'm doing right. If I'm doing my job and helping you grow a sustainable and profitable flower farm. And it also helps other flower farmers find this who could really use the information. So help me in my mission of making all small scale flower farms profitable and sustainable and fulfilling by leaving a review for this podcast. And then with that, I will see you next time on the Six Figure Flower Farming Podcast.
Don't forget that we publish new episodes every Monday. So I will see you next week. Same time, same place.
