Imagine you are perched at your desk, ready to push the launch button. You have done the hard work selling your team on monday.com, and you have convinced them it will integrate with all the different tools they use. Make life easier, streamline your operation.
You are finally ready to bring all your project management under one roof.
So here goes. You step off and take the plunge.
At first, it is like a new toy everyone is keen to try. They jump on board, carried along by your enthusiasm. They believe in you and are willing to give it a go. See how well it will work.
Then it slowly starts to go pear-shaped…..
It turns out some things are not as straightforward as they seemed.
Instead of saving time, your team is starting to spend more of it managing their workflow each day. They are beginning to complain about double handling tasks. Exporting data out of monday.com so they can use tools they are familiar with. The whole thing seems to be making more work for everyone and not saving you anything!
What went wrong, you might ask yourself?
Now everyone is getting frustrated, and you are left scratching your head. Wondering if this was such a good idea after all? Have you been sold a dud? A productivity dream that is just not going to happen.
Then you remember all the rave reviews that swear blind monday is the best thing ever! What do they all know that you are not seeing?
Could it be one of these common mistakes holding you back? Costly errors that can doom a monday.com trial.
Once you know them, you might have a chance to save your productivity dream. There might still be time to see the benefits that monday has to offer.
If you do this as decisions are made during Zoom calls, you might avoid the need for long-winded meeting minutes to be prepared afterward.
monday.com consultant shares nine mistakes people make when using monday.com.
Mistake 1. Using monday.com as a Spreadsheet -
monday is a sophisticated WorkOS that is designed with customization in mind. You should be using it to automate routine tasks and create boards that talk to each other. You can trigger templates, notifications, and emails, to name a few features. It is built to mold and grow around your needs. When different teams in your business are using various tools on monday.com, they can all connect in one place and communicate efficiently. As monday.com experts, we suggest making sure your team is not treating monday like a glorified spreadsheet.
Mistake 2. Having too many Boards -
When you have too many boards, those boards are likely not connected. This is another sign you might be using monday like one big spreadsheet. Treating monday.com like Excel is a common mistake. Too many boards can make it confusing and very hard to navigate. For best results, monday.com consultants suggest less is more on monday.com.
Mistake 3. Not using Automations -
Automations are one of the critical ways monday can help you reduce your workload. You can use 'Connect Columns' to get more automations working for you. When you automate with platforms like Zoom, you can do obvious things like keep track of meetings and connect your calendars. You can also add tools like Meetee to write meeting notes directly into monday.com. If you do this as decisions are made during Zoom calls, you might avoid the need for long-winded meeting minutes to be prepared afterward. You can even update the status of projects directly on monday.com, as decisions are made on Zoom calls. You could assign tasks ) to team members on the fly. Then use automations to notify everyone and trigger new workflows.
Mistake 4. Manual reporting instead of Dashboards -
A common error is exporting data from monday to create separate reports in Excel. You can use monday.com Dashboards to do this instead. Dashboards will give you insight into your company's performance, your team's workload, staff productivity, client onboarding, and many more metrics. Is your team spending a lot of time creating reports? Learning how to set up Dashboards will give you back costly, precious hours. Automatically generating reports will help you focus on how best to use your data rather than spending time building reports with it.
Mistake 5. Forgetting about Automating Notification and Emails to stakeholders -
If you are still copying and pasting emails to external email platforms, you are probably double handling your messages. Do you want to notify clients or team members when a task is completed? monday's email integration with Gmail and Outlook can email both your clients and your team directly. You say when the relevant messages will go out.
Mistake 6. Allowing multiple users to change the workflow or setup -
Decentralisation is excellent when it comes to Crypto. It is not so when it comes to the design and workflow decision-making process. As monday.com consultants, we've noticed when too many people can change a process; they often forget to notify others. How often do your standard operating procedures (SOP's) get updated? Or even checked to see if a new process contradicts what is already in place? This often results in inadvertently creating looping automations that can skyrocket your monday subscription. While also reducing transparency and knowledge inside your team. When you control your access levels, you can avoid many of these problems.
One of the big mistakes users seem to make is not realising an "all or nothing" approach works best with monday
Mistake 7. Lacking Documentation -
Do you feel pain when you hear the words "process documentation"? Can you think of anything more time-consuming and tedious to work on? You might like a secret weapon called Miro. It is a fun, colourful, easy to use tool for mapping and diagram workflows. You can quickly and create documentation on the go. Then store it on monday for easy access or, even better, embed Miro into monday.com.
Mistake 8. Using Multiple WorkOS Systems -
One of the biggest errors users seem to make is not realising an "all or nothing" approach works best with monday. The success of monday's uptake ultimately depends on whether you and your team are fully immersed in it or not if you try to use monday for project and client management. Then something else for task tracking. As well as paper notes for 'urgent items.' Then calendars for all your reminders. Your team will probably never take up monday fully. Take advice from monday.com experts: 'To make monday work best for you, you need to consolidate.'
Mistake 9. Missing integration between all of your tools -
One of the most powerful benefits of monday.com is its ability to integrate with so many other platforms you might use. You can use monday integrations to save massive amounts of time and data entry with the likes of Xero and Hubspot. You can manage sharing and control access to Dropbox. You can even send emails from inside monday.com with Outlook and Gmail if you use a platform that does not directly plug into monday. You can always integrate with Zapier to open a larger world of automation options.
Do you want to know how to avoid monday becoming a time-sucking disaster? Having a monday.com expert to guide you through might help you get the most out of the platform.
A little support can go a long way to delivering real productivity pleasure.
When you start on the right path, you might avoid the costly mistakes often made by others.
Whether you are an established monday user or a newcomer who wants to get off on the right foot, reach out to the team at Kick Consulting for a free one on one consultation.
