Do You Know Where Your Running Shorts Are?

05/21/10 Kristin

I’ll admit: my closet is a disaster.

I know my life would be much easier if I spent an hour straightening it up, but I always find other things to do instead. I’ll pick tasks that take less time, and don’t require so much thought. (WHERE is the absolute best place for these running shorts??) I’m not kidding, that’s how I justify it in my head.

So if you’re anything like me, getting organized is exhausting.

Here’s the catch, though. If you start out organized, then the organization is easy to maintain. But if you’re unlucky enough to be frazzled from the start, straightening everything out takes way more time and effort than it should. And face it, there are better things you should be doing with your time than detangling a web of information… or running shorts.

It’s the same with web projects. Whether it’s a website you’re building, or a web app you’re developing, it’s going to require organization… and probably files of some sort. You expect it, you know it’s coming, and you know what it’s like to have 80 files in your lap and think “Crap, where does all this go, again?”

Here’s how I think: I have this page, and this content needs to go on this page. And I also have this file that is related to this page… oh, and this picture, too. If they were physical things, I would set them next to each other, to show that they go together. But they’re not, they’re digital. They still need to go together- otherwise they’ll end up like my closet.

Enter Jumpchart.

As you might already know, Jumpchart is a website planning tool that makes it super easy to keep everything together- files attached to their pages and all. You can even leave a comment on a page- and attach an image or file to help illustrate your point.

Jumpchart brings the clarity to web projects, and it brings sanity to my brain. After working on a project the other day using Jumpchart, I went home and cleaned my closet. True story. I’d spent several hours having all my information available, collected, and in logical places so I could find what I needed quickly and easily. Then I went home and dug through three drawers, ransacked two shelves, and plowed through a pile of shoes to get ready for my afternoon run. It took three times as long as it should have, and I’d had enough.

So I know I work for Paste, but as someone who came into this company after Jumpchart was born, I feel like I can speak objectively about it. Organization cannot be taken for granted in a web project, and it cannot be well-implemented late in the game.

Put things where they go as you get them, so you can focus on the quality of the site, instead of the quantity of loose files you have pertaining to it.