Working on group projects for school can go two different ways. Sometimes, you are placed in a group with other students who are type-a, proactive workers who naturally get their work done without any reminder. Although this type of situation is great, it usually doesn’t occur. Instead, most students in a group project have about 12,593 things (extra curricular, homework, tests, work, etc.) to do outside of a group project and may be somewhat scatter-brained.
I usually find myself in the later of the two options. Also, I tend to have a lot on my plate and need a little help when scheduling out my activities.
Luckily, there are many tools online and tricks with software on your computer that make it easier to communicate with group members and avoid grueling hours at the library slaving away at tasks that could have been completed earlier in the week.
Google Docs If you are not using Google Docs, you’re out of the loop with an amazing resource for great group collaboration. Essentially, Google Docs is an office suite comprised of a word processor, spreadsheet app and presentation app. The real power of Google Docs comes from the ability to easily share content with other users. Last semester, I used Google Docs to coordinate over 50 article deadlines with 14 other students. Right now, I use Google Docs for many student organizations to track data through form sign-ups.
Threaded Messages Threaded messages have saved me from losing my mind over and over again. Basically, threading messages means your inbox consolidates all of the incoming, outgoing, forwarded, replied, etc. messages from a conversation into a single list. This means your (hypothetical) message about guidelines for a group paper sent last week will show up with your teammate’s reply about changes to make. In my experience, using threading keeps messages organized and makes it easy to sort through when you act as a manager for a group project. I had literally over 500 emails during one week for a comprehensive semester project and would have knocked my head against the wall if I had to manually search for those emails. Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Outlook and other email clients let you easily thread messages.
Follow Up Then I just learned about this tool from the blog Lifehacker and am obsessed with it. If you are anything like me, you need a reminder to do something. FollowUpThen sends reminders to your email and/or group members by simply entering a special email. No applications to download or add-ons to your computer. Lightweight and easy to use.
Hands down the best application I’ve used during the past three years of college. Doodle allows you to efficiently decide on a meeting time that works for the maximum amount of members. One persona creates a Doodle survey with specified days/times and then sends the poll to the whole group. Group members simply check a box for each time frame they can attend. Doodle will automatically add up the “Yes” checked boxes and tell you what time periods will work best for your group. Best of all, this service is free. I’ve used this time after time because it’s so simple to set up yet takes stress/hassle out of scheduling neurotic, time consumed college students to meet.
In reality, these tools would be valuable in other settings, like non-profit organizations or large corporations.
Now, I have one question for you: do you know of any additional tools for group collaboration? I have three group projects this semester and any additional hints will prevent me from loosing my mind 
.