I’m Kayla. I manage creative work for a living—brand refreshes, video shoots, social campaigns, messy launches with ten cooks in the kitchen. I’ve tried a bunch of tools. Some saved me. Some bit me. Here’s what it’s like in real life.
For an even deeper behind-the-scenes peek at how I wrangle creative chaos day-to-day, take a look at this full breakdown of my process right here.
Quick context
- Team sizes I work with: 3 to 20 people.
- Files: huge video drafts, logo files, copy decks, mood boards.
- Timelines: often too short. Holidays sneak up. Stakeholders wake up late.
- My style: simple views, tight feedback loops, clear owners.
I love a clean board. I hate chaos. Both show up often.
If you ever crave extra playbooks or templates from fellow project wranglers, swing by PMO Network—it’s packed with hard-won tips.
Before we dive in, if you want a fuller comparison of project management tools built specifically for creative teams, take a peek at this roundup. It’s a solid orientation before you pick your stack.
The tools I actually use (and why)
- Asana: my main home for timelines, handoffs, and approvals. The Gantt view keeps me honest.
- Airtable: perfect for content calendars and asset tracking. Thumbnails help me think.
- Frame.io: rock solid for video review. Range comments save time.
- Slack: fast questions, quick wins, noisy but needed.
- Miro: for brainstorms and wireframes. I still print stuff, but this helps.
- Google Drive: source of truth for files. Folders by week. No cute names.
I’ve used Trello, Notion, Monday.com, and ClickUp, too. Each did one thing great. None did all the things I wanted at once. And that’s okay.
Real project 1: A six-week brand refresh with Asana
We had six weeks to refresh a brand before a spring sale. New logo polish, web updates, photo shoot, email kit, social pack. Too much? Yep. We did it anyway.
What I set up:
- An Asana project with custom fields: Phase, Owner, Status, Due.
- Sections for Strategy, Design, Web, Photo, Email, Social.
- A “Feedback due” task on every deliverable. One place. One date.
A real moment: our photo shoot almost slipped. Lighting rental was late. I built a “Blockers” section and moved the task there with a red tag that said “needs call.” It got eyes fast. We rescheduled the warehouse slot by one hour. No meltdown.
What worked:
- Timeline view showed that web QA would clash with the email write. I pushed the email by two days. No all-nighter.
- Comment threads in Asana kept feedback with the task. No hunting in Slack.
What hurt:
- Guest reviewers missed Asana invites. I had to paste a view-only link and say, “Leave notes here.” It worked, but it was clunky.
- If someone forgot to set the Owner, the task floated. I learned to add a rule: unassigned tasks ping me.
Would I use it again for this? Yes. It kept me sane.
Real project 2: A video series with Frame.io, Slack, and Drive
We shot a five-part how-to series for a kitchen brand. Each video had a hero cut, a 15-second cut, and captions.
My workflow:
- Raw files lived in Drive by episode. Editor pulled from there.
- Cuts went to Frame.io. I used time-stamped notes like “00:01:23 — spoon blocks logo; swap angle.”
- Slack channel #video-kitchen handled quick calls: music picks, cutdowns, okay to post.
A real moment: the client wrote “Make it pop.” Classic. I asked for one clear goal, then I tagged a range in Frame.io and wrote, “From 00:12 to 00:18, bump brightness +10 and warm tones.” They said yes. We shipped.
What worked:
- Frame.io range comments let the editor see context. Not just a random second.
- Version stacks kept V1, V2, V3 tidy. No “final_final_2.mov” mess.
What hurt:
- Exports took forever on hotel Wi-Fi during a shoot week. I kept a tiny 720p copy for fast review. That saved our tails.
Real project 3: A social calendar with Airtable
We planned eight weeks of posts for a summer promo. Three channels. Lots of reuse.
My base:
- Fields: Date, Channel, Theme, Copy, Asset, Status, Owner, Link.
- A “Gallery” view for images. Seeing all the blues and reds helped balance the feed.
- Automations: When Status = “Ready,” it pinged the copy lead. Simple and sweet.
A real moment: a product color got pulled last minute. I filtered by that color in the Theme field and found six posts. We swapped them in one hour. If this lived in a doc, we’d still be hunting.
What worked:
- Thumbnails let the team catch off-brand shots fast.
- Filters by Channel kept meetings short. We talked only what mattered.
What hurt:
- Too many fields made folks freeze. I cut three fields and made a Notes field. Calm returned.
Where I stubbed my toe
- Too many tools. People got lost. I now pick one “home” per project and name it in kickoff.
- Comment chaos. Feedback in Slack, Drive, and email at once. I push all notes into the task or Frame.io. One trail.
- No clear owner. I once had a landing page with three “helpers.” Guess what? No one shipped. Now every task has one owner and a clear due date.
Creative project managers also end up playing relationship counselor—juggling the give-and-take between budget-holding sponsors and craft-focused makers. If you’re curious how crystal-clear expectation setting powers other types of partnerships, the structured dynamics in an SDSB (Sugar Daddy / Sugar Baby) arrangement offer a fascinating parallel. You can dive into the basics in this guide to the SDSB relationship where the roles, rules, and benefits are broken down step-by-step—insights that translate surprisingly well to defining scopes, responsibilities, and boundaries before a project kickoff.
Borrowing another example from a completely different industry, consider how service providers in the adult space rely on brutally honest, reputation-driven feedback loops. Browsing the local review board over at Erotic Monkey Bozeman shows how transparent ratings and detailed client notes can inspire accountability and consistent quality—skim a few entries and you’ll pick up ideas for building equally candid review systems inside your own team.
My simple playbook (that I keep tweaking)
- Start with the deadline, then work backwards in Asana. Build in one buffer day each week.
- Keep one home for tasks and one home for files. Don’t mix.
- Use status words people understand: Ready, In Progress, Blocked, Review, Approved. No fancy labels.
- Make feedback windows. “Notes due by Tuesday 3 pm.” Late notes roll to the next cut.
- Show the work early. A rough draft beats a silent week.
- Name files like a librarian: yyyymmdd_project_asset_v1.ext
- If you're curious how formal project cycle frameworks translate to creative work, here's my take after taking a deep-dive Project Cycle Management training.
It sounds strict. It’s actually freeing.
Tool mini-reviews (from my hands, not a brochure)
By the way, if you like learning through books as much as dashboards, I rounded up the project management books that actually earn space on my desk in this list.
- Asana: Best for cross-team timelines and handoffs. Great for approvals. Can get noisy if rules run wild. 4.5/5.
- Airtable: Perfect for content and assets. Views feel like magic. Can confuse new folks if your base is too cute. 4/5.
- Frame.io: The video note king. Range comments and version stacks rock. Needs good internet, or you’ll wait. 4.5/5.
- Trello: Simple and friendly. Great for small teams. I hit limits on big launches. 3.5/5.
- Notion: Lovely docs and wikis. I use it for briefs and brand notes. Tasks got heavy as we scaled. 3.5/5.
- Monday.com: Clear colors and groups. Good for stakeholders who like dashboards. I fought permissions sometimes. 4/5.
- ClickUp: All-in-one promise. Strong for power users. My team wanted fewer knobs. 3.5/5.
Want an even richer comparison of creative project management software? Check out this guide for a breakdown of strengths, weaknesses, and pricing quirks across the major players.
None is perfect. Pick what your team will actually use.
Who should use what
- Small studio, fast jobs: Trello + Drive + Slack. Keep