Categories: Business sustainability

Task Management

Task management is something many of us are constantly trying to improve on. When we have lots of tasks to do across projects, clients or roles, it can be hard to keep track of them. Varying due dates, levels of input, types of requirements, and teammates to collaborate with, are often too hard to stay on top of when simply using a diary or calendar.

In recent years a diverse range of online tools have been developed to help us manage our tasks, some of my favourite include Asana, Trello, and Monday.com. These platforms are great for individuals and teams working to manage projects in any industry. They are free to use with additional premium features which can be paid for.Task management tools help us to focus on what we do best: by relying on the tool to store and track the task-related detail and information for you, you can free up space in your mind to focus on the work itself. These tools facilitate better work productivity by allowing you to manage workloads, never miss deadlines, and to collaborate more efficiently with teammates.

How do these tools work?

Trello, for example, provides you with a ‘board’ that you fill with different ‘cards’ (your tasks) that can be moved between vertical lists (the way you choose to organise or categorise your tasks). Each card can be commented on, updated, have its own to-do list, tagged team mates, due dates, attached files and more.

Creating a list on Trello is easy and personalised – you may like to have one representing what you will focus on today, one for next week, or one with brand new tasks waiting to be categorised. You could have ‘urgent’ and ‘non-urgent’ lists, lists for each team member or client, or perhaps a list for each stage of work depending on your business. Each list can have specific colour coded labels to apply to each individual card within that list, helping to further define each task. Cards can be easily dragged and moved between lists as they progress.

I personally recommend checking your Trello board each morning to review and update your tasks: add any meetings or calls from your calendar, determine which tasks need to be completed today and move any that require different prioritisation. How you design your board is completely up to you and what works best for your business.

Which tool is right for me?

Depending on your business and how you like to operate, one of these tools will be more suited than the others. To help you identify which is best for you, I have set out some of the pros and cons that I have found for each tool. Please get in touch if you’re still unsure which will be best for you and I will help match you and your business to the right task management tool.

Asana

Pros

They offer a free plan which may not provide access to all the great features but enough for smaller teams.
Integrations with multiple apps such as Slack, Salesforce, Microsoft Office and much more.
Asana has great features such as Kanban, Gantt charts, dependency management, time-tracking, reporting and more.
Adding new members is easy.

Cons

Since the program is heavily text based, it’s easy to accidentally break structure, remove a task, or change its naming.
Due to the multiple features, projects can get complex or confusing.
You cannot assign multiple people to the same task with Asana.
There is no way to track time.

Trello

Pros

Free! Available to use right after sign-up.
Provides easy to navigate boards that make it feel like you always have everything you need right in front of you.
Tasks can be set with due dates that are synced to your calendar.
Progress ‘tagging’ feature that lets you set the stage of completion for each task.
This is customisable and allows you to easily see where each individual task is up to.
Easy to add new members and assign them to tasks.
Comments by all members can be made on each card/task for easy collaboration.

Cons

No Ganntt style project bar chart.
Only allows a simple description per board.
While items can be organised into specific tasks and cards, once a board collects a large number of cards the board can easily feel cluttered and crowded.
Not great for large businesses due to limited features.

Monday.com

Pros

Utilizes a Board concept that offers detailed insights on your projects, tasks, and company performance.
It connects them to your team members and other parties who need to track the workflow.
Gives parties a range of resources based on their role and they can approve or reject a project without being permanent users of the program.
Easily track the performance of individuals and teams.
Categorise projects into groups and sections so they follow the specific policies and rules you set.

Cons

Notifications can be a pain.
There is an inbox and notifications bar, so that is a bit confusing to handle.
Unable to share a pulse to another board.
The mobile app is not so user friendly.

Now that you’re ready to start managing your tasks online and more efficiently, take a moment to consider other aspects of your business that could be improved. Are you using email automation and Cloud-based filing systems yet? Check out my blog post on how to get started.

If you are interested to find out what services and support we can offer you, click here to learn more.

Alina

Director / Founder FPA