It improves your external and internal workplace communication and workflow even though new projects pile up or your priorities change. The thing is: as your business grows, organizing tasks and managing them becomes tricky. It demands smooth cooperation between employees, departments, and teams to yield timely work. This report says that 80% of all employees spend almost half of their entire workweek over rework due to poor communication. The same report highlights that 46% of company team leaders admit that completing a project within the deadline is their biggest problem. Thankfully, project management software has been invented to address these issues! The report also says that the software can save on average 498 hours of employees per year. That means you don’t have to deal with messy dashboards, boring spreadsheets, easy-to-lose sticky notes, difficulties in prioritizing tasks, and searching and sorting emails. In this article, I’ll introduce you to some of the best task management tools so you can leverage the power of automation and manage projects efficiently with effective communication. So, let’s begin the hunt! But before that,
What’s task management software?
Task management software is an organized tool to identify, allocate, manage, and monitor tasks for you and your team. It comes with an intuitive dashboard where you can see all the key information from how many tasks are in hand, their priority levels, time racking, and the deadline for each one of them. It helps you adjust work schedules based on work availability and saves you from confusion. There are many features, customization, and integration that modern task managers provide you with, so you can complete your project without getting exhausted.
Organizing tasks effectively
Your team and you can work simultaneously on multiple projects every day. It includes project tasks, social media posts, HR activities, invoices, accounting, scheduling meetings, and the list goes on and on. It becomes way easier than what you used to do with just pen and paper or excel sheets, for that matter.
Staying informed of deadlines
Multiple projects mean multiple deadlines, which can create confusion. But task management software makes it easy with clear deadlines displaying against each task in your dashboard. You can also track the progress of each one of them and manage all the tasks and sub-tasks. And even though you forget a deadline, don’t worry. It’s because many task management tools come with automatic notifications of due dates via emails so you and take action when there is still time.
Effective collaboration
You can navigate ideas with your teams in real-time and invite your team members to take action. It does not have to be a long meeting to kill your team’s time. You can do everything with the sleek and smart solution offered by the software. So, now’s the time to look at our top task management software.
Monday
Manage your projects effectively, from basic tasks to complicated portfolio management, with the help of Monday. In addition to all the basic capabilities, this task management tool includes resource allocation, project milestones, timeline, and risk management. View your projects using the robust Gantt Charts and manage things, change and control your dependencies, baseline, and milestones at every step of your project lifecycle. Convert insights into real actions and make business decisions depending on data in real-time. You can bring data from various programs and projects and then centralize it creatively in a single view. The up-to-date, live data helps you manage your workload based on your present capacity and allocate resources accordingly. Set custom automation quickly to receive task management alerts, budget approvals, etc., and remain updated on the current project status. Bring all your team members together over a common platform and break communications barriers and align them to move your project forward with improved speed. Customize workflows with methods like Agile, Sprints, Waterfall, etc., based on your project needs. You can also view the project status at a glance with their user-friendly dashboards, enabling a clear visual. Monday supports powerful integrations with tools like Google Calendar, MS-Excel, Slack, Teams, Zoom, LinkedIn, Zapier, and more. Get started with this tool Monday with a 14-day FREE trial.
ClickUp
Customize everything and manage your tasks like a pro using the feature-rich tool of ClickUp. It helps you make quick fixes and shuffle tasks based on new project requirements. It makes task assignments and team communication easy with real-time chat. You can also customize ClickUp to make it flexible based on your needs with the tiniest details that can help you complete the project. ClickUp allows multiple assignees, classify tasks based on priority, and lets you design workflows and then duplicate them wherever you want. You can leverage time tracking to stop and start time using a global timer in-built with tasks. View your task in a multitude of layouts such as list view, board view, calendar view, box view, Gantt view, form view, embed view, activity view, a map view, table view, timeline, mind maps, and as a doc, chat, or workload. Use slash commands to activate shortcut menus and adjust tasks efficiently concerning their details, choose formatting options, embed or attach files, etc. You also get reusable task templates to create processes and events. Other features included are filtering, searching, and sorting tasks; managing recurring tasks; multi-task toolbar, defined hierarchy, task trays, drag-and-drop rendering, task mentions, and drafts; subtasks, checklists, bulk rescheduling, managing portfolios, and epics, supports webhooks, and more. ClickUp shows a high availability of up to 99.99% for the last 1 year and offers high-end privacy and security. It supports a massive 1000+ integrations with tools such as Toggle, Chrome, Google Drive, GitHub, Zapier, Calendly, Salesforce, Slack, Intercom, and more.
Wrike
Improve your on-time delivery and simplify workload using Wrike as your task management software that 2.3m+ users trust on a global scale. Break down work into small manageable chunks with customized processes and views. Enable real-time collaboration in a shared space to organize all project information, updates, and decisions. Avoid status meetings by offering comprehensive reports and project visibility to the entire team and your client. Personalize the dashboard to make important to-do lists and sort tasks automatically by priority and due date. Set deadlines, report progress, and discuss details using the power of automation to boost delivery rates. Decrease admin tasks using custom request forms and tagging teammates you need for amendments, queries, or in-context requests. Reduce the number of emails and go back and forth on the same process using in-app collaboration tools. Plan projects, define deliverables, and make better decisions with no need to write for bulky emails. Whether you choose Agile or waterfall, Wrike can adapt to its quickly in seconds where you can see tasks clearly across different views such as Gantt charts, calendars, Kanban boards, etc. Cut down cycles in the project review process by built-in proofing solutions to have full-context feedback, make sure the clients have recent file versions, discuss changes easily, and fix real-time issues. Generate customized reports in minutes using a template or create them from scratch with valuable insights, which you can share and export. In addition to this, you can breakdown performance and progress for individual members and the team as a whole. Connect Wrike with the tools you already use like Gmail, Teams, Slack, SAP, Box, Salesforce, Mailchimp, Facebook, Twitter, and a lot more.
Miro
Miro is a collaborative online whiteboard with over 1,000 templates including mind maps, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, product wireframes, research boards, and flowcharts. It’s trusted by 99% of the Fortune 100, and used by teams at TransUnion, HP, Upwork, Cisco, Qlik, and Atkins. Miro’s visual platform is built for hybrid work, and has robust resources for continuous learning like Miro Academy, online events, and a community forum. Miro has a shared visual workspace for remote project management teams, with interactive displays, video conferencing, and work on mobile devices (Android and iOS). You can choose from a library of readymade project templates to decide how your team should visualize each project. To get started, you can check out Miro’s free trial or start with a monthly subscription of $8 per month.
Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a task management tool used by the top players across industries. Its project management dashboard brings everything into a single dashboard facilitating effortless planning and collaboration. This tool is powered by work automation, where you can set triggers to automate repetitive tasks. Besides, you can visualize everything in Gantt, kanban board, card, and grid views to get the crucial cues in your preferred way. Additionally, it is equipped with real-time reporting, giving much-needed insights for course corrections if required. You can also integrate Smartsheet with the business tools you might already be using like Google Drive, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, etc. And you can try this free for 30-days and see why it’s the task management tool of choice for over 90% of fortune 100 companies.
Teamwork
Create tasks with unmatched granularity as well as customization based on your target using Teamwork. It gives you full visibility and the capability to spot bottlenecks and fix them on your planned and assigned tasks. Control your tasks by adding tags, proper allocation, time estimation, and setting due dates. Visualize how your team spends time on various tasks, and see item lists and decide estimations strategically. Use templates to streamline workflow and automate recurring work to reduce admin pressure and scale management best practices. They offer different templates that can help save your time, accelerate work, and improve processes. These templates are for project and task management and client onboarding to foster better business relationships. Teamwork offers mobile apps so you can work from anywhere, unmatched customer support, and hosting in North America, Australia, and Europe. They maintain high-security standards to protect your data. It integrates with HubSpot, Dropbox, QuickBooks, Zapier, Xero, Google Drive, Slack, and more.
Paymo
Complete projects on time and work on multiple tasks at the same time confidently using Paymo. It helps to plan tasks with key details, collaborate effectively with your team, and monitor task progress easily. Groups the tasks to keep them structured and assign them to teammates in a few clicks. Keep a birds-eye view of your tasks along with that of your subordinates if you are a manager. Assign priority status to different tasks such as low, normal, high, or critical, and progress with the work efficiently and complete them within the given deadlines. Paymo features a Detailed Task View to chat with teammates in real-time. You get to decide who can receive update notifications. Attach files out of Google Drive or your computer, and organize them seamlessly to your project. You can also preview files in the browser directly and download them. Paymo provides view types such as Kanban Board, Simple, Gantt Chart, Calendar, and Table so you can choose the ones suitable for your project. You can even add advanced filters to personalize the task view. Create and affix milestones to your task list and mark key achievements in the project lifecycle. Never miss task due dates by setting up alerts, which notify you via email when the specified date comes. Turn repetitive tasks or projects into templates and avoid creating them from scratch. You also have the option to duplicate projects with selected elements.
Asana
Managing tasks and tracking them becomes easy if you have Asana by your side. It helps you manage everything from the beginning, delegating tasks to team members, and setting specific deadlines to ensure your projects’ timely completion. The tool lets you prioritize tasks so everyone in your team can understand which tasks need to complete first. In this way, your team can plan out things while being efficient and productive. Asana helps improve collaboration by sharing files, ideas, feedback, etc., that enable teammates to access key information when they need it. You get impressive features, including multiple tasks views like:
List view to map out tasks in a list and organize details in a single place Boards view to organize work on a board like sticky notes so you can navigate through stages quickly. Calendar view to spot overlaps and loopholes in your task schedule so that you can make adjustments quickly. Timeline view to map out work on a specific timeline where you can view the relationship between various tasks and track them even if your plans change
Other features include sending unlimited messages, activity logs, file storage with 100 MB/file, collaboration with a maximum of 15 members, viewing assignee & due dates, project brief and overview, time-tracking integrations, and 100+ more integrations with your everyday apps. Asana’s mobile app is also available on both App Store and Google Play, so you can manage tasks from anywhere and make quick changes in real-time. The basic pricing of asana is FREE forever. Their paid plans start from $10.99 (when billed annually) for additional features like intuitive dashboards, custom fields, advanced reporting and search, unlimited collaborators, forms, rules, admin console, milestones, and more.
Notion
One of the best task managers on this list is Notion, unarguably. It helps you plan, perform, and track your projects in one place while facilitating smooth collaboration with your team. Keep your team aligned with a common project roadmap to avoid confusion. And whenever you get an idea, you can share it and get tasks documented in a database, so your project execution accelerates. Notion allows you to customize everything to add and define your database properties for generating a productive workflow. You can view data in various ways – as a board, calendar, table, or filter it by properties. Bundle your work together, with each item having a separate page. It will provide a fresh canvas for each task, and you can also create a page inside a page and keep the related tasks in a single place. Add useful information in projects, create another database, track sub-tasks, add filters to view your tasks, and toggle between projects easily. Start conversations, put out comments, and invite colleagues to advance the work no matter what place or time-zone they belong to. Notion allows you to work on the same project simultaneously as other teammates to enable real-time collaboration. They notify you of mentions and comments on a project so you can respond to your team quickly and save your time spent on status checks or meetings. Get started with Notion, which is also available as a web app and desktop app that you can download for Mac, Windows, iOS, and Android. It is safe and secure with SSL encryption and 100% cloud-based architecture protected with a VPC and security audit quarterly. Besides this, it also includes SAML single sign-on in their Enterprise plan to help you manage user access at scale.
Todoist
Use Todoist to boost your confidence that all your projects are progressing at the right speed and complete on time due to efficient task management and organizing. View your projects clearly and track every activity, so you control things easily and never miss an update. Utilize ‘quick add’ to capture tasks, organize them in seconds, and remember deadlines with recurring due dates. Focus on the right things by prioritizing tasks, deciding what to do next, creating sub-tasks and sections, and adding favorites to keep main projects, filters, or labels in mind. Share your workload by delegating tasks, making key information available to everyone with comments, and monitoring changes. Set goals daily or weekly, and visualize tangible progress and productivity trends. The tool comes with Todoist Karma, which awards you points when you complete tasks and keep up your streaks, and you can also display progress in colorful graphs. Organize projects with simple or in-depth layouts; drag and place tasks wherever you want. Todoist also offers beautiful templates so you can quickly prepare a product roadmap, meeting agenda, weekly review, etc. Integrate Todoist with the apps you use, so you don’t have to surf from one app to another; you can centrally organize everything here. You can connect it with 10+ applications and plugins, including Dropbox, Alexa, Google Calendar, etc.
Trello
Trello is a famous task management tool that 1M+ teams of all sizes chose to manage their projects, collaborate, and improve their productivity graph. It works uniquely to meet the demands of even the individuals to big business. You can start using a Trello board, cards, and lists to spot the difference. You can expand and customize tasks with added features as the teamwork advances. Trello offers intuitive features for meetings, events, projects, and setting goals. Trello board helps you assign tasks, set timelines, features productivity metrics, calendars, and multiple views, and shows statistics. Use Trello cards to organize work, track them, and share with teammates. You can open a card to find checklists, attachments, due dates, conversations, etc. Focus on things that matter and let the automation handle the rest with Trello that features ‘Butler’ to reduce tedious tasks or clicks. It utilizes Natural Language Processing (NLP) commands to enable no-code automation for you. Fine-tune specific needs by connecting Trello with powerful apps like Confluence, Dropbox, Evernote, Slack, Google Drive, and more. Download the Trello app on your iOS or Android smartphone to use it seamlessly at any time.
nTask Manager
When it comes to project management software, companies usually watch out for a tool to analyze, plan, collaborate and manage everyday tasks. Hence comes nTask Manager, popularly known as powerful project management software. It has the potential to simplify project planning for the team and streamline task dependencies, resource management, financial summary, project planning, and deliverables. nTask Manager is packed with several features like meeting management, issue tracking, to-do-list, timesheets, risk management, and Kanban board. Also, one can integrate the tool with their favorite applications for project success. The tool is packed with the features like:
Budgeting and Financial Summary Project Planning Setting Milestone Resource Allocation Link Projects and Assign Tasks Pre-Build Board Templates Custom Statuses Unlimited Kanban Boards Attach Documents and Comments Multiple Assignees Task Priority and Status Setting Actual Due and Planned Dates Progress Line Task Dependencies Creating Subtasks
nTask offers more flexibility and efficiency when managing tasks and maintaining focus. One can also enhance decision-making capabilities using the tool by setting dependencies and adding tasks. The aim is to offer transparency among the team members, maintain accountability, and improve team communication. The tool is ideal for tracking the time spent on the tasks and generating timesheet reports. It comes with an automatic timer, manual time entry, timesheet submission, and timesheet approval/withdrawal. The users can also get an update on recurring meetings, sync meetings with the calendar, follow up on decisions or actions, and discuss notes or meeting agendas.
Conclusion
Managing projects has become a lot easier with the advent of task management tools. Hence, please choose any of them to create tasks, assign them to your team members, track their progress, collaborate effectively, and collect insights. I’m sure you would complete more projects on time with high-quality deliverables using the software.
