If you think that’s a mouthful, that’s just the beginning, which is why savvy managers today use a task manager to help them out. Ready to take a huge load off your shoulders? Check out what a task tracker is, what it can do for your business, and how to find the best task management software of 2024.
What is Task Management Software?
A task planner is meant to help managers assess, breakdown, manage, and track their various projects and tasks. Simply put, it is a juiced-up to-do list. But the best task manager does so much more than just create a simple list of things to do that you can check off. A good task management tool will help you see what is the best way to assign tasks, which team members can handle the workload, where resources are being utilized best, where delays are happening, and more. In a word, task management software is efficiency.
How a Task Manager Will Quickly Become Your Next Best Friend
To be sure, the best task manager will become your best friend almost instantly. That’s because task tracking will alleviate most of the problems, headaches, and frustrations that are involved in project management. Here are a few of the issues that even the most basic task tracker will alleviate:
- Workflow tracking
A task manager will notify you if a task is getting close to its deadline. This way, you can look into the task, see if there are issues holding it up, and reassign things accordingly. So, you don't hold up an entire project because one employee dropped the ball.
- Workload and calendar syncing
What’s more, task management tools will show you exactly which team members are overloaded and which can use more work at any given time. It’ll sync calendars, schedules, and workloads, so your assignments are evenly and smartly distributed among the available team members.
- Visual clarity
Any good team task management tool will be visually-based. This means that all of the information you need will be clearly displayed in a visual format (kanban, Gantt, lists, calendars, frames, etc.), so you can see everything at a glance, know where issues lie, and create a smooth workflow with ease.
- Team collaboration
With the vast amount of communication tools included in task tracker tools, teams can stay in touch and in the know with the tap of a button. From file sharing and live chat to video calling to conference calling and more, team collaboration is a breeze.
Task managers also help you stay organized, view progress and workflow, stay on top of projects, miss fewer deadlines, set priorities, set dependencies, set permissions, monitor timelines, and a lot lot more.
Choosing the Best Task Management Software
Like the sound of this newfound friendship? Then it’s time to start shopping around. While there are hundreds of task management tools on the market, not all are created equal. In fact, some of them downright suck, so choose wisely.
Look for a task planner that offers the best features like resource management, task tracking, issue alerts, reporting, and team collaboration tools. Here are the top 5 task management software solutions for 2024.
1. Monday.com
- Team collaboration tools
- Single view, multi-level visual design
- All-in-one task organizer, tracker, planner
Monday.com is practically a household name for most managers in 2024, and rightly so. Today, this company is responsible for the task management and planning of millions of board actions each day. Juggling over 70,000 teams, Monday.com takes all the stress out of individual and team task management.
For one thing, Monday.com has a beautiful and powerful mobile app. So, you can get all of your data on your phone and on the go. And did someone mention security? Because Monday.com certainly did. This task management software uses SSL encryption, 2-factor authentication, single sign-on, audit logs, and more to keep all data securely stored at all times.
Monday.com also does a great job of making it easy to see a task and all of its components. A single dashboard houses all of the various aspects of a task, and different viewpoints can be toggled to get a closer look at individual details, scaling out when you need a full, panoramic view. This ensures no detail gets forgotten or overlooked, maximizing efficiency.
2. Proggio
- Free account up to 3 users
- Progress reports and updates
- Clear visual task displays
Proggio isn't as well known as Monday.com, but that doesn't make it any less advantageous. In fact, some major brands utilize Proggio's task management software to keep their enterprises running. This task organizer makes it a cinch for managers to allocate resources, assign tasks, and reassess or redistribute at a moment's notice. In fact, Proggio has a sleek mobile app that ensures you can stay on top of your projects from any place and at any time.
Even the most basic plans come with awesome features like budget planning, project mapping, and baseline versus actual graphs to keep your project resources, timeframe, and budget on target. More advanced features include patented analytics, cross-project linking, integrations, multi-team portfolio management, API server access, and more. You can even get 7-day database rollback and enterprise SLA.
3. Zoho Projects
- Chat groups, community forums, news feeds, and more
- Project blueprints for global and drill-down task views
- Create dependencies, milestones, notifications
Zoho Projects offers a manager everything they could ask for from a task tracker. From team collaboration tools to time tracking, analytics, and reporting, Zoho Projects really covers all the bases. While other companies claim to be a one-stop-shop, Zoho Projects actually delivers on that promise. Time tracking features include invoicing, timesheets, planned hours, and calendar syncing. Reports and charts offer Gantt charts, resource allocation tables, analytics, and task reports. There's also great collaboration tools, including forums, feeds, and chats.
Another neat area Zoho Projects takes care of is issue tracking and workflow. You’ll get notified when an issue arises, so you can deal with it quickly and easily. You’ll also get alerted when assignments are closed, updated, created, or assigned.
4. RingCentral Glip
- Entirely focused on making team communications easier
- Free and unlimited chat and video calling
- Seamless integrations
RingCentral Glip is a slightly different task manager tool. A communications tool and provider, RingCentral created Glip to provide teams with a better, faster, clearer, and more efficient way to communicate. The logic is that if we communicate better with our team members, miscommunication errors are minimized and efficiency and productivity are maximized.
While RingCentral Glip has some good task management tools as well, communication and collaboration are where it really shines. Some of the best features include:
- Real-time file sharing
- Real-time chatting from any device
- Video calls and meetings
Communication tools are open, unlimited, and free for all team members. Additionally, you can create tasks and teams based on projects, themes, and assignments. RingCentral Glip also integrates with all of the best apps that you are already working with, like Google Drive, Jira, Box, and more.
5. Asana
- Forrester Wave report
- Smart workload views
- Follow progress, assign tasks, and track members
Asana is the answer to any manager who has more tasks to handle than they have hands to juggle them. With Asana, managers can plan and structure the various tasks involved in a project, share details with select team members or groups, and assign tasks accordingly. You'll also be able to follow the progress of an individual task or a project overall and receive notifications about important progress.
What's nice about Asana is that everything is visual. Your project assignments and deadlines are all visual, so you can quickly and easily see when tasks are completed or when something is lagging behind. Views like workload can show you how much work team members have on their plates. This way, you can assign tasks to people who can handle them and not overload members who can't.
Boost Your Productivity
Successful businesses are constantly in motion. Stay on top of that constant ebb and flow of projects, tasks, and assignments with the best task management software, and watch your productivity skyrocket today.
