On an average workday, how many tasks does your team tackle?
If your office (virtual or not) is anything like the average, the number is easily in the double, if not triple digits.
If you want to keep track of the progress of multiple projects and critical business processes, email, spreadsheets etc., pen and paper just isn’t going to work.
The good news is that there are much simpler, more accessible systems for keeping work organized. With a dedicated task manager system, you can manage all team projects and workflows much more efficiently.
In this article, we’ll cover what a task management platform is, how you can choose the right one, and how to speed up your workflows with automations and integrations.
What is a task manager platform?
A task manager or management platform is a software application that makes the process of outlining, assigning, monitoring, and evaluating work items easier.
With a task manager, there’s no need to email each individual employee about their tasks. Everyone can see what they should be doing in one shared platform, in real-time.
Managers also get a much better overview of the real project status, with color-coded task statuses, priority rankings, and flexible task groups.
In essence, it’s a platform to help your team get more work done.
How to find the right task manager software for your company?
With 272+ different software options out there, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed.
But the right option for your company is out there. To find it, start with the following:
1. Consider your workflow
Do you have a complex workflow with both internal and external reviews of wireframes, prototypes, and finished designs or products?
In that case, you need a flexible platform that can be easily customized to suit how your team works.
It doesn’t matter if the software seems good in every other way. If it fails your team here, it won’t become the foundation for increased productivity and better teamwork.
2. Assess for scalability
If your company is growing fast, or you plan on transitioning more than one team, you need a robust platform that supports multiple teams.
Can you add multiple boards and a logical structure for different teams? If your task manager requires everyone to work from the same table, things will get messy.
Imagine if everyone had to spend time sifting through hundreds of unrelated tasks to find what their team was working on.
3. Explore real reviews from similar users
What are the experiences of existing users? Reading real, verified reviews can often highlight the essential advantages and disadvantages of different platforms that will help you choose.
Check confirmed consumer review sites like Capterra and G2 to compare platforms.
4. Find a solution that integrates with tools you already use
Chances are your team already uses a wide variety of other SaaS tools every day. If you add a standalone app to that, it’s not going to help them be more productive.
However, if the project management app integrates with many of those tools, it can become a platform for keeping everything organized and maintained every step of the way.
Instead of having to check separate sites and apps all the time, your team can expedite work and eliminate confusion by referring back to one platform.
5. Assess for ease of use and adoption
If you ask your employees, they’ll probably say that the last thing they need is another tool. If it’s something complicated and hard to learn, it will be difficult to get them onboard. However, if the platform or app you choose is easy to learn and use will make a huge difference for team adoption.
A straightforward platform that makes their life easier will have a high adoption rate all on its own.
6. Check what kind of training and support it offers
The final consideration is understanding how much training and support your team will require to work with the platform. Does the platform offer onboarding videos, webinars, and an easy-to-browse knowledgebase?
Does the application or platform offer technical support for all users?
These are important considerations before making your final choice.
If you want a task management platform that can take your team to the next level, you’ll want to make sure your tool of choice can also tackle these 5 automations.
5 smart task management automations to boost productivity
The average office worker spends over 3 hours every day on tasks that could have been easily automated. Yuck.
These range from simple data entry, like copying data from one application to another, to manually making changes on each platform.
A smart task manager platform includes automations that enable it to basically run itself, and save your team valuable time. Here’s how monday.com saves teams valuable time by enabling speed with automation.
1. Automatically assign tasks to another user based on status change
With monday.com’s automations, you can use status changes to assign tasks, notify someone, or create a new task item.
You can also set tasks to get deleted automatically when their status changes to something. For example, “final upload completed” or “accepted by client” could be used here.
2. Automatically create new time-based items every week or month
If you have a weekly workflow that includes repetitive tasks, you can set up automations that perform these tasks for you.
You can also automatically assign tasks to the right team or person.
For example, if you have weekly goals for sales calls or a number of A/B tests, it makes sense to auto-create new task cards.
3. Automatically notify managers when due dates are passed (and the task is still in progress)
Even with dashboards and reports that offer an overview of projects and tasks, your managers won’t catch every problem.
That’s why managers must get notified of potential bottlenecks or delays as early as possible. Then they can step in and allocate more resources to the task to make sure it gets resolved quickly.
If you set due dates or even just benchmarking dates, you can use that to set up smart notifications.
You can also use the status as a qualifier. For example, if the task is still “in progress” or “working on it” at the due date, alert someone. If it’s in review, don’t.
4. Automatically track work hours based on status changes
If you use timesheets and rely on time tracking for every new task, you can make that easier with monday.com.
One option is to set up automations for starting and stopping time tracking based on the status.
For example, if the status is “working on it,” you can start time tracking and then stop it when it changes.
5. Scheduling: automatically set a task’s due dates after its dependent tasks are complete
If you plan complex projects that include task dependencies, manually scheduling them correctly can be difficult.
With monday.com, you can set rules in the task manager to automatically move dependent tasks after their parent task in the timeline.
This rule also helps you avoid human errors when scheduling tasks.
If you’re still using an inefficient system to manage your tasks and projects, there’s no better time to change that than right now.
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