Author Archive for Matthew Murray

Some Of The Largest Task Management Tools

Compare Project Management Tools: An Overview

Lock in Productivity

Did you know that people get a hit of dopemine (pleasure chemical) just by checking things off on their’to do’ list?

The important thing is to ensure we are doing the ‘right’ things, not just checking off tasks that add littlevalue to our goals.

The easiest way to ensure you are getting lots of ‘productive checks’, with a strict focus on important tasks is to use a project management tool. These online tools will focus you (and your team) on the right tasks that need to be tackled next to achieve your target outcomes.

What’s The Best Tool?

As with many things, “what’s best?” depends on your budget and what you want to achieve.

To begin, decide whether you are managing a project, or a process.

A project has a fixed start and point of completion. Examples of a project might be a website or software design. Once the completed product is given to the client, the product development phase of the project ends.

A process is a recurring set of tasks that need to be executed to run your business. For example, when site visitors engage with your content they might convert to a new sales lead. These leads then need to be handled according to your internal processes. Every new lead is handled in the same set of defined rules to ensure you can help prospects in the best way possible.

Depending on whether you are managing a project or process, some tools will be better than others for your needs. For example, some tools include Gantt charts, which shows a project timeline. These chartsare great for project management, but not much help for recurring processes.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

The past few years has seen an explosion of high quality tools that can help you manage your business. A quick Google search for “project management tool” will produce dozens of offerings for you to explore. They all have a different balance of features, pricing and utility so there is lots to choose from.

Making the right choice for your business is key. Once you move to a solution, it’s really hard to change your mind. This is especially true if you have a team that is integrated into the same solution. You probably won’t be able to easily export and re-import your data to the new solution if you decide to move to a new product. At best you’ll have a couple of months where you are using overlapping systems while you transition.

Before you commit to a new management tool consider the team and company behind the software. There are a LOT of tools on the market, and some of them won’t be operational in three years. No matter how good the solution, the market is getting more and more competitive. Ideally you want to work with a company that will be maintaining their solution for many years to come.

Most solutions offer you a free trial to use their product. They know that the more you use their solution, the more likely you are to convert to a paying user. Use the free trials to narrow down your ‘short list’ of software matches. Most solutions will be very happy to have you do multiple free trials if you contact them and ask for an extension.

Where to Start?

Below are a few of the most popular tools on the market. The list is by no means exhaustive, but it will get you started.

 Trello
 Wrike
 Bitrix24
 Zoho
 Airtable
 Asana
 Jira
 Zenkit
 Pipefy
 TeamworkProjects
 Monday
 Basecamp

It’s worth noting that Trello, Bitrix24, Zenkit, and Pipefy have very robust free pricing plans. You can get a lot of productivity management without paying a cent.