Friday 18 October 2013

Why You Should Use Task Management Software

By Leo Stone


How many times have you been nominated to or started a large task, merely to get overwhelmed at the enormous amount of resources and time necessary to finish the project? If that's so, do not worry, you will be happy to learn that you are not unique - coping with large-scale, long-term tasks can be a difficult prospect, even for seasoned task managers. Now consider coping with 4 or probably more tasks at one time - this is a sobering outlook for most people.

Good task and project management software was hard to find a few years ago when people were using Outlook. Nowadays productivity has become almost an obsession of geeks everywhere, so the increasing request for such tools generated a large base of good task and project management solutions. There are a lot of choices to help manage the tasks, ranging from standalone applications to web-based services.

What exactly are users looking for? Most of them are actually looking for a personal organizer application to put some order in their busy and messy life. "In the beginning, I somehow managed to keep everything in my head. Then, as I began to take on more projects, I realized that I needed a task management system to keep me organized and focused." says Deborah Woehr a freelance researcher and writer. These personal organizers generally take the form of the so called "To Do List" applications where users create a list of tasks for which they set a start date, some deadlines and a priority - something very simple.

The Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology Most of the to-do-list applications these days adopt, to one degree or another, the GTD approach to task management according to the work-life management system by David Allen that provides concrete solutions for transforming overwhelm and uncertainty into an integrated system of stress free productivity. Apps vary as to how tightly or loosely bound to GTD they are. The problem, though, with To Do lists and personal organizers is that are only good for your work. Task management or task tracking software is more than just a to-do list. In a business many of the tasks are collaborative and require multiple team members to fulfill several tasks in a single project. In this case you need an application where assignments could be made, all tasks could be tracked, and completed work could be archived. This is a true task management tool. Users sometimes need to manage multiple projects and delegate work to resources, schedule tasks in time or even create plans. This is a further step to an upper level: project management or project planning software.

Why do we need a task management application? Every day we spend most of the time on urgent but low priority tasks while the most important ones get delayed until another day. Unfortunately, that "another day" might never arrive. The famous Pareto principle of 80/20 rule applies here: 80% of most important work gets completed if you try to figure out the 20% of high priority tasks. Basically an effective task management software must give you the best way to find these top 20% of important tasks for a effective project management process. This is a major problem with task management applications: they require too much effort on users part. It is easy to spend too much time on organization, and not enough on getting things done. Too many apps spoil the productivity. Task management apps should flow, should make using them easier than writing things down on a piece of paper.

The privacy and permission can be set to control the access to the project. Addition, deletion and alteration of tasks can be done even as the project moves following the schedule. Fully customizable task workflow enables you to manage your tasks as per your specific needs. Sharing of tasks and ideation is possible and ensures optimum participation and involvement of every team member working on the project.For result oriented managers, task managers have proven to be a boon. The online project management is completely customizable and you can use to perform your tasks in a better way. Step by step completion of tasks ensures that project moves along on time and there is no room for any confusion, miscommunication or lagging. The master schedule is followed as designed and the workflow is smooth




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