Why Task Management is Important?

Some companies don’t pay much attention to simple tasks, they prefer looking further and living in milestones… and it’s a huge mistake, as even the smallest neglected task may destroy the whole project.

We want to share with you some observations about crucial points and ways of managing tasks. You may discover the following :

• Task tracking and task planning : 

        -How do managers plan

        -Task tracking with Outlook 

        -Task tracking in Excel

• Task tracking software:

        -Task tracking in Jira

        -Task tracking in ActivityTimeline 

So, what is task management?

I guess that everyone has a little idea about that, but it’s not as simple as we think.

Task tracking and task planning   

There are 3  key elements of task management – planning, tracking, and reporting.

We want to pay more attention to task planning and tracking as they’re interconnected.

It’s not a secret that every project needs good planning.. But ways of how managers prepare and execute their plans are different.

How do managers plan? 

There are various techniques and the first one is:

The Stone Age 

      

• Sticks on the monitor – maybe it works for individuals, but when we are talking about 10+ people or multiple teams, it’s definitely the worst scenario.
• To-do lists, calendars, paper planners – a little better, but again, for personal arrangements. When you are a manager with dozens of subordinates it’s not a successful idea to track everything in your notebook. It’s impossible to get a big picture of the working process unless you’ll draw pictures and diagrams in your notes, and still – not a good idea.

The Modern Period 

Digital means of planning – applications.

There are plenty of them, with different features and functionality – Trello boards, online calendars and to-do lists, spreadsheets. Some of them are widely spread, so…

Task Tracking with Outlook 

There are many calendars, like Google, Apple, and many others but Outlook is mostly used for working purposes as it has not only calendar features but also allows to assign tasks to employees. Time tracking, helpful reminders, status updates, and shareable task lists at your disposal.

The key point is that Outlook is significantly helpful for small, single projects and freelancers, but large companies with multiple teams and projects need more features, bigger scope, and tracking opportunities.

Task Tracking in Excel

Plenty of managers tend to use excel sheets to track daily tasks. You may find different templates for task tracking, simple project planning and prioritizing, even gantt chart templates are available but efficient employee task tracking needs something more developed and customizable. 

So, in case you truly want to make your teams a kind of super-powerful and become a task management Guru it’s necessary to move into..

Ultra Contemporary Era 

Task Tracking Software 

And here we are! Humans are always choosing the hardest way, but it’s not necessary for now, because we have lots of helpful apps ready to support people in hard times.
Deciding the best task tracking app is a kind of a headache, but in the end, all of your efforts will pay off.. Guess that you don’t want to suffer from the pain of choice so we may help you a little bit with this issue.

Task Tracking in Jira

Yeah, that’s it, a software solution to your task planning/assigning/tracking pains.

This powerful platform is highly known among different industries. From the very beginning it was developed for IT teams but soon Jira evolved to multi-industries software and provides templates for technical and business teams, allows not only to lead projects, set tasks, and priorities but to detect risks, manage teams, and track tasks on different levels.

Numerous plugins on the Atlassian Marketplace have even more practical features aimed at improving the working process.

Returning to task tracking, there are different options in Jira: changing task statuses which are customizable ( to do, in progress, done), invoicing features, possibility to set estimates, and log worked hours. All of the issues are stored in one place, you see who is doing what and have an understanding of the ongoing processes.

But, what if we say, that you may receive the above-mentioned Jira, Outlook, and Excel features as well as efficient task management?

Task tracking in ActivityTimeline 

ActivityTimeline is a Jira plugin that is a combination of planner and tracker. It’s fully synchronized with Jira and stores all data as well.

There are 4 modules for different needs.

Plan module helps with planning and task tracking. Here you get a comprehensive view of all tasks, available resources, workload. Timeline visualize tasks and their progress. One more great feature – custom events. As for now, you may easily track vacations and day-offs or create your own events that are visible on the timeline. Split the same task between multiple assignees or days. 

Work module is a personal workspace for your employees where they can track their own tasks and progress as well as log time.

Track module has timesheeting options. Keep track of time spent on tasks, teams’ work, monitor whether everyone submitted worked hours correctly. Approve or disapprove timesheets.

Report module gives a variety of reports in order to track results and tasks’ success.

All of the reports and timesheets can be exported into an excel file if needed.

ActivityTimeline is also compatible with Outlook, Google, and Apple calendars so you won’t lose previously planned tasks.

Task management sounds easy, but in practice, it’s a complicated process that demands an accurate manager as well as appropriate tools, preferably specialized software.

Different businesses have different needs, that’s why a couple of solutions were provided above. Think about some suitable ways for your business and choose the best one, but we’re begging, don’t return to the Stone Age, and undoubtedly your task management will switch to another level.

Not sure yet?  Start a free trial and discover more advantages.