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  • v.9(8); 2021 Aug

Team Dynamics in Hospital Workflows: An Exploratory Study of a Smartphone Task Manager

Danula hettiachchi.

1 School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

Lachie Hayes

2 Nothern Hospital Epping, Epping, Australia

Jorge Goncalves

Vassilis kostakos.

Although convenient and reliable modern messaging apps like WhatsApp enable efficient communication among hospital staff, hospitals are now pivoting toward purpose-built structured communication apps for various reasons, including security and privacy concerns. However, there is limited understanding of how we can examine and improve hospital workflows using the data collected through such apps as an alternative to costly and challenging research methods like ethnography and patient record analysis.

We seek to identify whether the structure of the collected communication data provides insights into hospitals’ workflows. Our analysis also aims to identify ways in which task management platforms can be improved and designed to better support clinical workflows.

We present an exploratory analysis of clinical task records collected over 22 months through a smartphone app that enables structured communication between staff to manage and execute clinical workflows. We collected over 300,000 task records between July 2018 and May 2020 completed by staff members including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists across all wards in an Australian hospital.

We show that important insights into how teams function in a clinical setting can be readily drawn from task assignment data. Our analysis indicates that predefined labels such as urgency and task type are important and impact how tasks are accepted and completed. Our results show that both task sent-to-accepted ( P <.001) and sent-to-completed ( P <.001) times are significantly higher for routine tasks when compared to urgent tasks. We also show how task acceptance varies across teams and roles and that internal tasks are more efficiently managed than external tasks, possibly due to increased trust among team members. For example, task sent-to-accepted time (minutes) is significantly higher ( P <.001) for external assignments (mean 22.10, SD 91.45) when compared to internal assignments (mean 19.03, SD 82.66).

Conclusions

Smartphone-based task assignment apps can provide unique insights into team dynamics in clinical settings. These insights can be used to further improve how well these systems support clinical work and staff.

Introduction

The free availability, widespread use, reliability, and intuitive nature of modern communication interfaces have led to the use of popular messaging apps like WhatsApp among medical staff [ 1 ]. These apps can bring many benefits to clinical teams, such as prompt communication, reduction in interruptions, ability to form groups, and convenient access to other staff members [ 1 , 2 ]. Positive outcomes of using WhatsApp for clinical communication have been highlighted in numerous studies conducted among emergency surgery team members in a hospital in the United Kingdom [ 3 ], surgeons of two hospitals in Italy [ 4 ], orthopedic team members in a hospital in Ireland [ 5 ], and all professionals in medical and emergency teams in a major hospital in Malaysia [ 2 ].

However, using personal devices and generic messaging apps poses privacy and security concerns [ 6 ]. For example, when handling protected health information (PHI), medical professionals in the United States are required to adhere to communication regulations set out in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Nevertheless, there is a lack of awareness and no consensus among medical staff on what apps are considered to be compliant with HIPAA [ 7 ]. Other adverse consequences of using regular messaging apps for work include information overload and the impact on the separation between one’s work and personal life [ 2 , 6 ].

Although such off-the-shelf messaging apps are ubiquitous and convenient [ 2 ], they do not provide structured task management features that would allow medical staff to send, accept, and prioritize tasks. Khanna et al [ 8 ] describe how a smartphone-based paging app can potentially bring numerous benefits to medical staff. Integrated interfaces can reduce the effort required to accept or send tasks. Notifications can streamline work by reducing the need to check for updates proactively. Such apps could also learn and initiate routine communications without human intervention to reduce redundant tasks. Similarly, Patel et al [ 9 ] report that mobile app–based communication improves efficiency, reduces interruptions, and allows health care professionals to transfer information reliably and clearly compared to using a standard pager system. Therefore, communication tools that overcome the aforementioned security challenges and provide smart task management capabilities are desirable within the health care industry.

In addition, a centralized tool for communication and task assignment can provide greater value for hospitals by providing the opportunity to analyze and understand the team dynamics of medical activity [ 10 , 11 ]. Literature presents such computer-based task management systems and their positive outcomes (eg, a desktop-based system implemented at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand [ 12 ], and a system that sends messages to dedicated team smartphones at Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Canada [ 13 ]). Similarly, Dock Health is a more modern team collaboration and task management app adopted by medical staff at Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States [ 14 ].

Although hospitals have begun to adopt smartphone-based task management and communication systems, it remains unclear how the task records can be used to gain a better understanding of medical team dynamics and communication patterns. Such insights can be critical in further improving the user experience of the app as well as increasing the efficiency of the task assignment process. Previous attempts to examine hospital workflows and staff communication include ethnographic methods and interviews with clinical staff [ 11 , 15 ], analyzing patient electronic medical records (EMRs) [ 16 ], and mapping call data [ 17 ]. However, it is costly and challenging to implement such methods at scale, and they fail to provide in-depth and timely data, unlike data collection through task management apps.

In this paper, we present an exploratory analysis of medical task assignment data collected through a mobile app deployed at a hospital in Australia for 22 months. In our study, all staff at a hospital started using a bespoke smartphone platform, MedTasker [ 18 ] ( Figure 1 ), to manage and execute clinical workflows. Tasks are defined as work units assigned to a specific staff member through our app and include tasks such as reviewing medications, admitting a patient to a ward, or conducting a medical procedure.

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Examples of the MedTasker mobile app interface [ 18 ]. Names and task details are fictional.

In our exploratory analysis, we seek to identify whether the increased granularity of the collected data provides insights into the hospital’s workflows (ie, repeatable patterns of clinical tasks). For example, we are interested in understanding the various individual and team dynamics (ie, factors that influence the direction of a team’s behavior and performance) that underpin workflows at the hospital. Furthermore, our analysis also seeks to identify ways in which task management platforms can be improved and designed to better support clinical workflows.

MedTasker App

MedTasker [ 18 ] is a mobile communication and task management platform built for hospitals. In addition to the typical task management features to create, send, accept, and forward tasks, MedTasker provides a staff directory and supports comments, notes, and attachments. The app includes an escalation process, which can alert additional staff members when the recipient does not accept tasks within a specified period. In addition, hospitals can configure the escalation process to tailor their needs.

The app can also integrate with existing hospital systems such as the Patient Administration System, EMRs, pathology, radiology, paging systems, and Active Directory. All communications using MedTasker use end-to-end encryption. The app also provides a way to share clinical images and files in a secure and privacy-compliant way. Since all tasks are tracked in real time, MedTasker enables visualizations to better manage team workloads and audit task workflows when needed.

Data Collection

MedTasker has been used as the regular task management solution at Northern Hospital, Epping, Victoria, Australia, since 2018. Northern Hospital is the major public health care provider for acute, maternity, subacute, and specialist services in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and surrounding regional areas. The hospital has over 5300 dedicated professional staff and treats over 94,000 patients admitted yearly. All staff members including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists use the MedTasker app for general task management across all wards. The app is accessible through desktop and mobile devices (Android and iPhone). Staff typically use the app on their personal smartphones and connect to the internet through the hospital’s Wi-Fi network. We collected task assignment data through MedTasker for a period of 22 months starting from July 1, 2018. Data fields include recipient team and level, patient team, sender role, task type, history, urgency, and time. Individual sender and receiver details in the data set were anonymized.

Preprocessing

We adopted several preprocessing steps to ensure the reliability of the data. First, we filtered a number of tasks that were completed immediately after accepting (ie, accepted-to-completed time is 0 minutes). These records mainly correspond to instances where the staff member has already completed the task by the time they mark it as accepted in the system. Second, we removed tasks where sent-to-accepted time exceeded 24 hours. We also excluded all the tasks that were not marked as completed (ie, incomplete tasks) by the end of the time window considered.

Our analysis used statistical packages in R (version 3.6.1, R Foundation for Statistical Computing). We used nonparametric tests, the Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and the Kruskal-Wallis rank-sum test when comparing the task acceptance time between different groups and conditions. Finally, our results were discussed in focus groups and interviews with key hospital members, who reflected on our findings and helped us interpret them. Focus groups and interviews took place at the start of the analysis, halfway through data analysis, and upon completion of the analysis. These sessions lasted about one hour and involved hospital members and the authors of the study.

We mainly used task acceptance time, task completion time, redirection percentage, and task escalation percentage for our analysis. The metric selection was informed by the input provided by the hospital staff; they regularly use these metrics to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the task assignment process.

Task Creation

In total, 317,372 tasks were sent and completed between July 2018 and May 2020, with a mean sent-to-accepted time of 15.89 (SD 79.72) minutes. In Figure 2 , we observe that the number of tasks sent through the MedTasker app gradually increased within the first year and maintained a consistent level thereafter. On average, 419.88 (SD 121.11) tasks were sent each day for the first 12 months. The average daily task count then increased to 501.83 (SD 123.25) for the remaining duration. Figure 3 shows how the time of day impacts task acceptance and behavior across different types of tasks.

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Tasks sent throughout the data collection period.

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Task acceptance (A) and completion (B) throughout the day.

Task Urgency and Escalation

A total of 13,168 of 317,372 (4.1%) tasks were categorized as urgent, and the remaining tasks were routine tasks. The mean sent-to-accepted time was 13.85 (SD 77.81) minutes for urgent tasks and 15.97 (SD 79.80) minutes for routine tasks. A Wilcoxon rank-sum test showed that sent-to-accepted time is significantly higher for routine tasks when compared to urgent tasks ( W =1,911,381,996; P <.001), suggesting that recipients accept urgent tasks quicker than routine tasks. Figure 4 shows the impact of task urgency and escalation on sent-to-accepted time. Similarly, the sent-to-completed time (hours) was significantly higher ( W =2,651,177,476; P <.001) for routine tasks (mean 14.74, SD 53.25) when compared to urgent tasks (mean 4.10, SD 17.84). The results also indicated that urgent tasks are more likely to be escalated when compared to routine tasks ( χ 2 1 =453.17; P <.001).

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Variation in sent-to-accepted time across routine and urgent tasks.

In Figure 5 , we explore the variation in the percentage of redirects and escalated tasks against mean sent-to-accepted time using a high-level categorization of tasks. We note key deviations in task types such as Referral, Pathology, and Pharmacist.

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Task count, redirects, escalations, and mean sent-to-accepted time for different task types.

Patient and Recipient Team

To analyze the impact of patient and recipient teams on task acceptance, we created a heat map visualization of task flow, where the total number of tasks are given in each cell ( Figure 6 ). Cells with less than 10 tasks were removed from the graph. We observed that task acceptance times vary depending on the Patient (ie, Sender) and Recipient teams.

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
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Task flow from patient teams to recipient teams. Med: medical; surg: surgical.

To further investigate the team dynamics in the hospital, we categorized tasks as “internal” versus “external” based on surgical and medical wards in the hospital. If the patient team and recipient team were the same for a particular task, then that task was labelled as an internal task. Tasks originating from or received by teams that do not belong to either the medical or surgical categories were excluded from this analysis. A Wilcoxon rank-sum test showed that the sent-to-accepted time (minutes) is significantly higher ( W =441,094,646; P <.001) for external assignments (mean 22.10, SD 91.45) when compared to internal assignments (mean 19.03, SD 82.66). Similarly, the sent-to-completed time (hours) was significantly higher ( W =457,480,292; P <.001) for external assignments (mean 12.72, SD 42.71) when compared to internal assignments (mean 6.17, SD 22.90). We also observed a task escalation rate of 5.01% in external tasks and 3.45% in internal tasks. A chi-square test showed that external tasks are more likely to be escalated when compared to internal tasks ( χ 2 1 =38.72; P <.001).

Impact of Roles

The majority of tasks were received by hospital medical officers (HMOs; 119,582/317,372; 37.7%) and interns (94,869/317,372; 29.9%), whereas registrars received a smaller portion of tasks (23,041/317,372; 7.3%). In terms of senders, the majority of tasks were sent by nurses (187,487/317,372; 59.1%). Table 1 shows the variation in task acceptance across different recipient groups.

Impact of the recipient level.

MedTasker and Task Assignment

Task assignment and management is an important workflow aspect in hospitals that is not well supported by popular communication tools. In our work, we studied the use of MedTasker, a purpose-built task assignment app, and analyzed task assignment data collected over a period of over 22 months. As suggested through the usage trends in Figure 2 , hospital staff comfortably adopted the MedTasker app within a year. Task acceptance and completion patterns throughout the day are proportionate to staff availability and reflect the standard hospital schedule where nurses change shifts at 7 AM, 3 PM, and 11 PM. Interestingly, we noted a high number of tasks being accepted at the beginning of the day shift ( Figure 3 ). Although the total number of tasks accepted generally declines through the day, the number of tasks completed increases until the day shift ends.

Our analysis considers the tasks’ sent-to-accepted time and the percentage of tasks that are escalated or redirected as key metrics in our evaluation. The analysis indicates significant variations in these important task metrics when we consider task type, task urgency, team, and sender roles. These variations highlight how task assignment data collected through MedTasker reflects the existing operational realities of a clinical environment.

Team Dynamics and Communication in the Hospital

A central theme that emerged from our results and interviews is the trust within and across teams. When examining task types and corresponding metrics in Figure 5 , we observe different working patterns. Pharmacist and Pathology tasks have higher task redirection rates, indicating that task senders are not assigning them to the right person in the first instance. However, lower mean sent-to-accepted times suggest that such tasks are quickly redirected to a relevant team member and then accepted. This demonstrates how the specific teams that undertake these tasks function as efficient teams. In contrast, other core medical tasks like Review patient and Procedure are directed to the right person but are not accepted as fast as tasks like Pathology and Pharmacist. Core medical tasks also have relatively high escalation levels. Naturally, it is difficult to sort many core medical tasks into a well-defined task category as they could overlap with multiple categories. These different task acceptance paradigms also highlight the separation between tasks intended for a specific person (eg, Review patient) and tasks intended for a specific team (eg, Pathology). We observe the need for the software to support well-defined tasks and roles, as well as for the hospital to have closely functioning teams to achieve high efficiency in clinical settings. Referral tasks appear as an outlier with high mean sent-to-accepted time, escalations, and redirections compared to other tasks. Although they are tasks sent among medical staff, they are generally treated as nonurgent tasks.

We obtained further insights about team dynamics by considering the task flow between different patient and recipient teams. Generally, we observed reasonable mean sent-to-accepted times across the majority of the team interactions while certain teams exhibit specific patterns. For example, we observed relatively higher mean sent-to-accepted times for tasks sent and received by the Obstetrics and Gynecology team ( Figure 5 ). This team was slightly underresourced and stationed at a separate ward that is not well-connected with the rest of the hospital, decreasing the trust between teams. In addition, the Pharmacy team stands out with better mean sent-to-accepted times due to their tasks not being generally directed at a specific person. Another key observation is the separation between surgical and medical teams. Our results show that internal tasks or tasks sent among medical or surgical teams have significantly faster task acceptance and completion times and fewer escalations when compared to external tasks or tasks sent across teams. These observations highlight the need to facilitate intrateam and interteam connections and trust for operational efficiency.

Similarly, in terms of sender and recipient roles, we found higher redirect and escalation percentages and longer task acceptance times for tasks received by registrars in comparison to junior staff such as interns and HMOs ( Table 1 ). This observation is expected since Registrars are experienced staff members, and tasks accepted by them are more complex and require expertise. In addition, the findings suggest that HMOs, who received the largest portion of tasks (119,582/317,372; 37.7%), are better organized and more efficient compared to others.

Redesigning Task Management Apps

Computer-based task management systems have the potential to benefit junior medical officers and nurses by improving overall task communication and achieving large reductions in time spent dealing with requests and walking between wards [ 19 ]. Early work on desktop computer–based task management systems includes TaskManager [ 12 ], a system implemented at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. Their study shows that having the task management application connected to the hospital’s Patient Management System increases the ease of task creation and results in effective communication. Similarly, a communication system deployed at Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital, Toronto, Canada, involves a desktop-based physician handover tool and an SMS-based system that sends secure messages to a dedicated team smartphone [ 13 ]. A subsequent survey found that clinicians perceive that the system has a positive impact on efficiency and helped speed up daily work tasks. A more modern solution is Dock Health [ 14 ], a team collaboration and task management app that has been successfully adopted by medical staff at Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States. Their HIPAA-compliant app runs on both mobile devices and web browsers and aims to overcome typical design and user experience issues in health care software.

In our case, our analysis has focused on a particular platform—MedTasker—but nevertheless, our analysis shows more broadly the kinds of meaningful insights that can be derived from data logs of task management apps. These insights can drive policy changes, which in turn can increase productivity in hospitals. Large volumes of historic data can also be used to build smart task management solutions that can optimally schedule tasks and alert when there are resource shortcomings. Additionally, important employee well-being surveys or feedback elements can be easily integrated into the task assignment app. Unlike when using off-the-shelf communication apps such as WhatsApp, by using an app like MedTasker, the hospital administration can have control over how data is governed and avoid security and privacy irregularities [ 6 ]. In addition, smartphones apps can be used to effectively communicate with and educate patients [ 20 ]. Such apps can be seamlessly integrated with task management apps. These unique advantages make purpose-built task assignment apps like MedTasker very appealing. We also point out that other forms of communication can complement app usage. In our case, hospital staff mentioned using phone calls for extended detailed conversations that mainly involve administrative work, WhatsApp for social collaboration and to notify regarding nonclinical events, and paging systems or speaker announcements for emergencies. Face-to-face communication also regularly occurs within wards but was not captured in this study.

Based on our observations and discussions with hospital staff, we discuss several improvements to MedTasker that we aim to implement in the future. These enhancements are also important to consider when implementing similar task assignment apps for health care. First, our results show that reminders have a strong influence on task acceptance. As opposed to using static time limits, adaptive time limits can be used to send reminders. It is also possible to incorporate workload information, such that reminders are adjusted based on recipients’ ongoing workload.

Second, the current practice of creating a task with an urgent or nonurgent label is arbitrary and highly dependent on the individual who creates the task. Since the prespecified task urgency has a significant impact on task acceptance, it is important that this particular label is added appropriately. Future implementations could help task requesters by automatically suggesting the appropriate urgency label based on task information. In addition, we propose user interface improvements that direct attention to urgent tasks when users receive multiple tasks.

Third, our results suggest that trust is important for efficient task assignment. To facilitate trust among teams and individuals, task assignment apps could provide more information regarding users. Contextual information such as current workload information or location can be helpful. Profile photos and other elements are also useful in increasing the levels of image appeal and perceived social presence, which in turn can increase trust [ 21 ].

Furthermore, MedTasker is not currently integrated with My Health Record (a major national electronic health record initiative in Australia) or any other external systems such as insurance systems. Although such integrations can be facilitated to further improve patient care, they should be implemented based on policy decisions and guidelines provided by hospitals and regulators.

Limitations

We note several limitations in our work. First, we use task acceptance time and completion time from the data set in our analysis. However, there may be some tasks in which acceptance and completion times recorded through the app do not correspond to actual task times. For example, staff may not immediately indicate task completion when they attend to a series of tasks or experience internet connectivity issues. Second, we acknowledge that different hospitals may operate under different protocols and practices, and as such, it is important to be cautious about extrapolating our findings to other or all hospitals, especially in different countries.

We analyzed hospital task assignment data collected via MedTasker, a dedicated task assignment app deployed at a hospital over 22 months. We show that important insights into how teams function in a clinical setting can be readily drawn from task assignment data. Our analysis shows that predefined labels such as urgency and task type are important and impact how tasks are accepted and completed. We also show how task acceptance varies across teams and roles and highlight that internal tasks are more efficiently managed than external tasks, possibly due to increased trust among team members. Finally, we discuss how smartphone-based task assignment apps can be further improved to support clinical work and staff.

Acknowledgments

This work is partially funded by Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP190102627 and National Health and Medical Research Council grants 1170937 and 2004316.

Abbreviations

Authors' Contributions: DH, LH, JG, and VK designed the research. LH collected the data. DH, VK, and JG analyzed the data. LH and VK verified and interpreted the data. DH, JG, and VK contributed to manuscript preparation.

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

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International Conference on Computer Aided Systems Theory

EUROCAST 1995: Computer Aided Systems Theory — EUROCAST '95 pp 48–61 Cite as

Task management system

  • Yasuhiko Takahara 1 &
  • Xiaohong Chen 2  
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  • First Online: 01 January 2005

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A task which is supposed for our DSS (actDSS) consists of integrated models, solvers, graphical models for imput and output, various data models connected a data base and others. The organization of these subsystems is a task. A task management system (TMS) should take care of all aspects of a task construction and its operation. In this paper the concept of TMS is proposed and the structure and function are discussed.

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D. R. Dolk: An introduction to model integration and integrated modeling environment. Decision Support System, No. 10 (1993)

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M. Mesaroric and Y. Takahara: Abstract Systems Theory. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences: Springer-Verlag 1989

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Takahara, Y., Chen, X. (1996). Task management system. In: Pichler, F., Díaz, R.M., Albrecht, R. (eds) Computer Aided Systems Theory — EUROCAST '95. EUROCAST 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1030. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0034749

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Intelligent task management platform for health care workers

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  • 1 a Information Technology Department (INTEC) , Ghent University - iMinds , Ghent , Belgium.
  • PMID: 26890874
  • DOI: 10.3109/17538157.2015.1113178

The medical staff in a hospital could benefit from a specialized task management system, considering their high workload covering different patients. This article presents an intelligent task management platform that automatically prioritizes and (re-)assigns tasks to the appropriate caregivers based on the current health care context captured in a continuous care ontology. Moreover, this platform provides the caregivers with a smartphone allowing them to easily view and process their assigned tasks.

Keywords: eCare; ontology; rules; task management.

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Task management system for work: definition and examples

Looking for an answer to "What is a task management software? Definitions and examples." In this article, we’re trying to answer the following questions.

What is the best task management software?

Why is task management important.

  • How do you manage tasks at work?
  • What is a task plan?
  • How should you organize a task list?
  • What are task management skills?
  • How can you improve the way you plan and use time?
  • What are some effective time management techniques?

Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle: from planning, testing and tracking, to reporting on the outcome. It involves managing all aspects of a task, from its status and priority to the time spent, people involved, and finally, financial resources needed. Task management methods, tools, and techniques give you and your team a detailed and real-time view of all the moving parts of a project. It helps teams to stay productive and on schedule.

Breaking projects down into specific tasks can be also a huge motivator. A task management system empowers teams to work more productively and efficiently. You can create tasks and assign tasks with online task management. With a task management system, managing projects become much easier.

A powerful task management software gives you the best tools when it comes to creating tasks, organizing, assigning, tracking, and reporting on team projects and the required tasks. You’ll have all the information in one place visible to the entire team. A task management tool also lets you see your task and project progress visually and in real-time.

There are a lot of task management systems today, but how do you choose the right one? So, what is the best task management software for your specific needs? Some project managers need their task management system to be flexible, customizable, and simple to use, while others require that the tool should have other complementary features, too. For example, project management with time tracking or invoicing capabilities are features that can complement a task management system.

We’ll introduce you to four different task management tools or systems: Jira Software, Taimer, Trello, and Asana. 

Jira Software Jira Software is a task management tool for teams and individuals. They have a 7-day trial at least for the cloud version. The Jira Software also works on the server. The program has flexible kanban boards to give you and your team full visibility on task updates and progress.

Heeros PSA Heeros PSA is a business management software that includes task manager features as one of its key functionalities. Unlike the other task management platforms, you can use Heeros for invoicing, project management, time tracking, expenses, integrations, and more. It's more than 8+ apps in one unified software. 

>> If you’d like to try Heeros PSA, you can sign up for a free trial here!

Trello Trello is a free, flexible, and visual way to organize anything with anyone by creating and sharing tasks. It is basically a task management system without any bonus features. With Trello, you can forget continuous emailing, Excel files, and notes.

Asana Asana is a work management platform for teams to stay focused on goals, projects, and tasks. It also offers a free trial which you can avail of before paying for a premium version. 

HeySpace HeySpace is something more than ordinary task management tools - it’s the ultimate Kanban-based collaboration software. In each space, users can find a board with lists and cards and a chat - each message can be easily turned into a task.

Also, how do you manage tasks at work? What is a task plan? How do you organize your task list? 

Task management is important for running projects. The basics of task management are to capture, organize, and assign everything that needs to get done to complete your project. About your methods… The only method is the one that works for your team. So, make sure to experiment and see what your team likes or doesn’t like.

"It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome." William James

Your key to successful task management is having every step clearly laid out. By keeping all your tasks in one centralized location you can reduce the cognitive load on your brain and you are able to focus more on what needs to be done on priority. 

Each task should provide some basic information, so anyone viewing them knows the priority of the task, the due date, the owners, and the next steps. Your task management system should give you at least these four options. A better solution would be to have a project management tool or project management software. With project management software, you can see the whole project schedule and other key project updates, all in one place. 

What are some task management skills that can help you stay on time?

One of the most important task management skills is risk management: no project ever goes exactly like planned. Situations change. Someone might get sick or have an unfortunate accident. A person might quit. In every case, you can use your task management system to take stock of the situation, adjust, and get back on track.  You should also:

  • Have a full view of the project.
  • Be proactive about anticipating situations and prioritizing tasks. The importance of prioritization can’t be overstated. However, be proactive about looking for potential priority shifts. The better you can prioritize, the more productive your team will be.
  • Always be able to connect tasks to project goals. Connecting your tasks to project goals is a checklist to make sure you’re still going the right way. Make sure tasks align with project goals as much as possible.
  • Remove tasks that aren’t being actively worked on from immediate attention. Task management is as much about what’s not there as what is. If a task is no longer relevant due to a change in priority, just get rid of it. Too many tasks add an unnecessary cognitive load to your team. Feel motivated!

Having well-defined tasks makes time management easier. You will have a better understanding of what to do and when to do it. So, you'll have due dates. You’ll have your schedule and your hours resourced for your tasks. It’s all so much more simple when there’s task management software involved!

Taskmanagement-blog

What strategies can you use to improve the way you plan and manage time?

Time management is very significant. It is one of the important areas for improvement. Here, you’ll learn the different ways to improve time management with these time management tips.

  • Do not procrastinate. This decreases your productivity.
  • Schedule yourself. Daily scheduling of your tasks will keep you on track and improve your time management practices.
  • Prepare a must-do list instead of simple to-do lists. Identify which tasks are important at that particular time frame and focus on only those.
  • Stay away from distractions. Again: stay away from distractions.
  • Prioritize your tasks.
  • Delegate some tasks. Don’t try to do everything on your own.
  • Review daily progress. Keeping track of your daily performance as scheduled is very important. This is how you’ll improve your time management skills. You’ll start to identify your productive and non-productive time.

Keep these as your guidelines and you’ll be fine - more efficient and more productive! Task and time management go together. You can also have a deeper look at Heeros' PSA's features including time-tracking feature.

Tasks by their definition are tiny. However, the returns they bring are massive. So, take time to break down your tasks into their smallest pieces. Prioritize your tasks and find a task management system that gives you all that visibility, flexibility, and awareness. You’ll be right on your way to turning a big and scary project into a step-by-step plan.

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Employee Task Management System: Everything You Need To Know

This blog gives a complete guide on how to improve employee productivity with a task management system and its benefits.

task management system

A task management system refers to monitoring a project’s tasks via analyzing various stages from start to end. The management system involves actively making decisions to accommodate the changes occurring in real-time to accomplish the tasks. Every scope, resource, budget, recurrence, etc., gets monitored through the task management system . Task management is a significant component of project management and involves a work breakdown structure to divide the project into manageable tasks for the employees working in the specific business.

Managing every significant task on priority, keeping up with the schedule and budget criteria, and ensuring effective team collaboration form the basis of task management.

5 Benefits of Using Employee Task Management System

An employee task management system is the key to evolving a talented and efficient workforce for your organization and is the perfect addition to enhance your business. Here is a breakdown of the benefits of using employee task management systems.

employee task management system

1. Accountability Task management improves the quality of work of the team or staff members to make them accountable for their actions. The management system specifies the tasks and activities so that the team members can see what needs to be achieved and when. The members also become responsible for their work calendars and give an increased accountability level every day.

2. Efficiency Task management keeps all actions, from to-do lists and emails to presentations and spreadsheets, encapsulated in a single platform to reduce the chances of lost work and information. Moreover, the management system improves the efficiency of task completion via the same process. The same system aims to break down every project into manageable tasks so that the team members get the flexibility to progress efficiently.

3. Teamwork The employee task management system makes it easier for teams to collaborate on joint projects and cross-functional tasks. Even if the team members do not belong to the same office or country, everyone can collaborate to accomplish the work associated with a project via the management system. The process results in effortless teamwork that makes completing tasks simple and efficient.

4. Learning Opportunities A task management software has twofold benefits – quicker and efficient management of ongoing tasks and upcoming work and the evolution of a learning and development tool to increase the reliability of goal-oriented skills and experience. The skills related to task management help you improve efficiency and encourage effective learning and development and ongoing timekeeping. The management system also forms the basis for KPI-based goals to improve employee confidence and capabilities.

5. Digital Records A task management system offers a digital way to see everything achieved over a week, month, or year. The management system also allows you to see and analyze the areas of improvement and the completed tasks that were well done. You can get a tangible roadmap for the completed tasks that provides an insight into how you can manage similar workloads or projects in the future.

How to Improve Team Productivity with a Task Management System?

Leading a team is tough, and making groups of people with different temperaments may lead to clashes and miscommunication and impact workplace productivity. However, you can make your team members accomplish professional goals through an effective task management system.

Here is a breakdown of ways to improve team productivity with a task management system:

employee task management system

1. Give Ownership to The Team Members A task management system enables business leaders to give ownership to team members. The process allows them to make decisions and become accountable for their work. When a team member becomes responsible for a specific task, it induces a sense of responsibility and increases productivity. So, everyone begins to work differently because their decisions can impact their performance.

2. Ensure Proper Communication Communication contributes to team productivity, and an effective employee task management system ensures that effective collaboration prevails in a team. The management system has a single platform for employee onboarding, training, etc., and includes a place for storing information related to the workforce and the business. An effective communication strategy helps improve team productivity within an organization because of increased collaborations and interactions.

3. Identify The Team’s Strengths and Weaknesses A task management tool allows a leader or a manager to discover the team members’ skills and talents to keep them in mind while allotting tasks. Knowing the skillset and experiences is the backbone of producing an efficient and productive team for any business. Checking and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of team members through a task management system will help you divide tasks efficiently and allow them to contribute to the workplace.

4. Increased Visibility A task management system helps every team member involved in a project stay on the same page and analyze their roles in meeting the overall goals or objectives. Potential risks, resource allocation, and project progress become available to all team members via the management system so that they can analyze the data better to get an overview of the numbers over the weeks, months, or years.

5. Identify Issues and Predict Delays A task management system enables the team to deliver tasks on time by identifying issues and predicting delays. The process allows them to change or modify work and correct their actions before the goal gets accomplished. The management system also walks the team members through the points where the tasks get delayed and help them overcome the time constraint by introducing new strategies.

How Does Projectsly Help as an Employee Task Management System?

Projectsly is the best employee task management tool to help your team members centralize projects and execute tasks. The management tool helps streamline various projects and tasks through powerful automation and management features. Your business can witness a boost in productivity, and the workforce can complete significant deadlines by working via Projectsly.

If you are looking for a robust management tool to streamline your projects and task assignments, Projectsly is the answer. The employee management tool helps streamline all tasks and projects from a central location and helps team members collaborate to accomplish the project activities within the deadline.

Projectsly further allows you to align your team members with various activities and get updates on ongoing and accomplished tasks. You can accomplish your goals on time using the efficient task management tool.

If you are skeptical about using the task management tool, the following features will clear your doubts.

It provides an insight into the ongoing and completed tasks related to a project.

It gives information like activity timelines, notes, documents, email integration, etc., in a single platform.

It helps you measure your completion of goals related to various tasks and projects.

It uses power automation and visual builder features to create advanced rules and control the workflow system.

It integrates with built-in apps for better team collaboration and management.

Ready to streamline project planning process and enhance team productivity with Projectsly? Sign Up 14 Day Trial

Summing It Up

A task management system allows an individual or leader to track a project’s status and make decisions depending on the progress. Various tools enable an effective employee task management system to organize and manage tasks for enhanced organizational infrastructure and management. If you haven’t found the right task management solution for your organization, we recommend getting Projectsly, an efficient project management software that helps you streamline all tasks and projects within the given deadline while enhancing the team’s productivity and accountability.

What Makes the Best Project Management Software?

Plan, organize, track all your projects in one place

Get a visibility over individual tasks in the form of kanban boards

Track the project schedule using gantt chart and calendar view

Create advanced workflows with powerful automations

Track employee activities, and working hours using built-in time tracking software, Clockly

Monitor activities using screen recorder on Windows, Mac and Linux devices

Set S.M.A.R.T goals and achieve results

Share files and collaborate with team through discussion boards

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task management system abstract

Task Management System

task management system abstract

Introduction

This is a web application by which any organization can manage tasks among its employees. This project has various small parts like commenting on task, upload and download files, task forwarding, editing existing and creating new project, task, employee, user and clients etc and crystal reports.

This is a full project. In this project I use C#, SQL Server and various components of ASP.NET. Reader of this article may find this article helpful while using this components.I would like share this whole project with every body with code and descriptions.

  • Download Task_Management_System - 736.73 KB

Image 1

Project Description:

1. Every project has some number of tasks and employees. All tasks under a project can only be handled by these employees.

2. A task is assigned to only one employee at a time. Task can be forwarded to other employee of that project.

3. An employee can comment on his task, attach file with task, forward the task to other employee of its project and also can download attachment of his task.

4. There are two types of employee, named Admin and User. Both of the type must be an employee.

5. A user can only comment on his task, attach file with task, forward the task to other employee of its project and also can download attachment of his task.

6. An Admin user has some extra privilege including all privilege of a user.

  • Admin can create project, edit project information, add / remove employee to a project and can close a project.
  • Admin can create task, edit task information and close task.
  • Admin can create employee, edit employee information.
  • Admin can set user type.
  • Admin can view project, task , task history, employee reports(Crystal Report) 

**While creating a project Admin will be a member of the project by default.

**A project can only be closed if its entire tasks are close.

7. All types of user must log in by user ID and password. According to their type there will be different privilege, as discus earlier. 

Using the code

1. Attach the database in your "SQL Server Management Studio Express". 2. Run the application on Microsoft Visual Studio as web site. 3. Locate the database for Crystal Reports. 4. Read "How to.txt" & "Readme.txt"

Project Detail

3 layer architecture.

In this project I use three layer architecture. UI layer collaborate with BLL layer, BLL layer collaborate with DAL layer. I use 3 layer architecture because it gives flexibility. After some time if any change is needed in particular layer I would only change in that layer. That time i will not bother for other layer. Suppose I want to change some business logic I will only consantrat on the business logic layer (BLL). That time i dont need to think about the entire project rather a particular layer. 3 layer architecture also gives more OOP sence in the project. 

3_layer.JPG

Log In & Home page

Every user must login by his user name and password. After clicking on Log in button codes behind the page will call a method of UserManager class,CheckUserIdAndPassword(userID,password), which takes user ID and password as parameter  check it with database if any match found returns user type. If no match found this method will return empty string and which conclude as wrong password.  Code also add a session variable which is user id.

Code behind log in page.

After log in Admin user and user will see different type of home page according to there user type.

Admin home page :

I used two different Master page for two different user type. Admin master page has a manu which provides administrative privilege.

2.AdminHomeUI.JPG

User home page:

3.User_home.JPG

Both Master page retrieve the user id from session variable and populate users task and project list.

User home page contains two Bulleted Lists. One lists all projects, other lists all open tasks. Project bulleted list’s display mode is “Text” and task bulleted list’s display mode is “Link button”.

I use the task ID as the value of the items in the bulleted list to find out which task is selected. As bulleted list contains List Items and bulleted list don’t provides selected items value directly, to find the value of bulleted list item (task) is clicked, I use a tricky solution. I use the “BulletedListEventArgs e” which provides data for the System.Web.UI.WebControls.BulletedList.Click event of a System.Web.UI.WebControls.BulletedList control. I save the item that fires the event in a list item variable and get value from it.

This is the main business part of this project.

1.Task_view.JPG

User can comment on this task. This comment can be use as a note or as an instruction.

2.Task_view_comment1.JPG

Notice that comment is saved with the task.

3.Task_view_comment2.JPG

Upload File

User can also attach file with the task

4.Task_view_attach_file1.JPG

Notice that file is attached with the task and listed in the right hand side of the picture. Also notice that user insert a comment with this attachment, this will tell who attach the file and what does the attachment do.

5.Task_view_attach_file2.JPG

Code behind posting a comment and upload a file (attachment).

Download File

A user can download a attachment of the task by clicking on the file in the attachment Bulleted list. This will open a download window. User can save file in his hard disk or open directly. Remember that if user's pc has any "Download Accelerator" installed, it will force to download the .aspx page not the file. So disable "Download Accelerator" (if any) before trying to download any attachment.

Download window.

6.Task_view_download_attach_file1.JPG

Selecting location where to download the file

7.Task_view_download_attach_file2.JPG

Download complete.

8.Task_view_download_attach_file3.JPG

Code behind download a file (attachment).

Forwarding a task

A user can also forward a task to other employees of the project. To forward a task user have to check on the "Forward to check box". While checked a DDL and a new button will appear with text on it "Post & Forward" and "post comment" button will disappear. DLL contains all employees of the project. If user unchecked the "Forward to check box", "Post & Forward" and DDL will disappear and "post comment" button will reappear.

Notice that user is forwarding the task to another employee of the project named "Habibur Rahman". A task can only be forwarded to employees of the same project. Before forward a user must comment on the task telling what to do next or task status. It is also possible to attach a file during forwarding.

9.Task_view_forwarding1.JPG

After forwarding a task the user is no longer handling the task. So the task will removed from the task list of his home page.

10.Task_view_forwarding2.JPG

When the new user of the task "Habibur Rahman" log in, he will see the task in his task list.

Notice that user name is different.

11.Task_view_forwarding3.JPG

The new user can now work on the task.

12.Task_view_forwarding4.JPG

Code behind forward the task to other employee of the project.

Closing Task

An admin can close any task that is assigned to him. Admin can not close a task that is not assigned to him because any other employee may be working on the task. 

In admin task page, there is a link button for closing the task. If admin want to close the task, he must click on the link button and following page will appear.

13.Task_view_close_task.JPG

After clicking on "Close Task" button, page will redirect to home page and a label appear with task close status.

14.Task_view_close_task_2.JPG

Code behind closeing a task

All Task (View Only)

An admin can view all tasks (assigned + non-assigned)

15.Task_view_All_task.JPG

Notice the last comment. It is added automatically during closing the task.

17.Task_view_All_task_3.JPG

Crystal Reports  

This project has five crystal reports and five .aspx page to view it. To view a crystal report in a .aspx page one must use a “CrystalReportViewer” in the .aspx page. In this project every page contain a “CrystalReportViewer” which load the crystal report (.rpt) page.

Crystal reports are

ReportEmployee.rpt --> view all user information ReportProject.rpt --> view all project information ReportTask.rpt --> view all task information TaskHistory.rpt --> view all task history TasksOfProject.rpt --> view all projects and its tasks

Task & Project Report

To view all projects and its tasks click on View Reports --> Tasks And Projects.

18.Task_view_Report1.JPG

This report shows all projects and its tasks, individual task status (open / close), project status.

19.Task_view_Report_2.JPG

Task History Report

To view individual task history View Reports -->  Task History

20.Task_view_Report_3.JPG

 This report shows individual task history. User can understand who created the task, who forward a task to whom and when.

21._Task_view_Report_4.JPG

User Report

To view all user details View Reports --> User. This report shows employee ID, Name, Address, Email ID, Phone number, user type ans number of users.

23.Report_user2.JPG

Project Report

This report view all project information amd status

25.Report_project2.JPG

Task Report

This report views all task informations and status

27.Report_task2.JPG

In every .aspx page code behind page is  

1. Exception 2. SqlException 3. NullReferenceExceptio 4. NonUserEmployeeException 5. OnlyOneAdminException 6. PrimaryKeyException

These are the exceptions I use in this project.

PrimaryKeyException

User define exception.

Exception occurs when trying to insert data into DB with existing primary key

OnlyOneAdminException

User define exception

While trying to change a admin's user type(Admin user to normal user) if admin is only admin user of a project, his user type can not be change because only admin can close task and project if OnlyOneAdmin become normal type then nobody can close task and project at this point this exception occurs.

NonUserEmployeeException

User defined exception

When trying to get a user type(Admin / Normal) of a employee if employee is not a user this exception occurs.

Note:Not all employee is a user.

NullReferenceException

Predefined Exception

SqlException

Exception .

Predefined Exception 

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

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Online Task Management System

  • Author(s): Swapnil Kumbhalkar ; Shubham Meshram ; Grishma Hedaoo ; Raksha Tabhane ; Priyanka Thoke; Prof. Mukesh Barapatre
  • Paper ID: 1700856
  • Page: 69-74
  • Published Date: 29-11-2018
  • Published In: Iconic Research And Engineering Journals
  • Publisher: IRE Journals
  • e-ISSN: 2456-8880
  • Volume/Issue: Volume 2 Issue 5 November-2018

The Online Task Management System is designed from day to day working of department of a college. The project provides online platform to accomplish day to day department level task and provide information of the task to specified user. Admin can assign task, give notification and adds different users in this project. Important benefit of this proposed system is that the user-friendly design helps the admin and user to interact and accomplish various types of tasks online with ease. the Online Task Management System involves identifying, acquiring, allocating and tracking all the resources. Admin maintains a database system, and is responsible for the performance of the system. Admin have authority to control the entire system. User have no authentication to see admin task. The purpose for developing this project is to generate a platform where admin can do all types of operations like view, insert, edit, events, delete and tracking operations. Admin user is a privileged user who can add/modify a task.

Data program, Client-Server architecture, Android Studio, Server-side programming techniques.

IRE Journals: Swapnil Kumbhalkar , Shubham Meshram , Grishma Hedaoo , Raksha Tabhane , Priyanka Thoke; Prof. Mukesh Barapatre "Online Task Management System" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals Volume 2 Issue 5 2018 Page 69-74

IEEE: Swapnil Kumbhalkar , Shubham Meshram , Grishma Hedaoo , Raksha Tabhane , Priyanka Thoke; Prof. Mukesh Barapatre "Online Task Management System" Iconic Research And Engineering Journals , 2(5)

About IRE Journals

IRE Journals is an open access online journals established with an aim to publish high quality of research work in various diciplines. We have more than 6 years in publications. Over 2500+ papers already published.

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Best free task management software in 2024

Mehdi Punjwani

Sierra Campbell

Sierra Campbell

“Verified by an expert” means that this article has been thoroughly reviewed and evaluated for accuracy.

Published 7:24 a.m. UTC Feb. 15, 2024

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A good task management software will give you the tools you need to organize projects for your business and help individuals, teams and businesses stay organized and productive. They offer a range of features and capabilities depending on the complexities of your business and projects, allowing you to set deadlines, assign tasks to team members, allocate resources and track and report on progress.

Finding the best task management software for your business means considering a range of factors, like the core features on offer, the customer service you’ll get and the ability to scale up according to your needs. We’ve tried and tested some of the biggest platforms available to give you our list of best task management software in 2024.

Featured project management software offers

task management system abstract

Via Monday.com’s site

Monthly fee

$10 per user, with a minimum of three users

Free version

Yes, for two users

24/7 customer support

Yes, with paid plans

task management system abstract

Via Clickup’s website

$10 per user

Yes, for unlimited members

Best free task management software

  • Notion : Best for flexibility.
  • ClickUp : Best for customization.
  • Trello : Best for automation.
  • Hive : Best for collaboration.
  • Zoho Projects : Best for startups using Zoho.
  • Teamwork : Best for client task management.
  • Monday : Best for individuals and freelancers.
  • Asana : Best for complex tasks.
  • Podio : Best for app building.
  • GoodDay : Best for scaling up.

Why trust our small business experts

Our team of experts evaluates hundreds of business products and analyzes thousands of data points to help you find the best product for your situation. We use a data-driven methodology to determine each rating. Advertisers do not influence our editorial content. You can read more about our methodology below.

  • 62 companies reviewed.
  • 164 products reviewed.
  • 2,028 data points analyzed.

Best for flexibility

Notion

Cheapest paid plan (billed monthly)

Number of users, number of projects/tasks, what you should know.

Notion is a versatile task management platform that gives you a high degree of control and customization even on its free plan. With an abundance of views and formats, including Kanban boards, Gantt charts, calendar views and to-do lists, it offers users multiple ways to track and organize projects. You can also make use of thousands of templates built by Notion and its users, catering to an array of health and fitness, work and office and day-to-day home management needs.

You won’t need to pay anything to get unlimited pages and workflows as an individual, but you’ll need to upgrade to give multiple users full functionality. While you can upload unlimited files on the free plan, you’ll be limited to 5 MB per file, as well as a seven-day history and one synced database.

We’d recommend it if you want to use one platform to manage a variety of project and task types with flexible views and displays; it’s particularly good for content creators.

Pros and cons

  • Multiple views, including Kanban boards, Gantt charts and to-do lists.
  • Thousands of versatile templates for things like health and fitness, work and home.
  • Free version offers individuals unlimited pages and workflows.
  • Custom automation features only available on paid plans.
  • Maximum file upload of 5 MB on free plan.
  • Limited admin and security features on free plan.

Best for customization

ClickUp

ClickUp’s free platform gives you a highly capable and customizable task management platform with an unlimited number of tasks and members. It also offers 24/7 customer service on all plans. You’ll be able to view tasks in unlimited lists, boards and calendars, but you’ll only get 60 uses of Gantt charts, timelines and workloads.

The free plan also allows custom statuses and up to 20 custom task types, as well as other useful features like multiple assignees, checklists, dependencies and a basic custom field manager. However, you’ll only be able to create five “spaces” as part of the free plan — unlimited spaces are only available on paid plans. There are also no time-tracking features and very limited other reporting capabilities.

  • Free version offers unlimited free plan members and tasks.
  • A range of views, including Kanban boards and Gantt charts.
  • 24/7 customer support on all plans.
  • Limits on how many views, custom fields and workloads you can use.
  • No time tracking features.
  • Only five ‘spaces’ on free plan.

Best for automation

Trello

While Trello’s free platform only offers its Kanban-style board view, its two main highlights are its automation services and unlimited power-ups. With its Butler automation, you’ll be able to create rules, buttons and commands, and repetitive actions are recognized with suggested automations that help increase productivity. Third-party apps you can integrate include Slack, Jira, Gmail, Microsoft Teams and Google Drive.

You’ll be limited to 10 MB file uploads and only 10 boards per workspace, though with unlimited storage and workspaces for all plans, this isn’t too restrictive. It’s not ideal if you want to see projects and tasks in calendar or timeline views, but as a basic task manager with smart automation tools, it can be a useful platform for individuals and small businesses.

  • Very straightforward and easy to use.
  • Built-in automation features, including an automation bot called Butler.
  • Unlimited power-up feature lets you integrate third-party apps.
  • File uploads are limited to 10 MB per file.
  • You only get up to 10 boards per workspace.
  • Limited view options.

Best for collaboration

Hive

Hive comes with its own native communication tools, allowing for straightforward collaboration with up to 10 workspace members on its free plan. As a task manager, it’s fairly capable, offering unlimited tasks and subtasks as well as multiple views such as Kanban, Gantt, calendars and tables. However, you’ll only get two pages and 100 workflows, and while Kanban views are unlimited, the free plan only offers 100 uses of Gantt, calendar and table views.

Your ability to customize projects and tasks will also be fairly restricted with no custom fields or labels, and your storage limit on the free plan will be 200 MB overall. Its free plan also comes without a few other features, such as AI assists, custom dashboards and analytics. We’d recommend it as a simple free task manager for small teams working together that will benefit from its native collaborative tools.

  • Native collaboration and communication tools.
  • Multiple views and layouts.
  • Unlimited tasks and sub-tasks.
  • 200 MB storage limit.
  • 10 projects and two pages on free plan.
  • No custom project fields or task labels.

Best for startups using Zoho

Zoho projects.

Zoho Projects

Zoho offers a project manager as part of its larger suite of tools and products, offering a free version for up to three users as well as a 10-day free trial on its paid plans. You’ll be able to manage two projects, create feeds, share documents and custom statuses and set up task dependencies within projects. It’s particularly useful for startups already making use of other Zoho products like CRM, Meeting and Sprints, all of which integrate into the free platform.

You can also use third-party app integrations for Microsoft Teams and Office 365, Slack, Dropbox, Zendesk and Zapier. However, there are some significant limitations to the free version, including limited customization — you can’t create custom fields or views, and there are only basic reporting capabilities.

  • Integrates with Zoho CRM, Meeting and Sprints.
  • Straightforward and easy to use.
  • Offers useful core features, including document sharing, subtasks and custom statuses.
  • Only three users and two projects on free plan.
  • No Gantt charts, custom views, time tracking or custom fields.

Best for client task management

Teamwork

Teamwork will be particularly useful for agencies needing to manage client tasks, as it comes with built-in billable time-tracking features and estimated time management. It also offers client-level insights and client-company management, though you’ll only get client users with premium paid plans. With Teamwork, you’ll also get a range of automation features, including automatic Slack updates, HubSpot deals and Microsoft Teams messages.

It does have drawbacks in the shape of limited reporting capabilities — while all plans come with a dashboard, only premium paid plans offer reports on status, portfolio health, time, utilization and profitability. You also won’t have any phone, live chat or email support options on its free plan.

  • Billable time-tracking and invoicing features useful for agencies.
  • Client views and management features.
  • Wide range of automation features.
  • No phone, live chat or email support.
  • Limited reporting and customization options.
  • No client users on free plan.

Best for individuals and freelancers

Monday

Monday is a popular task management platform with businesses worldwide, but we’d recommend its free plan specifically for individuals and freelancers managing their businesses. It offers a straightforward Kanban interface only, with over 200 templates available, so you’ll be able to create up to three boards with two users and unlimited documents.

However, Monday’s free plan is missing a number of wider features like timeline, Gantt and calendar views, as well as offering no integrations or automations. It’s a relatively simplistic platform compared to others, so we’d recommend it more for individuals than teams that will need more advanced collaboration and reporting capabilities.

  • Over 200 templates available.
  • Apps for iOS and Android.
  • Intuitive and easy to use interface.
  • No integrations on free version.
  • Only offers Kanban view.

Best for complex tasks

Asana

We’d recommend Asana’s powerful platform as an ideal choice for small businesses managing complex tasks or projects with plenty of moving parts. With unlimited tasks, projects, file storage, assignees and messages alongside multiple views such as boards, calendars and lists all included on its free plan, it’s a capable piece of software. You’ll also have access to over 100 free third-party integrations such as Microsoft Teams, Adobe Creative Cloud, Okta and Tableau.

However, you won’t be able to use timelines, Gantt views, goals or portfolios with the free plan, nor time-tracking, workflows or various automation features. The free plan is also fairly limited when it comes to reporting, with only status updates and CSV and PDF exports available.

  • Unlimited project management essential features.
  • Multiple views available.
  • Over 100 free integrations.
  • Limited reporting features.
  • No 24/7 support.

Best for app building

Podio

Podio offers a unique solution for businesses that will benefit from building their own customized project management apps to suit their specific needs. As well as the ability to design a bespoke task manager for your team, you’ll have access to hundreds of user-created apps online. It allows you to keep all important aspects of your business and projects in one central place, depending on the requirements of you and your team.

However, its free version is limited in the other features it offers — including the number of items and client users you can support. It also doesn’t offer automated workflows or visual reports, so keep this in mind if you’re considering Podio.

  • You can build your own customizable apps for project management.
  • You’ll also have access to hundreds of pre-made apps.
  • Live chat support available.
  • Limited features on the free plan.
  • Takes a while to set up and customize to your exact specifications.

Best for scaling up

GoodDay

With a robust set of features and capabilities as well as relatively affordable price plans for upgrading, we’d recommend GoodDay for businesses looking to scale up their operations. Its free version is already quite powerful, offering unlimited projects and tasks for up to 15 users, with views including lists, boards, tables, calendars, event summaries and portfolios. You can customize views, priorities, workflows and statuses, as well as set up dependencies, reminders and to-do lists.

Other customization options are only available on paid plans, such as task, project and user fields, as well as task types and IDs. Additionally, many security features and all CRM features are only available when you upgrade, but with the next price plan up only costing $6 per month, it’s an affordable choice for scaling up.

  • Unlimited projects and tasks.
  • Unlimited views, with most available on free plan.
  • Powerful features for big businesses with affordable plans for scaling up.
  • Many customization options unavailable on free plan.
  • No finance, time tracking, chats or automation.

Best task management software comparison

Methodology

We extensively research the key competitors within an industry to determine the best products and services for your business. Our experts identify the factors that matter most to business owners, including pricing, features and customer support, to ensure that our recommendations offer well-rounded products that will meet the needs of various small businesses.

We collect extensive data to narrow our best list to reputable, easy-to-use products with stand-out features at a reasonable price point. And we look at user reviews to ensure that business owners like you are satisfied with our top picks’ services. We use the same rubric to assess companies within a particular space so you can confidently follow our blueprint to the best free task management software.

The best task management software has positive user reviews on customer review sites and app stores. Task management software companies should provide customers with fast and reliable support. Using a combination of phone support, live chat and knowledge bases, customers should be able to quickly resolve issues 24/7.

Task management software should have role assignment features, timelines and dependencies. It should also allow businesses to use customizable templates, track expenses and track milestones.

And the best task management software should offer client access, billing and invoice capabilities and budgeting features.

What is task management software and how does it work?

Task management software is a digital tool you can use as an individual or a business to manage, organize and prioritize tasks. While levels of features and capabilities will vary between platforms, many also offer the ability to communicate between team members, share files and updates and track progress toward objectives. 

You’ll be able to use task management software to create and assign tasks, set deadlines, allocate resources and allow for collaboration between colleagues. These tools can help you and your business increase productivity and efficiency. However, it’s important to be aware of how complex your needs are. 

Some task management programs can be complex and could end up reducing your productivity and organization, which is why it’s so important to find the right platform for your needs.

Benefits of free task management software

Using task management software can offer a number of benefits for individuals and businesses, including:

  • Free forever: A good free task management software will offer unlimited projects or workflows without any extra costs — not just a free trial before you have to pay.
  • Productivity: Task management platforms can increase your team’s productivity through automation, progress tracking and reporting, saving time on repetitive tasks.
  • Centralized workflow: You can use task management software to keep all workflows centralized, allowing easy access for all team members and collaborators to stay updated and informed.
  • Collaboration: You’ll be able to clearly assign roles and allocate resources on projects and tasks to different team members, and many platforms also allow team members to work together and communicate. 
  • Manage big projects: Complex and lengthy projects can be broken down into separate tasks and workflows with multiple teams and team members. 
  • Remote workers: If you rely on remote workers or freelancers, many task management platforms allow all team members to collaborate online from any location.

Who needs task management software?

Task management software can prove useful for a variety of individuals and businesses. You might be a freelancer with a number of client tasks to manage or a hobbyist running a side hustle — in which case, a free task manager will be ideal. 

Likewise, small teams and businesses can also benefit from using task management software to organize and track workflow progress for team projects. A free plan or trial period offers a great way to try out different platforms and products so you can find one that suits your needs best before committing to a paid plan with more features and capabilities required by your business.

How to choose the best task management software

Choosing the best free task management software for your business means considering a range of factors and how each of these will best suit your needs. You will need to think about the core features offered by each platform, as well as whether it plugs into any existing software you have and how easy and intuitive it is to use. 

Additionally, you should look into the customer support options each platform offers, as this will be crucial in case things go wrong and your work is at risk.

Key features to look for

Levels of complexity and customization will vary between platforms, but in general, you should look out for the following features as part of your task management software:

  • Sub-tasks: Key to keeping big projects organized, task managers should allow you to split tasks and assign different deadlines and workers to each sub-task.
  • Views and visualizations: You should also be able to see your tasks and projects in different views, like Kanban dashboards or Gantt charts. You may find these to be limited in free versions of some platforms, so check price plans to ensure you’re getting what you need.
  • Integration: If you have any existing software or hardware in use for your business, such as finance and accounting apps, design tools or communication platforms, it’s worth seeing if these will plug into the task management software you want. It helps keep everything synchronized and centralized.
  • Tracking and reporting: Your task manager should also allow you to track task and project progress against deadlines and objectives, as well as generate reports. 
  • Automation: Some platforms will even offer automation services that let you set up automatic tracking and reporting.
  • Collaboration: Lastly, if you’re managing a team’s workload, it’s vital they can work together, so look for task management software that allows for communication and role delegation.

Ease of use

Some task management tools will be relatively simple and easy to use, with intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces that allow for straightforward organization. However, others offer more complex capabilities, including multiple views like Gantt charts, calendars, lists and galleries, automated reporting and collaboration between multiple team members. 

Consider what you’ll need the software for, how many people and tasks you’ll be managing and what kind of insights you’ll want when making your choice.

Security 

You should also factor in any security requirements you might have, especially if you’re a big organization or you use third-party apps, providers or even freelancers. Being able to control access on multiple levels may be particularly important. Additionally, consider things like two-factor authentication, secure sharing and data protection when choosing platforms.

Customer service

If something goes wrong with your task manager, it can affect your business’s ability to complete projects and assure stakeholders of progress. Customer service is a key part of being able to resolve issues, so look for providers that offer both round-the-clock availability and instant contact by phone or live chat as a priority.

How much does task management software cost?

When looking for free task management software, consider whether it’s truly free forever — meaning you’ll have access to all the features on the free plan forever without having to pay. 

While this might mean many advanced features are hidden behind paywalls, you’ll at least be able to rely on the software for your basic needs without restriction. This is in contrast to free trials that often give you access to the entire platform for a limited time, after which you won’t be able to use it without paying.

If you’re looking to try a free plan in order to get a feel for a specific task management software before committing to a paid plan, you’ll likely be more on the lookout for usability as well as scalability. Consider which paid plans offer the most bang for your buck to narrow down your options, but focus on which free software feels the most natural to use for your business. 

You may find that some software platforms offer prices on a per-user basis while others offer a set number of users for each plan. Others may even have a minimum-user requirement, so if they charge a set price per user and require at least three users, you’ll need to pay three times the price you see given as a minimum.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

The best free task management software will depend entirely on your needs and requirements as an individual or business. ClickUp and Notion both offer great customization features, with Notion especially good for content creators.

Paid task management software plans offer a range of extra benefits, including more users or projects, additional features and advanced integrations and security. These will often be more useful for bigger teams and companies managing complex projects with multiple moving parts and stakeholders that need to be kept informed. 

When prioritizing tasks in project management, you should consider the resources available, any dependencies on the task being completed and the urgency of the request. 

Task management software lets you manage multiple tasks at work by allowing you to create, organize and assign tasks, set deadlines, track progress and, if required, add sub-tasks. All tasks are kept in one place and accessible for anyone who needs to see them, often in digestible formats like calendars, boards and timelines.

Improving task management skills will require you to be disciplined and attentive to detail in order to get the best from task management software and boost your productivity. You should: 

  • Focus on prioritizing tasks on your to-do list.
  • Create a manageable schedule for delivery with realistic deadlines. 
  • Ensure you’re communicating with stakeholders to keep everyone on the same page.

The best software will make this easy and help you manage your workload efficiently and effectively — but it’s made even easier when you know you’ve picked the right task management software for your requirements.

Blueprint is an independent publisher and comparison service, not an investment advisor. The information provided is for educational purposes only and we encourage you to seek personalized advice from qualified professionals regarding specific financial decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Blueprint has an advertiser disclosure policy . The opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the Blueprint editorial staff alone. Blueprint adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. The information is accurate as of the publish date, but always check the provider’s website for the most current information.

Mehdi Punjwani

Mehdi is a writer and editor with many years of personal finance expertise under his belt. He's a spirited money-saver, with a passion for making personal finance accessible and manageable. When he isn't writing, Mehdi likes to read about history and travel, hike along coastlines and in forests, and watch his beloved team Manchester United underperform.

Sierra Campbell is a small business editor for USA Today Blueprint. She specializes in writing, editing and fact-checking content centered around helping businesses. She has worked as a digital content and show producer for several local TV stations, an editor for U.S. News & World Report and a freelance writer and editor for many companies. Sierra prides herself in delivering accurate and up-to-date information to readers. Her expertise includes credit card processing companies, e-commerce platforms, payroll software, accounting software and virtual private networks (VPNs). She also owns Editing by Sierra, where she offers editing services to writers of all backgrounds, including self-published and traditionally published authors.

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    A task management system (TMS) should take care of all aspects of a task construction and its operation. A task which is supposed for our DSS (actDSS) consists of integrated models, solvers, graphical models for imput and output, various data models connected a data base and others. The organization of these subsystems is a task. A task management system (TMS) should take care of all aspects ...

  8. Team Dynamics in Hospital Workflows: An Exploratory Study of a

    Early work on desktop computer-based task management systems includes TaskManager , a system implemented at Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand. Their study shows that having the task management application connected to the hospital's Patient Management System increases the ease of task creation and results in effective communication.

  9. Task management system

    Abstract A task which is supposed for our DSS (actDSS) consists of integrated models, solvers, graphical models for imput and output, various data models connected a data base and others. The organization of these subsystems is a task. A task management system (TMS) should take care of all aspects of a task construction and its operation.

  10. A study on task management system

    " Task Matrix" helps teams to define the tasks using "Eisenhower matrix" and share it across easily and helps project management team and fellow team members to organize task effectively. Every project or event involves series of tasks, activities, people, budget and deadlines. No matter how big or small the project is, the success or failure of the project depends on the execution ...

  11. Strategic Management Journal

    Using an organization design lens, we explore how key characteristics of both task systems and their associated resources may benefit firms. We unpack task system interdependencies by studying the interaction of decentralization and complexity, examining resource fungibility and resource slack, and exploring their joint alignment.

  12. Intelligent task management platform for health care workers

    Abstract. The medical staff in a hospital could benefit from a specialized task management system, considering their high workload covering different patients. This article presents an intelligent task management platform that automatically prioritizes and (re-)assigns tasks to the appropriate caregivers based on the current health care context ...

  13. What a to-do: studies of task management towards the design of a

    Abstract and Figures This paper reports on the results of studies of task management to support the design of a task list manager. We examined the media used to record and organize to-dos...

  14. Survey of Web-Based Project Management System

    Abstract: A project management system is a means of project planning, organizing, and managing its different required aspects. Many researchers have used many techniques for automating the project management system by providing features such as real-time tracking, scheduling, and task management. Task management is the prime features of the ...

  15. PDF Online Task Management System (OMTS)

    Abstract -- The Online Task Management System is designed from day to day working of department of a college. The project provides online platform to accomplish day to day department level task and provide information of the task to specified user. Admin can assign task, give notification and adds different users in this project.

  16. Task management system for work: definition and examples

    Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle: from planning, testing and tracking, to reporting on the outcome. It involves managing all aspects of a task, from its status and priority to the time spent, people involved, and finally, financial resources needed.

  17. Employee Task Management System: Everything You Need To Know

    A task management system refers to monitoring a project's tasks via analyzing various stages from start to end. The management system involves actively making decisions to accommodate the changes occurring in real-time to accomplish the tasks. Every scope, resource, budget, recurrence, etc., gets monitored through the task management system .

  18. Task Management System

    1. Every project has some number of tasks and employees. All tasks under a project can only be handled by these employees. 2. A task is assigned to only one employee at a time. Task can be forwarded to other employee of that project. 3.

  19. Smart Task Board: Complete web accessible solution to modern task

    Abstract: Task management systems are a crucial way of tracking daily work to increase efficiency and produce higher throughput, used by all people from different walks of life.

  20. Online Task Management System

    Abstract. The Online Task Management System is designed from day to day working of department of a college. The project provides online platform to accomplish day to day department level task and provide information of the task to specified user. Admin can assign task, give notification and adds different users in this project. ...

  21. (PDF) Web-Based Student Task Management System

    Abstract and Figures Task management systems are usually used by the project development teams to track their tasks from beginning to end, delegate subtasks to teammates, and set...

  22. Best Free Task Management Software in 2024

    ClickUp's free platform gives you a highly capable and customizable task management platform with an unlimited number of tasks and members. It also offers 24/7 customer service on all plans.

  23. (PDF) Task Management System (TMS) for University of ...

    Abstract and Figures To provide the student of University of Malaya a tool to enable them to keep track of their research studies Task Management System (TMS) has been developed. TMS is a...

  24. High-Performing Multi-Task Model of Urinary Tract Dilation (UTD ...

    Abstract. Objective The urinary tract dilation (UTD) classification system provides objective assessment relevant to hydronephrosis management for children. However, the lack of uniform language regarding UTD in radiology reports leads to significant difficulty in both clinical management and research.

  25. PDF Web-Based Student Task Management System

    Task management systems are usually used by the project development teams to track their tasks from beginning to end, delegate subtasks to teammates, and set deadlines to make sure projects...