Many people find themselves at a certain point in their life searching for a task management software to help them refocus and keep their finger tips on what is important. Task management products organize, schedule and make sure that tasks get done on time. On short it can boost your productivity. By being better organized and much more focused on what you have to do, you save time and reduce stress.

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

What exactly are users looking for?

Most of them are actually looking for a personal organizer application to place some order in their busy and messy life. “In the beginning, I somehow were able to keep everything in my own head. Then, as I began to take on more projects, I realized that I needed a task management system to help keep me organized and focused.” says Deborah Woehr a freelance researcher and writer. These personal organizers generally take the form of the so called “TO ACCOMPLISH List” applications where users create a list of tasks for which they set a start date, some deadlines and important – something very simple.

The Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology

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

Why do we need a task management application?

Every day we spend quite often on urgent but low priority tasks while the most important ones get delayed until another day. Unfortunately, that “a later date” might never arrive. The famous Pareto principle of 80/20 rule applies here: 80% of most important work gets completed in the event that you try to find out the 20% of high priority tasks. Basically a highly effective task management software must provide you with the best way to find these top 20% of important tasks for a effective project management process. It is a significant problem with task management applications: they require too much effort on users part. It is easy to spend too much time on organization, and not enough on getting things done. Way too many apps spoil the productivity. Task management apps should flow, should make with them easier than writing things down on a piece of paper.

Benefits of a task management tool

allows you to organize, assign and prioritize tasks

enables you to establish goals and milestones also to manage deadlines

you don’t need to remember all tasks and more productivity using reminders

entire work integration, effort delegation for increased efficiency and reduced costs

the breakdown of complex tasks into smaller deliverables that may be controlled with minor difficulty

A task management software is an essential component for organizational and business operations and may make managing the project simpler.