No matter our beliefs, backgrounds, or tastes in music – we all have one thing in common.
Our time is limited.
In order to squeeze every drop out of the sacred temporal fruit we must use every second wisely.
If you’re like me, Cirillo’s famous pomodoro technique just doesn’t cut it in today’s high-velocity scramble.
And there’s no shortage on the web of informative articles preaching the tips for productivity success
Yet as our world is increasingly finding comfort in the hands of digital technology, it is not surprising that over the years the emergence of task management software has revolutionized how daily tasks are organized.
But with a humongous array of software to choose from, what are the key steps to take to ensure it is the right one for you?
The first step is ask yourself what are the tools you are looking for.
Here’s a closer look at 5 types of task management software that maximize your productivity and enhance how you manage your daily activities.
Let’s start by looking at a more modern variant of the traditional To-Do list.
As with the traditional To-Do list, the modern variants provide an excellent method of planning and scheduling tasks.
For all the Google fans, Google Tasks is a fancy add-on for Google Calendar available for both desktop and mobile devices that allows you to create your own To-Do list.
Google Tasks offers a plethora of integrations with all of Google’s fantastic features allowing you to seamlessly maneuver around your G Suite.
Not only does Google Tasks allow you to generate your list of daily tasks for a given day in a matter of seconds, but also provides the option to implement sub-tasks to your standard list.
These tasks can then be viewed directly from Google Calendar and it isn’t even necessary to keep Google Tracks open whilst you work.
Once a task has been done, it can easily be marked as ‘completed’ and the completed tasks are moved to a separate file that you can review at the end of the day.
Are you constantly being bombarded with emails and need reminding to reply to them later?
Google Tracks has a great feature of allowing you to generate a new task directly from your inbox.
You can simply go to the menu within an email and create a new task to ensure that reply to this email later, this task even includes the link to the email.
On top of that, you can ensure you meet all of your goals by tracking your progress and meeting the required deadlines. All the due dates can be specified for each of your tasks and you are notified by Google of all upcoming deadlines.
But unfortunately, the modernized To-Do list style software may fall short of expectations. Companies may find that the features are limited or rather ‘for the individual’ and may prefer software that helps then with delegating daily tasks.
Maybe it is a board-style track management system you are looking for. These types of software are particularly handy for managing larger quantities of tasks and commanding their delegation.
Software like Trello organizes the workload into manageable boards which can be easily interpreted at a glance by an entire team.
You can systematically organize countless tasks, represented by cards, into manageable lists.
This not only allows you to get a sense of the daily tasks that need completing but it also allow you to prioritize them accordingly.
Trello is particularly ideal for businesses composed of several departments that need unique attention.
Therefore, by creating a specific board for each department, the personnel can interpret the tasks that need completing.
Delegating tasks is incredibly simple with Trello.
By implementing a drag-and-drop method of organizing tasks, the cards within a board can be assigned to a specific member of the team.
Once a task has been completed, the card can be placed into the ‘Check’ file signalling that the task is finished.
Although with this type of software we have a solution to delegating daily tasks and prioritizing them, we are faced with the similar limitations as the first type of software.
Let’s move on.
If you are looking for something a bit more robust than a modernized To-Do list or task board. Evernote is a leading competitor that ticks all the boxes when it comes to reporting, collaborating, and archiving your workload.
This cloud based, cross-platform software is the digital substitute of your filing cabinet.
If you find yourself constantly drowning in notes and paperwork, Evernote is here to let you swim.
From the limited free version to the business package, all your activity is centralized on to one, simple platform and can be shared with other Evernote users, optimizing how you work together as a team.
Not only can you record all your notes in Evernote, you can bookmark all the information you need, whether its photos and videos, recordings, web-pages, articles and PDFs.
Together, these features offer a nice solution for centralizing some aspects of your daily tasks.
But from a practical point of view, all three types of software mentioned so far seem to scratch the surface of what really maximizes productivity.
So let’s dig a little deeper.
There is no doubt that the mentioned software can help you maximize productivity, but what if your business needs closer attention?
Pipedrive is a sales-driven customer relationship management software that manages leads and tracks communications with potential clients.
By removing the manual administrative tasks, Pipedrive aims to automate this process and improve and track sales performance.
Using Pipedrive, the sales team can create a profile for each (potential) client, specifying the particular needs, requirements, goals, budget, and much more. Then, it is possible to create a unique sales flow for this client, even if there are several deals or projects to be worked upon.
Within this sales flow, it is possible to see the exact stage of each deal and record every activity.
This is particularly useful when returning to them later.
Moreover, by following each client interaction, it is possible to record all the completed activity as well as notes, emails and create an activity for the next step of the sales process.
In summary, this type of software offers a more tailored approach for managing daily activities and appears to tick all the boxes.
This type of software efficiently schedules and plans tasks, tracks them, and allows effective reporting.
The previous software discussed are interesting, but what is missing?
By now you should be asking yourself: how can the management of daily activities specifically help my business?
Well, what if a software exists that centralizes all task management activities in combination with the customer relationship management aspects too?
Presenting Sengerio.
So what separates Sengerio from the rest?
Here’s a typical scenario, among your many daily activities you have constant telephone calls with clients, as well as the many emails. Not to mention the additional assistance you supply for your clients.
The flux of information is racing around your head at 100 kph. You need a way of organizing all this information and a way to systematically deal with it later.
Sengerio is a cloud-based software that offers a shared platform for passenger transportation companies and buyers.
With Sengerio, you can create, organize, and delegate all your activities for each of your services.
Why is this so important?
Given that this process is concentrated in one place completely eliminates the need to deviate away from your work.
Simply open a new activity within a booking and write the required activity. You can even set the due date for the activity, if necessary.
Moreover, Sengerio allows you to create recurring activities. This is so that for future bookings that may need the same information being relayed, you can automatically insert activities in a fraction of a second.
This can be assigned to a particular member of your team by selecting their name when creating a new activity.
The details of all your saved activities can be easily be viewed from a dedicated page, directly accessible from the main menu.
At a glance, you can understand what activities need completing, who they have been assigned to, which booking they belong too, and when they’re due.
If that’s not all, you can even see the information of an activity within the booking itself.
What else can Sengerio do?
Typically, there is a complex negotiation process behind creating a booking, whether it’s a series of phone calls or emails to decide the specific time of departure.
With Sengerio, the booking process is streamlined and both parties can visualize all the activity of that booking.
This includes any modifications, such as number of passengers or the date and time of the journey, which are communicated via messages.
For any other additional information that needs to be specified prior to a booking taking place, this can be inserted directly into the system as a note or uploaded as a separate file.
Sengerio also automatizes the process of creating a quotation. Every time you send a quotation document, you can configure up to 4 automatic follow-ups!
So Sengerio has fantastic customer relationship management tools, but how can it help with our internal organization?
For each day, the Sengerio Agenda provides you with an overview of all your services.
You can instantly visualize all the relevant information about each booking, such as the name of the customer and whether your resources have been assigned.
Alternatively, you can view this in the Scheduler to have a better perspective of your assigned resources.
Furthermore, Sengerio notifies you of any upcoming due dates.
This could be an expiring contract of one of your human resources, or that a maintenance needs to be carried out on one of the vehicles.
Sengerio has it covered.
In summary, Sengerio offers the perfect platform to establish and develop your own transport network.
Once this has been grounded, everything takes place in one system.
The simplicity of having everything in one single place means you can focus on your other priorities.
So we’ve looked at 5 types of task management software.
Each have their own advantages but, one thing is for sure, it depends on what your specific requirements are.
For those who are really aiming to achieve maximum productivity, it is without doubt that a well-rounded task management software that centralizes all their activities is essential.
But then again, the odd post-it note always comes in handy!
Still not sure?
We would love to know what you think about this article! Let us know what you think by leaving a comment underneath this post.
Try Sengerio free for 14 days and see how it can improve your business.
ABOUT MICHELE ZACCARIA
Michele Zaccaria is the CEO & Founder of Sengerio. With his desire to improve things, Michele loves to build Sengerio (simple passenger transportation software). Being a minimalist, he loves to surround himself with interesting people and to listen.