Task Management: Tips, Best Practices, Tools & More

Ever wonder how the most productive teams actually get so much stuff done without constant chaos?

High-performing teams haven't achieved success by accident. They've done it by organizing their work - scheduling tasks, setting clear priorities, and tracking progress so they're productive and reaching their goals without burnout or confusion.

This way of thinking is the crux of task management. After all, everybody has the same amount of hours in their day (168 hours weekly, roughly 40-50 for work), but it's how you organize those hours that determines how much you actually get done - and whether you're working on the right things at the right time.

The way we organize our working days comes down to strategy and systems. Some people will stick to a to-do list (pen and paper or simple apps), while companies may find it more useful to use task management tools (software platforms with assignment, tracking, collaboration, and reporting) to organize their work and coordinate teams. In fact, companies that use techniques like task management spend 28x less money than those who try to deliver projects without a real plan or strategy - the cost of chaos (rework, missed deadlines, wasted effort) far exceeds the cost of organization.

As a Content Marketing Manager at Teamwork.com, I've seen how proper task management transforms team productivity - from spending 30% of time on coordination overhead (status meetings, email updates, hunting for information) to spending 10% or less, freeing up 20% more time for actual productive work.

In this piece, we're going to take a deep dive into:

• What is task management?

• Why you should start thinking about task management

• Three different ways you can manage tasks

• The advantages of using a task management tool

• How to choose the right task management tool

Let's get organizing.

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What is task management?

Task management is the process of planning, organizing, tracking, and completing tasks from creation to delivery using clear owners, deadlines, priorities, and status tracking.

Task management isn't as complicated as it sounds. It's just a systematic way of planning how tasks are handled from the moment you create them (break project into tasks, define deliverables, set requirements) until they're completed (track progress, update status, mark done). We're talking about setting deadlines (realistic due dates with buffer for review), assigning owners (one person responsible per task - no ambiguity), prioritizing work (high/medium/low urgency, sequence by dependencies), collaborating with team members (comments, file sharing, @mentions for coordination), and creating project schedules that allow you and your team to be as productive as possible (right work at right time by right people).

When it's done well, task management allows you to:

• Manage your workload: See what's on your calendar (tasks assigned to you with due dates), what items you need to prioritize (high-priority tasks, overdue tasks, tasks blocking others), and what deadlines you have looming (upcoming due dates in next 7 days, next 30 days). This visibility prevents "I forgot about that task" surprises and helps you plan your day/week effectively.

• Boost productivity: When every task is organized (clear owner, due date, description, acceptance criteria, attached files), you'll know exactly what you need to be working on (your assigned tasks sorted by priority and due date) and what needs to get done (deliverables and requirements clearly defined). All of the information for every task will be in one place (task description, comments, files, related tasks, time tracked) instead of scattered across email, Slack, and local files - reducing time spent hunting for context from 15-20 minutes per task to under 1 minute.

• Create collaboration channels: Task management is about team management and coordination. Your team will have a better idea about who is working on what (see all assignments across team), when you expect them to collaborate on a task to get it completed quicker (dependencies show "Task B needs input from Task A owner"), and how their work connects to others' work (task relationships, project timelines). This transparency reduces coordination overhead from 30% of time to 10% or less.

• Be more time efficient: Instead of deciding what task you should do next (decision fatigue) or what is more urgent (priority confusion), task management eliminates wasted thinking time by providing clear priorities and sequences. You'll always know what you should be working on (next task in your prioritized list) - reducing decision time from 10-15 minutes per task switch to under 1 minute.

What's baffling is the number of businesses that still don't have a systematic process in place to organize and complete tasks in their pipeline - relying instead on email, spreadsheets, or verbal coordination. PMI's 2017 Global Project Management survey found that 37% of executive leaders admitted the biggest cause of failed projects was a lack of clearly defined objectives and discipline when implementing strategy.

In other words - not planning well enough. Tasks without clear owners, deadlines, or priorities create confusion, duplication, and dropped work. The cost: projects running 20-30% over timeline, 15-25% over budget, and teams spending 30%+ of time on rework and coordination instead of productive work.

Why you should improve your task management process

Ever wonder how teams like Microsoft manage to release new products and features all the time without constant chaos?

It's no accident that their 3,000-person team of developers is so meticulous that they're able to release brand new versions of every one of their projects every three weeks (rapid iteration cycles). Their tasks are managed down to the finest details with clear ownership (one person responsible per task), defined acceptance criteria (what "done" looks like), and tracked dependencies (Task B can't start until Task A finishes). Everyone knows what needs to be done (backlog of prioritized tasks), who will be doing it (assigned owners), and when tasks need to be delivered (due dates aligned to sprint cadence and release schedule).

You see, task management is just one part of the overall puzzle of project management - projects contain tasks, tasks have owners and deadlines, task completion drives project progress. MetaLab Project Manager Kyria Brown put it best when she compared the planning, completing, and delivering projects to flying a plane.

"At the most basic level, a Project Manager's role is to ensure things run smoothly so the pilots and flight crew can do what they do best while the passengers feel safe knowing they're not going to fall out of the sky or crash mid-flight," she says.

"None of us would make good pilots anymore than we'd make good designers or developers, yet as Project Managers, we get to be the shepherds of their successes and live our creative dreams vicariously through them."

However, successfully landing that plane (delivering projects on time, on budget, with quality) highlights the benefits of task management. Not only can task management help you see from 10,000 feet what everyone on your team is working on (portfolio view of all tasks across projects), but it'll also give you a better idea of their capacity (how many hours of work they have scheduled vs available - e.g., 34 hours scheduled of 40 available = 85% utilized) and what tasks they're prioritizing (see what they're working on now vs what's queued for later).

The good news is that task management isn't exactly rocket science. On the surface, it involves three simple steps:

• Step #1. Create tasks: The first step is unpacking a project and creating individual tasks to deliver it (break "Launch Product X" into tasks like "Write product copy", "Design landing page", "Set up analytics", "Create social posts"). Once you know what these tasks are, you can turn them into actionable items by creating clear deliverables (what "done" looks like - e.g., "approved landing page design in Figma"), setting deadlines (realistic due dates with buffer for review - e.g., draft due Friday, review Monday-Tuesday, final Wednesday), and assigning owners (one person responsible per task).

• Step #2. Organize and prioritize: Think about every roadblock you might come up against during the project and plan accordingly. Could a team sickness derail certain tasks (if designer is out, which tasks are blocked)? Does your team have the capacity to get them all done (total task hours vs available team hours - e.g., 200 hours of tasks but only 160 hours of team capacity = need to cut scope or extend timeline)? Schedule the tasks on your team's schedule based on who has spare time (people under 75% capacity get new tasks, people over 90% don't) and relevant skills (assign design tasks to designers, writing tasks to writers).

• Step #3. Monitor and update: Here's where task management really comes into play. Once a project kicks off, you can use task management to monitor each task (track status changes, see progress updates, identify blockers) and change things in real-time (adjust priorities, reassign work, extend deadlines) as reality unfolds. If a team member is running behind (task 50% complete but 80% of time consumed = projected overrun), you can re-allocate a task to another team member (someone with capacity and relevant skills) or change task priorities so the most important gets done first (focus on client-facing deliverables, defer internal nice-to-haves).

The best way to actually manage tasks, however, is still up for debate - depends on team size, project complexity, and workflow preferences.

Key insight: Task management ROI comes from reduced coordination overhead

The value of task management isn't in the tasks themselves - it's in reducing coordination overhead. Teams without systematic task management spend 30-40% of time on coordination (status meetings, email updates, "what should I work on?" questions, hunting for information). Task management reduces this to 10-15% by providing self-service visibility (everyone sees current state without asking), clear priorities (no decision fatigue), and automated updates (notifications instead of status meetings).

• Savings: 15-25% of team time × $30-$50/hour average cost = $12-$20/hour per person saved, or $480-$800/week for a 10-person team.

• Trade-off: time invested in task management (15-30 minutes daily updating tasks, setting priorities) vs coordination time saved (2-3 hours daily on status updates and questions). ROI is 4-8× in time savings alone.

• Action: Measure your current coordination overhead (hours spent weekly in status meetings + email time on project updates + "what should I work on?" interruptions) - if it exceeds 10 hours weekly for a 10-person team, task management will pay for itself immediately.

How to manage tasks

We know you've heard it before, but it needs to be repeated - failing to plan is planning to fail. Or more accurately: failing to systematically manage tasks is planning for chaos, confusion, and coordination overhead.

It's obvious that task management is a crucial part of delivering a successful project, but it's up to you to decide which method is best for your team based on size (individuals vs teams), complexity (simple to-dos vs multi-project coordination), and workflow preferences (visual vs list-based). The most common methods for managing tasks can be put into three different categories:

• Manual: To-do lists (pen and paper or simple apps)

• Visual: Kanban boards (cards flowing through stages)

• Comprehensive: Cloud-based task management tools (assignment, tracking, collaboration, reporting)

The truth is that if you don't have a systematic way to manage your tasks (clear method for creating, assigning, tracking, and completing work), it'll be an uphill climb to get everything done on time - expect 20-30% of tasks to miss deadlines, 15-25% of effort wasted on rework or duplication, and 30-40% of time spent on coordination instead of productive work. Here are some ways to turn that pile of tasks into an organized timeline.

1. Write an old school to-do list

Ahhh, the to-do list - the oldest and simplest task management method.

It's the simplest way to manage your tasks, and the good news is that all you need is a pen and paper to create one (zero cost, zero learning curve, works anywhere). If your task list is fairly light (under 10 tasks at a time) or straightforward (no dependencies, no collaboration required, individual work only), this method may be enough for you to organize your schedule.

Simply write down each task you need to get done, add a deadline (due date), and tick them off as you complete them. The satisfaction of crossing off completed tasks provides motivation and visual progress.

If you like the idea of planning tasks on a to-do list but you want to do it digitally (sync across devices, set reminders, organize by project or context), you can use an app like Todoist (free or $4-$6/user/month for premium features). In the app, you can create tasks, set deadlines, add priority levels, organize in projects, and have access to your digital to-do list no matter where you are (phone, tablet, computer, web browser).

• The good news: To-do lists are the task management equivalent of going off-grid. You don't need an internet connection (pen and paper works offline) or to pay for an app to organize your tasks (free options available). Setup is instant (start writing, done) with zero learning curve.

• The bad news: To-do lists are very basic and if you are managing anyone other than yourself (coordinating team work, tracking others' tasks, seeing team capacity), it's not ideal. To-do lists lack collaboration features (can't assign tasks to others, can't see others' lists, can't comment or share files), visibility (can't see team workload or capacity), and integration (can't sync with projects, time tracking, or budgets). They work for individuals, not teams.

2. Use a kanban board

Kanban boards were developed in the 1940s by Toyota for manufacturing workflow visualization. In Japanese, Kanban means signboard - which is exactly what this task management system is: a visual board showing work flowing through stages.

A Kanban board is basically a digitized post-it note board with columns (workflow stages) and cards (tasks), and they normally look like this:

Managing tasks this way helps you to visualize every task inside a project and break them up into columns representing workflow stages. For example, you can use columns to represent stages of a project's workflow (To Do, In Progress, Review, Done). Inside each column will be a card that represents an individual task with details (owner, due date, description, files, comments).

Let's say your team is doing a website redesign. To get the project done, your team will have to complete tasks like selecting typefaces, collecting images, and building a mood board. Using a tool like Teamwork.com, you can organize these tasks into separate columns on a Kanban board:

Once the project kicks off and the team starts working on each task, they will slowly make their way across the Kanban board (drag cards from To Do → In Progress → Review → Done) into the completed column. Teamwork.com's automations also cut out the manual admin work by automatically re-assigning tasks (when card moves to Review, assign to reviewer) and changing due dates (when card moves to In Progress, set due date to 3 days from now) when a task moves from one column to the next - reducing administrative overhead.

However, Kanban boards do more than just keep your tasks organized visually. They can also help you spot bottlenecks (too many cards stuck in Review column = review is the bottleneck) and raise the alarm if deadlines aren't being met. If a task is overdue (due date passed but card still in In Progress), your team will get a notification automatically and you can quickly address the problem (reassign, extend deadline, escalate) before the entire project gets derailed.

• The good news: Kanban is a great way for your team to visualize every task inside a project with drag-and-drop simplicity. It gives everyone a clear idea about their workload (see all cards assigned to them), due dates (cards show due dates with color coding for urgency), and how a project is progressing (see cards moving from left to right across columns toward Done).

• The bad news: For big, complicated projects (50+ tasks, multiple team members, complex dependencies), Kanban boards can get busy and look overwhelming - too many cards to scan, hard to see the big picture, difficult to track dependencies across cards. Kanban works best for projects with under 30 tasks or teams under 10 people.

3. Use a task management tool

A task management tool is the easiest way for teams to manage multiple projects at once (5-50+ active projects with 10-100+ people coordinating work).

Not only will every team member have access to their own account (personal login with customized views), but they will be given their own schedule (tasks assigned to them with due dates), task list (all their tasks across all projects in one view), and due dates for every task assigned to them (clear deadlines with priorities). It's the easiest way for teams to collaborate (comments, files, @mentions, real-time updates) and get projects done without having to waste hours every week in planning meetings (self-service visibility eliminates most status meetings - reduce from 5 hours weekly to 1 hour or less).

You will also have a 10,000-foot view over every project in your pipeline with portfolio dashboards. A task management tool shows every task and which team member is working on them so you can better estimate your capacity for future projects (see total hours scheduled vs available across team), and you can also schedule people to work on multiple projects at once (allocate designer to 3 projects simultaneously - 20 hours on Project A, 10 hours on Project B, 10 hours on Project C = 40 hours total).

• The good news: Task management tools are perfect for teams who need to collaborate on projects (5+ people working together) and plan tasks based on capacity (see who has bandwidth for new work vs who's at 100%+ utilization). They provide features impossible with to-do lists or Kanban boards alone: cross-project visibility, resource management, time tracking, budget tracking, reporting, and integrations.

• The bad news: These tools will probably cost a little more than a pen and paper - typically $5-$50/user/month depending on features. However, the cost is offset by time saved (10-15 hours weekly on coordination) and improved delivery (20-30% fewer missed deadlines, 15-25% fewer budget overruns).

The advantages of using a task management tool

When it comes to managing tasks at a team level (coordinating 5-50+ people across multiple projects), it's a bit different from managing a shopping list (individual to-dos with no dependencies or collaboration).

Small businesses managing tasks (5-10 people, 3-5 active projects) will look a lot different from companies with 50 projects in their pipelines (50+ people, complex dependencies, multiple stakeholders). Even so, managing tasks using methods like spreadsheets (manual updates, version chaos, no real-time sync), whiteboards (not accessible remotely, no history, gets erased), and post-it notes (falls off wall, no digital record, can't search) can be a recipe for disaster - expect 20-30% of tasks to fall through cracks, miss deadlines, or get duplicated.

Nobody wants to walk into the office on Monday morning and find this chaos.

The big pull of investing in a task management tool is that it helps deliver projects successfully by recognizing that task management is team management - coordinating who does what, when, and how across multiple people and projects.

Before Telecommunications company Strencom started using a task management tool, they were trying to deliver hundreds of projects by using traditional tools like email (task assignments buried in threads), spreadsheets (manual task lists with no real-time updates), and documents (project plans that became outdated immediately).

Not only were they struggling to deliver all of their projects on time (missed deadlines, unclear priorities, coordination chaos), but their communications with clients also suffered (clients constantly asking "what's the status?" because they had no visibility). The company's Director of Operations, Colum Buckley, says the company reached a point where managing projects using email and spreadsheets had become a total nightmare - spending more time on coordination than delivery.

So, they started searching for a task management tool that would keep tabs on deliverables, tasks, and deadlines, as well as involving their clients in the process (client access to see project progress without constant status update requests).

The company invested in Teamwork.com. Not only does the tool give them real-time insight into their pipeline (see all projects, tasks, deadlines, and team workload in dashboards), but it involves their clients, who can now track their project's progress without the need for an official update from a project manager (clients log in, see current status, reducing "what's happening?" emails by 70-80%).

The result?

Strencom has tripled its NPS score (Net Promoter Score - a metric used to measure customer loyalty ranging from -100 to +100, with scores above 50 considered excellent) in just five years - from roughly 20 to 60+ (specific numbers not disclosed but "tripled" indicates significant improvement).

"Not only are we completing more projects in less time, but we're getting a reputation for on-time delivery and reliability," Buckley says.

"Our project delivery is now a real value add, which is good for us in Operations and for everyone in the business."

How to choose the right task management tool

Picking the right task management tool for your specific needs is super important, so you need to do your research and understand your requirements before evaluating tools.

Some tools out there are basic (Trello with visual boards, Todoist with simple lists), and others have everything but the kitchen sink (ClickUp with 20+ features, Teamwork with project + resource + budget management). So, it's important to know exactly what you need before you invest - don't pay for features you won't use, but don't choose tools missing features you'll need in 6 months. To do that, you should compile a "must-have" features list by asking yourself:

• What types of projects do you normally have in your pipeline? (Simple campaigns with under 10 tasks = simple tools; complex client projects with 50+ tasks and dependencies = robust tools)

• Does your team collaborate often and would you benefit from features like notifications and automated triggers? (Remote or distributed teams need strong collaboration; co-located teams may need less)

• How many people are on your team? (Under 10 = simple tools like Trello; 10-30 = Teamwork or Asana; 30+ = enterprise tools) (this will impact how much the tool will cost - calculate at current size and 2× growth)

• Do you need reporting and analytics features? (Agencies billing clients need utilization and profitability reports; internal teams may need basic completion tracking only)

• Will you need time-tracking features? (Essential for hourly billing or capacity planning; not needed for fixed-fee internal work)

• Would you benefit from project templates to improve your task management? (Recurring workflows save 30-45 minutes per project setup with templates)

• Will the tool integrate into your existing tech stack? (List must-have integrations - Slack, email, calendar, CRM, accounting - and verify tool supports them natively)

Whatever task management tool you pick, make sure that it ticks all of the boxes on your list (prioritize must-haves over nice-to-haves) and doesn't break the bank (calculate total cost including software + integrations + implementation time)!

For more details about getting started with a task management tool - check out Teamwork.com.

Task management tool comparison: Which type fits your needs?

• Simple visual boards (Trello, Notion Kanban): Best for small teams (under 10 people) managing simple projects (under 20 tasks per project). Pros: fast setup (under 30 minutes), low cost ($0-$10/user/month), visual and intuitive (drag-and-drop cards). Cons: limited features (no time tracking, no resource management, no budgets, weak reporting), doesn't scale well (gets messy with 30+ tasks or multiple projects). Choose if you want simplicity over features.

• Comprehensive project + task tools (Teamwork.com, Asana, Monday, ClickUp): Best for teams (10-50+ people) managing multiple projects with collaboration, reporting, and integration needs. Pros: full feature set (tasks, time, budgets, resources, reporting, integrations), scales well (handles 50+ projects and 100+ people), unified platform (everything in one tool). Cons: higher cost ($10-$50/user/month), steeper learning curve (1-2 weeks to feel comfortable), more complexity than simple teams need. Choose if you manage multiple projects, need reporting, or require integrations.

• Specialized task tools (Todoist, Things, Microsoft To Do): Best for individuals or small teams (under 5 people) needing personal task management. Pros: simple and focused (just tasks and lists), low cost ($0-$6/user/month), fast and lightweight. Cons: limited collaboration (basic or no team features), no project management (can't track budgets, resources, or timelines), no reporting. Choose if you're managing personal work or very simple team coordination.

• Decision rule: individuals = specialized tools (Todoist); small teams with simple projects = visual boards (Trello); teams managing multiple projects = comprehensive tools (Teamwork.com, Asana).

Key insight: Task management tools should match your coordination complexity

Choose tools based on coordination complexity, not team size alone. A 20-person team working independently (each person has separate projects, minimal collaboration) can use simple tools (individual to-do lists, light project management). A 5-person team managing 10 interconnected projects with shared resources needs robust tools (Teamwork.com, Asana with portfolios) despite small size.

• The tipping point: if you're spending 5+ hours weekly on coordination (status meetings, email updates, "who's working on what?" questions), you need task management tools with self-service visibility and automated updates.

• Trade-off: simple tools (Trello, Todoist) have low coordination overhead but can't handle complexity vs comprehensive tools (Teamwork.com, ClickUp) handle complexity but require setup and learning.

• Action: Measure your current coordination overhead (hours weekly) - if it exceeds 10% of total team time (4 hours for 40-hour team), invest in task management tools that reduce it.

Start managing tasks effectively with Teamwork.com

Teamwork.com is task and project management software built for teams managing multiple projects with collaboration, resource planning, and client coordination needs. It provides task management features (create, assign, track, prioritize, complete) integrated with project management (timelines, budgets, resources), collaboration (comments, files, proofs), and reporting (completion rates, utilization, profitability) - eliminating the need for separate tools.

Whether you're managing a content calendar (20-30 tasks per month across blog, social, email), coordinating client campaigns (50+ tasks per project with dependencies and stakeholders), or juggling multiple projects simultaneously (I manage 8-10 active projects), Teamwork gives you the visibility and control to deliver without chaos.

Start your free 30-day trial (no credit card required) or book a demo to see how Teamwork's task management can improve your team's productivity and delivery.