It’s no mystery why people can’t seem to get away from using their inboxes as their personal project & task management tool; and why companies still attempt to collaborate via long over-drawn email chains. Email is well engrained into our personal and work lives, and many of our tasks arrive in the form of email — it’s a popular (and effective) way of communicating. But that’s where the line should be drawn — at communication.
Using a more sophisticated project management tool can save you a lot of time sifting through your inbox, and ultimately, leaving a lot more time to get important work done.
Email is definitely not going anywhere, and that’s probably a good thing. But we must draw the line somewhere by learning how to manage it effectively — and that doesn’t include managing tasks or projects. Here’s why:
1. It’s a constant challenge
I have no doubt anyone reading this is familiar with the struggle of trying to keep their inboxes at zero, or at least something close to it. But the hard truth is that emails are constantly flowing in and no matter how many emails you deal with or erase, you’re bound to get just as many back in your inbox.
2. Endless distractions
Most would agree that they check their emails WAY too often. Imagine the time it takes to check an email, process it, respond to it and then attempt to get back to what you were doing before. Ultimately, emails take people out of the zone and prevent them from getting into a flow.
3. Hard to find
It can take a lot of time to sift through emails to find that certain piece of information that now seems to elude you. Keeping track of documents and tasks in your email is a pretty good way to get mixed up and lose information. Much of what is sent out in emails gets lost into a seemingly black hole. The great thing about taking these kinds of communications to a project management tool, is that exchanges are documented and can easily be found.
4. Stakeholders in the dark
Sending documents and updates over email results in leaving most project stakeholders in the dark on status updates. All those who weren’t included in the email thread won’t be kept in the loop on pertinent matters. On the contrary, updating the project details in a proper system makes it easy and time effective for keeping stakeholders up to speed.
5. Pertinent background info
Emails don’t contain all the history and background information to set the context of what you’re trying to communicate. In a PM tool, the trails of information are all there and the system does all that “background ” work for you.
Project Management Tools to Replace Your Email Threads
Project management software can do what your email threads cannot: display disparate project information in a central place that is accessible to all the relevant stakeholders and team members.
1 Wrike
Wrike is the most powerful work management platform on the market, enabling teams to plan projects and collaborate in real time. Our award-winning software is trusted by 20,000+ companies across the globe, including Sony, Estée Lauder, and Siemens.
Wrike’s customizable features include Gantt charts, request forms, dashboards, cross-tagging, time tracking, and proofing. Integrate with 400+ apps from the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce. Automate repetitive tasks and achieve 50% faster planning. Work from anywhere with 100% access to your files via our mobile and desktop apps.
Whether you’re a small startup or an established brand, Wrike has the solution for you. Paid plans start at $9.80/user/month. Join our community of 2.3 million — start your free two-week trial today.
2 monday.com
monday.com Work OS is an award-winning no-code work management platform that helps teams manage projects and workflows more efficiently.
Used by 152,000+ customers worldwide, this fully customizable software lets you plan, manage, and track every project in one place. monday.com offers time-saving and easy-to-use features such as automations, time tracking, document sharing, and real-time collaboration. Multiple board views such as Gantt and Kanban help you structure and navigate tasks and projects the way you prefer, and dashboards give a high-level overview of your progress.
In addition, integrations with apps such as Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and Excel, allow you to easily continue working with your favorite tools from within the platform. monday.com also offers dedicated solutions, such as monday dev and monday sales CRM, designed to answer the needs of specific industries.
3 Smartsheet
Smartsheet is a leading work execution platform that has real-time work management features, collaboration and automation tools. Users are presented with a familiar and easy-to-use spreadsheet-like interface. However, it has enterprise-grade capabilities that even Fortune 500 companies like Cisco, Bayer, HP, and PayPal are confident to adopt in their business. Strong project management features enable teams to utilize different views of real-time data, and switch easily from Gantt, card, grid and calendar views. Smartsheet has automatic update requests, and can be used for waterfall and agile projects, product launch, sprint planning, and more. The resource management feature provides users the visibility who is busy, and who is not, in real-time. They can also attach files, share sheets, get notified, view the activity log, export, email, and print.
4 Productive
Start and deliver each billable and non-billable service by centralizing communication. Collaborate with teammates on tasks in real-time, streamline best practices, and let clients in on progress.
Stop spreading work across platforms. Subscribe to tasks to track progress, assign date ranges and deadlines, and check granular steps off with TODOs.
5 Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects is an online project management application that helps its users to plan projects, collaborate with employees and clients, keep track of time, manage documents, and generate charts and reports. Users work on a central platform where they can keep track of progress, discuss ideas, communicate easily and stay updated. It is cloud-based and highly accessible, where user data is kept safe with stringent security systems. The software is also scalable depending on the number of projects, with the option to add more features. Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management tool that helps you plan your work, track it efficiently, and collaborate with your team wherever they are.
