5 Task Management Apps Put To Test
A few months back I was looking into various task management apps. I came across my notes today during a desk clean-up effort and thought they’d be of use to you.
I had a few things I was looking for:
[checklist]
- The ability to “clone” a set of tasks. We use this because we have a number of procedures that are repeated again and again, whether it’s for beginning promotion of a new website or hiring a new staff member. We wanted to be able to quickly and easily create a set of tasks again and again, when the need arose.
- Multiple team members, control of which team members have access to which projects, etc.
- A “Notes” or “Blog” type area. This way I could keep all our procedures and how-to docs within the task manager itself, instead of in a separate system.
- Recurring tasks (for example, “Moderate FromIdeaToEmpire.com blog comments” should be able to be put on repeat and occur every day).
- An “Activity Stream” type of view where I can see everything (completions, deletions, task creations, comments, literally everything) the team has been up to in one place, across all projects, tasks, etc.
- Comments within a task. We use this when someone has a question, needs clarification, etc.
- The ability to create, assign and respond to tasks via email.
- An area where I can store my personal to-do’s without mixing them with the business stuff. It’s senseless for me to use an additional system just for my personal stuff – I want it all in once place.
- An iPhone app would be nice, but not a must-have.
- Must have a free trial to try it out – it’s the only way to know it’ll really work in my organization.
- It should be gorgeous. I’m going to spend a ton of time in it and I want it to look pretty!
[/checklist]
I scoured a few Facebook Groups, forums and ran a few Google searches to get a list of web based task management apps that I wanted to look into further. If your favorite isn’t on the list, it’s because I didn’t know about it, I thought it was ugly or it didn’t have a free trial to take it for a test drive.
TEAMBOX
Teambox is fun to use and has an attractive interface. It’s “Activity” tab shows me everything that has happened in my account at once glance, very important for managing my team. It also has “Pages” which allow me to keep notes and allows comments within to-do items. There are Task Templates so a set process can be entered again and again without manual intervention.
But…
There’s no such thing as recurring tasks within Teambox. So it’s dead to me. So sad, it was pretty.
DO
Do.com is pretty too, but it uses slide in-and-out panels and I find the more traditional layout in Teambox to be faster and more intuitive.
It accomplishes everythign I need, except for… again… recurring tasks.
How the hell am I supposed to remember to take a shower every Tuesday if I don’t have recurring reminders?
ACTION METHOD
ActionMethod has a lot of good stuff going for it, but it’s my least favorite so far.
Firstly, “Discussions” is seperate from individual tasks or even the project (in it’s own tab) so conversation about a project, about a to-do item occurs in a different area than the actual task itself. That’s how Basecamp used to function as well, and it’s always caused a lot of confusion for my team members. And unnecessary clicking / finding of conversations. Not a fan.
“Backburners” are a nice way to store great ideas you’re not ready to act on yet. I like the concept. And “References” is that storage area I want where I can keep notes, links, training materials, etc. for future use.
And… drumroll… no recurring tasks. Buh-bye Action Method!
ASANA
Asana is gorgeous. It’s a pleasure to use. I know I shouldn’t be biased, but I really wanted Asana to work.
When I first looked at Asana, about 3 months ago, they did not have a way to view the activity on your account. So I would have to click each project, each task, to see if my team had worked on it or open every email Asana had sent me. Not very efficient, which is why Asana didn’t work out for me at the time.
Funny thing, just about a week ago Asana announced “Inbox,” which is their name for the “Activity Stream” view I was looking for.
I’ve been taking another look at Asana because of this improved feature set.
It has recurring tasks, comments within tasks and projects can be duplicated for those procedures you do again and again. It does not have a “Notes” area to store how-to’s and other procedural information. That’s ok, but here’s the kicker:
When you make a task in Asana, it is by default unassigned. If you just make the task and hit “Enter” the task has no assignee. Since you’re then not following it or the person assigned to do it, you never see it. And in this way, I lost a bunch of to-do items I’d entered. They’re in there, but they don’t pop up under “My Tasks” or the “Inbox” view. And so they don’t get done.
A task that is created should, by default, be assigned to you until you assign it to someone else. Or at least prompt you to assign it to someone.
And that’s the bummer about Asana. Lost tasks with no owner. No bueno.
FLOW
Flow does it all, and it looks good doing it. I’ve been using Flow for about a year.
When I went looking at the systems above 3 months ago, it was because I wanted a “Notes” type of area. I found a few that did, but as you can see from my reports, they were missing other must-have features.
What I’ve done in the interim is create a task list called “Notes.” Within it I have tasks that actually contain the notes/training materials that I wanted to store in Flow. It’s a less than elegant solution, but Flow does everything else so much better than the competition I’m willing to make an adjustment or two to make it work.
Recurring tasks – no problem!
Anything I create is automatically assigned to me so it never disappears. Comments within tasks.
Tasks are put into individual task lists and task lists can be organized into folders.
Where Flow really shines in in it’s Activity Stream – it’s the bell icon in the upper left. From there I can see everything my team has done since I last logged in. I know what’s getting done and who has a question. I know if I’ve been assigned tasks from my team. All in one glance.
I keep a personal to-do list within Flow as well, and have complete control over who on my team sees what.
Finally Flow is fast. It’s not the most full-featured project management system out there – but I didn’t want that. Spending time fiddling with milestones and priority levels stops me from just DOING THE DAMN WORK.
Flow has just enough structure to help me organize the work in a way that makes sense, without so many options that I lose myself (and hours) in it, fussing.
As much as I love Flow, I know everyone’s work style is different and it may not be a match for you. What’s your favorite task management app these days?










Evernote, configured in the spirit of “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, as shown in the short video course (free) at thesecretweapon dot com.
Heady stuff. Took me a couple hours to watch the video instructions, peruse .pdf workbook and reconfigure my Evernote, per the instructions. Instant result: my email inbox is emptied, all action items from email are categorized and prioritized, as are my todos, all in one place, etc. ALL my reference items are even better organized and instantly accessible. My mind is refreshed and I feel in better control, already. Check it out for yourself. Have not thought about it in regards to using with a “team”, though that’s possible and doable, too.
Insightful, Michelle. Thanks for taking the time to share your research. I’m curious at what point you realized you needed this time of software to support your system?
Have an awesome day!
Theresa
I’ve always used something to track to to-do’s, so I’m not sure what you’re asking?
Which of these allow you to write a task without having to click a button like “New Task” first each time and wait for a window to pop up?
Like a text box you write in, and then click enter. Boom it’s posted. No loading times.
Flow does that. But you have to be in the Flow window in your browser. Not sure about the others.
Great comparison review! Unfortunately for all us Windows users Flow is only Mac based BUT lucky for you they even have an iPhone app, which was on your original list!
Flow is web based Marge. You can use it on any OS.
Michelle
First off I’ve been meaning to apply to contribute to crowd mountain and i promise I will soon. I love that idea and thought behind it. Category would be outsourcing or management.
Question. If you could track time on individual projects, see screenshots and have your people tie out to projects that you set up in one of the above task managers would that be interesting to you? We are building something and would love to give you an account to review it. It’s an add in so will integrate seamlessly with many of the top task trackers.
Also we use teamworkp for managing our people and tasks and have had success with it. Similar to basecamp. I dont like asana.
Time tracking isn’t really a feature I need, so I’m not sure it would be a match.
I love podio. It takes a bit longer to set up but I think it does a lot more things right than most
Other project apps.
YA!! I’ve been using Podio.com too!. You may want to look into it.
Just checking out Podio now… Looks amazing.
I went on a search similar to yours with a lot of the same criteria, and came up with TeamworkPM (http://www.teamworkpm.net). It has all of the features you’re looking for, and more. A couple of the things I like about it: a) you can “pin” a task list at the top. b) google docs and Dropbox integration c) responsive developers who have a somewhat public roadmap and will let you know when a feature you want will be completed.
I have always been searching for something “better” and I’m happy to say that I’ve stopped searching now that I found teamworkPM.
Didn’t like the look of it. Glad it’s a match for you though!
This is a great list Michelle! I had never heard of TeamBox before, I look forward to checking it out! I have used ActionMethod and currently using Do with one of my teams. So far I am very happy with Do and love the fact it integrates with SalesForce. I am going to check out Flow.
Keep up the great posts Michelle!
I went with ToodleDo and tried a bunch of them too. Never saw Flow, but it looks awesome.
I think everyone will have their own style and needs. Heard omni was awesome for Mac.
I also use ToodleDo and integrate to my droid with Astrid. I’ve tried everything and ToodleDo/Astrid is the best IMO for staying on task, assigning tasks, and being mobile. Chris
I use Daylite because it is functional on the Mac, networkable and has a lot of great features. Great Product! Has sales funnel and project goals. Tasks and appointments are repeatable in any configuration. stores all your contact info and you can add notes about phone calls and meetings. Take a look!
Have you tried Wrike? I would do *everything* you want. A little bit of a learning curve though.
I’ve used basecamp for years, and it’s worked very well, primarily as it “plugs in” to other online business tools such as “freshbooks” which makes the billing process incredibly easy and mostly automated. They have a lot of externally developed apps which are great for any mobile platform.
The only thing is – its a tad pricey for the low-end user.
I’m keen to have any email from specified people diverted into a project management system automatically so I can keep track of the threads of conversation easily, because people can email you outside of e.g basecamp and it’s therefore not easy to track etc…
Thanks for the post!!
Thanks for sharing your research with us. Will take a look at Flow.
Personally, I like http://deskaway.com. Has Gantt charts, which gives me a graphic timeline of all the projects/tasks progress.
Also has dependencies, which come in handy!
Howard
Thanks Michelle for a great overview of task management apps, I’m using asana right now but I’ll try to look on flow since I also like your task management system
Really like the looks of Flow. I’ve tried SO many, software and web based, but somehow have never even heard of Flow until now. Thanks!
Hi Michelle, thanks for this post. It’s a great review and I’ll be looking into the apps, particularly on Flow.
Right now I’m using Trello. It may not be specific to task management such as those in your review but I like it because it has a somewhat simple and graphical interface where you can just drag cards between process phases represented by lists. Have you ever had a try on Trello?
Thanks
I’ve been using Remember the Milk for years. It’s a fraction of the cost of Flow and works great. For me iPhone support is a must have and not optional. My tasks need to be accessible from all devices, and RTM is a pinned tab in my browser that is always up.
What I like best about RTM is smart lists, this is something most people over look and the best thing RTM has going.
I can store my items once in any list I please, then create “views” of those lists using simple or complex rules. For example I can have all my tasks in my list, then create a view that shows me only tasks that meet the following rules:
Priority 1 or 2
Due in 7 days or over due
Is tagged as Work
Now this becomes a new list (it is blue so you know it is a smart list and not a regular list) and when I click on it, it dynamically shows me the tasks that meet this criteria.
When you get creative using this feature you can trim down a 1,000 item task list down to 5 things you should be doing right now.
It also supports locations, contacts, and notes.
I am a long time user of RTM and still is one of my favorite tools.
My biggest complaint is there is no native link to Mind Manager, I do a lot of mind mapping and I do not like using tasks in my mind maps because it is double entry and they get lost. A bridge between Mind Manager and RTM would be a huge win for me and something I’ve considered making myself for a while now. For now I just keep mind mapping and actual tasks separate.
My life has changed since I started using Podio.
Not only does it do all of the things you listed above, but you can create your own apps (very simply) so tasks and workflows can be created which are custom made to the way you like to do things.
You can also export these as forms – which allows you to input this wherever you want to have people outside your system contribute data to it.
Awesome!
Michelle:
The timing of your post couldn’t be better. I’ve been looking for a task management system for the past week. I tried Asana but it drove me crazy. My needs are really basic as I’m using a simple Word doc right now with a list of tasks that I add and subtract from (what can I say, I’m old school…lol). I’ll have to check out Flow and some of the others mentioned here in the comments. Thanks for putting this list together. You just gave me a huge jump start on my continued search for the “perfect” task management system.
Travis Van Slooten
Can someone please take an in depth look at myIntervals.com software by comparison to the others listed. It looks to me like that ‘Intervals’ is the only one who closely matches the king of project planning and collaboration liquidplanner – which is quite expensive software…
Has anyone tried manymoon? Would like to know how manymoon compares to any of the above.
Tom, yes I have tried ManyMoon is actually the old version of DO (well the makers of ManyMoon say that Do is the new ManyMoon) and I think they have some affiliation or it’s powered by Salesforce. ManyMoon has a lot of great features but for task management I found that it lacked a couple basic features I was looking for even though it has some cool and useful advanced features. So I’m not sure if this helps at all but the thing I would be worried about starting with ManyMoon is if Do.com is actually their newer version (they also state that they will provide instructions on how to migrate from ManyMoon to Do in the near future) and will they stop updates, bugs, support after you’ve set up everything?
I forgot to mention I have been using Producteev for about a year and they keep coming up with great updates/features. Pretty sure it covers all of your requirements. FireTask is interesting too but I stuck w/ Producteev.
Thank you Michelle, I tried many different systems, but to see the difference in project management systems need to try and test the free version. In many known systems working together have free versions, for example on http://www.teamwox.com is implemented well. Or you can search for other systems.
Hello, I have been looking for a task management system for a long time; thanks for posting a link! This is an excellent blog post, relevant article leads into an intelligent discussion.I’ll have to check out Flow and some of the others mentioned here in the comments.You gave me a huge jump start on my continued search for the “perfect” task management system.
Thanks for the detailed outlook of the apps. I can offer you one more tool which is likely to interest you and which is free at all. This is Comindware task management system which I have been using for a long time and which I like more and more with every passing day.
Hi Michelle,
How does Flow go when we get down to the nitty gritty details? I have been wanting something to track the version numbers of my PAD files and keywords so that I can recycle the same task to go to the next version number after a certain amount of days for my workers. I still haven’t found the perfect solution yet. Any ideas whether Flow could handle this?
I’m not 100% certain on what you mean, but it’ll take attachments and very extensive details about each task, so I think it’ll work for the data you want to track.
Hi Michelle:
Your review got me thinking, so I did a little research and ended up looking at Flow, TeamworkPM, and Asana. While I really liked Flow, Asana was right there with it and its new activity view works great. Not setting a responsible person wasn’t too big a deal for me.
The big difference was in pricing and that is why I decided on Asana. Since I do a lot of outsourcing, Flow would have been way too expensive and Asana gives 30 users for free. Besides I’m a developer and Asana has a cool API should I ever need it.
Thanks Michelle! I have just found freedcamp.com. From a first glance it looks pretty powerful.
Hi! I’d like to hear your reviews on Astrid!
Thanks
I have used the Project in Zoho and I highly recommend it too. It meets almost all Michelle’s criteria (iPhone–not sure, gorgeous–depends what you like). It’s free (and frankly the whole suite of Zoho apps is Sweet). I’ve used Project to manage projects with partners and with a VA (when I had one, sigh) and it worked really well–we managed tasks, left comments, even set up a wiki with procedures for regular tasks. Good stuff for free.
Everyone!
Shoot me an email at luke[at]getflow.com if you’d like an extended trial to try Flow out.
And thanks for the write up, Michelle!
Thanks for sharing!
I recommend you Cloudship – a free web based task & note manager (http://www.cloudshipapp.com)
I just started with flow but dont see anywhere to put in a time. I see due date but no due time. I use toodledo and live on it every day. I need some stop for time, do you know a way to accomplish this.