As your business grows, so does your to-do list. Keeping on top of deadlines, tracking projects, juggling meetings and managing assignments can make even the most organized entrepreneur feel overwhelmed.
With the right task management system, however, you can see all your projects in one place, stay organized, and set you and your team up for success. From a basic calendar system to the most comprehensive project-tracking tool, the choices for task management systems seem endless. How do you know which system is best for you and your business?
To help you decide, we asked the experts at YEC to share the task management systems that have helped keep their companies on the path to success. These answers are provided by members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization that comprises the world's most successful young entrepreneurs. YEC members represent nearly every industry, generate billions of dollars in revenue each year and have created tens of thousands of jobs. Learn more at YEC.co.
1. Outlook
"I prefer to use Outlook to manage my tasks. I spend a lot of my day using Outlook as my email software and find it more efficient to use one program, rather than having to juggle across multiple platforms. Additionally, Outlook can easily be accessed from the cloud and my mobile devices. Also, it has great features for automatic reminders with a lot of customizable options." – Matthew Podolsky, Florida Law Advisers P.A.
2. Noto
"Like many people, I see my inbox as a to-do list. This sounds crazy, but my No. 1 way to improve my task-management flow is with an app called Noto that lets me instantly email myself notes, reminders or anything else that I need to take care of. You have to try it to truly understand the power and value of the tool." – Ryan D. Matzner, Fueled
3. Trello
"I love how easy it is for me to organize and share Trello cards. This bulletin board-style organization web app allows me to pin 'cards' with specific tasks to different columns, or lists, that I've assigned to other team members. This way, I can prioritize tasks, track their progress with checklists and communicate with all the team members involved with individual comment sections." – Bryce Welker, Crush The CPA Exam
4. Monday.com
"Our company uses Monday.com for task and project management. Departments have visibility into another department's projects, which makes collaboration a lot easier. You can just check a Monday.com board and see what a department is working on. Monday.com is also great for assigning tasks and tracking project requests from other departments. You'll have full visibility into what everyone is working on." – Suneera Madhani, Fattmerchant
5. Asana
"Asana is perfect for small to midsized businesses that need to track and delegate tasks. It's easy to see what tasks are due, who they're assigned to and when, making it easy for streamlined collaboration and task completion. You can look at archived projects to refer to, stay on top of pesky deadlines and keep everything in one place using just one app." – Blair Williams, MemberPress
6. MeisterTask
"Our company has utilized just about every task management software in the market. We currently use MeisterTask, and it is incredible. We find the most effective software uses Kanban boards, and Meistertask's task flow is the best. The ability to create multiple boards allows us to separate and control projects. The dashboard keeps us organized and up to date on what needs to be done and when." – Brian Greenberg, True Blue Life Insurance
7. Smartsheet
"Smartsheet is a collaborative platform that lets you and other team members work on projects together. You can upload existing projects you've already started or create them right in the platform. I love that it's so easy to use, so getting used to its interface doesn't take much time at all. It's great for remote teams who may not have the option of physically working together to stay organized." – John Turner, SeedProd LLC
8. Momentum
"Momentum is a Chrome extension that personalizes a dashboard with widgets and functions that greets me every day, depending on the time of day, [with] a different beautiful scenery from around the world, the time, my laundry list of action items and deliverables, a quote, and asks me to answer what my main focus is for the day. Momentum is more for personal accountability on top of used team applications." – Rana Gujral, Tize Inc.
9. Wrike
"Wrike is a task management system that's useful for both co-located and remote teams to collaborate productively. I like it because I can easily keep track of projects and their progress in real time so I know how the workflow is going. It also comes with built-in analytics so you can see how well each team member is performing and who may need a better strategy to complete their work." – Chris Christoff, MonsterInsights
10. Wunderlist
"Aside from using a collaborative platform for business, I like to have a separate app for myself to remember all the tasks I need to complete that day. To do this, I use Wunderlist, which is free and easy to use. It was voted App of the Year by Apple and helps me stay on top of my to-do list and keep me productive. You can also share your list with others if you need to." – Jared Atchison, WPForms
11. Business Calendar
"My favorite app when it comes to managing such a busy schedule is the Business Calendar app. It is a paid app that allows you to block off time for events in different colors. As far as tasks, this app has a very easy way for you to input tasks and also schedule them right there in that day. That way, you are actively blocking off time that you will perform this task and set reminders." – Julian Montoya, JM11 Investments
12. Teamwork
"We've been using Teamwork for quite some time now, and we're very happy with it. It allows us to create projects and tasks, and assign clients and team members to them. We can also track time spent on each project or task from a team member, which helps when it comes to invoicing. Teamwork also has integrations with various other tools we use, such as Slack or Chrome, so it's awesome." – Amine Rahal, Little Dragon Media
13. Google Calendar (Tasks)
"Since I'm a Gmail and Android user, I have found Google Calendar's seamless integration to be helpful for my task management. It's always accessible, and I can create alerts throughout the day. Adding a task takes seconds, and I start every morning by reviewing both my meetings and tasks for the day all in one place so I'm ready to start rocking and rolling on a productive day." – Andy Karuza, FenSens