1

I am a self employed person. I don’t work in a big company or with a team of colleagues so I won’t need features that were developed for multi user collaboration as only I would be using the software.

I used to use a brilliant program (many years ago) called Task Freak - https://www.taskfreak.com/ or TaskFreak Reviews & Pricing 2024 . I abandoned it due to issues with php upgrades.

I currently create Notepad Todo lists as largely all I need is list what jobs/projects I need to do. However, this is very limited. I have found several Todo lists files in various folder locations - many of them with duplicate tasks. Also no real categorisation.

Having never used Project Management Software - I have no idea if I would benefit from Project Management software or if I just need a web based Todo list that can categorise jobs? What features (besides multi user collaboration) does project management offer over a Task Manager?

What should one consider for choosing a Task Manager or Project Management Software?

3 Spice ups
2

You want to consider:
Task assignment
Ability to set deadlines, set reminders and work backwards to estimate needed time for task.
Time estimation.
integration with collaboration tools, such as Slack and MS Teams.

I’ve worked with Basecamp, Asana, Trello, Microsoft Project and AirTable.
For most people the Asana platform is the easiest to start using. The interface is pretty intuitive, and they have a lot of tutorial support.
Forbes has a good review of how Asana compares to Trello.

1 Spice up
3

For now, it seems like your task list is relatively simple. I personally use my Outlook calendar with reminders for this type of stuff. I know others who use tasks in Outlook for this purpose.

1 Spice up
4

Project Management software is going to be very much overkill for your needs. It will include tons of charting capabilities and ways to note dependencies between multiple tasks within a larger project. There will be lots of reports for stakeholders to identify milestones met and past due.

Essentially, it will just complicate your life with very little return on investment of money and time. So, I would avoid Microsoft Project and other such applications. Stick with the more simple feature set of a Task Manager.

Here’s a recent article that reviews some options for you: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/software/best-task-management-software/

5

I will have a look at what has been listed and read articles. Looking at software mentioned will give me a better idea of what they actually do. Thanks everyone.

@davecork ​ - Email Tasks like Outlook tasks would not work for me. I have enough going on in my inbox without being inundated with tasks. Quite a few of my jobs are big projects that can take weeks. With my email, I like the zero inbox approach and 50 tasks and projects would just distract me. But I guess it works for some people.

@glenn-p ​ - Milestones is probably something that I want to consider, but again probably more like how Task Freak does it. There is something to be said for working backwards to manage how long projects take. However, with a lot of the work I am doing, I am creating/building new things, so it’s impossible to know how long it will take.

I will update later. Thank you.

6

I found this article that explains it in simple terms.

I will have a look at what they offer as well, because they explained it so well and the CEO himself said he wanted something that could be used to manage his home life as well as his work life. They also have a lot of good blogs covering Gant charts etc.

I think Task Management is 95% what I need. I can see the value of a calendar link up in terms of - This month, next month, six months etc. To try and prioritise the actual projects themselves.

7

I have not got around to looking into this further as so busy with other work. However, I will be looking at combining a Todo list with some kind of CRM that handles marketing and sales. The CRM that I am trying out for marketing and sales isn’t really suitable for my needs.