Top 5 task management tips to improve productivity

Top 5 task management tips to improve productivity

• 1. Automate repetitive tasks
• 2. Assign one owner to each task
• 3. Visualize your workflow
• 4. Don’t try to replace project management with task management
• 5. Your entire team should use the same software

Our productivity is under attack. The assailant is repetitive tasks that don’t require critical thinking or creativity. In fact, more than 36 percent of workers say they spend a minimum of one full day on tedious tasks like gathering information about the status of a project.

These five task management tips will help you and your team combat repetitive tasks and take your entire workflow to the next level.

5 task management tips to get things done faster

We’ve selected our top five task management tips that go a long way in transforming work processes and productivity so you can ultimately check more boxes on your to-do list.

1. Automate repetitive tasks

Do everything you can to support your team with automation so that repetitive tasks like data entry, status updates, and reporting happen without someone spending valuable time and attention on them.

Most digital task management tools come equipped with automation features. For example, Jotform is particularly adept at automating workflows, as well as capturing and importing data.

2. Assign one owner to each task

If more than one person owns a task, then nobody owns it. Workflows experience disruptions when two people have to stop and ask, “Who’s job is that?”

“Task management efficiency comes from removing all the extraneous steps it takes to actually do work, like determining who is assigned to a certain task or which task should be prioritized,” says Travis Haninger, VP of customer experience and cofounder at SequoiaCX.

3. Visualize your workflow

When your team can physically see the workflow each task is moving through, you’ll never again have to answer the question, “Where are we with that?” Tracking task statuses can also reveal where projects often get stuck, and you can then work to remove any existing roadblocks.

“Some tools use features like columns or cards to visualize a workflow, but kanban is the most popular task management method for visualization out there,” says Saman (Sam) Pourkermani, a director at Inspirant Group.

4. Don’t try to replace project management with task management

Project management and task management aren’t the same thing — project management tracks all of the tasks within a project to hit a specific deadline or goal, whereas task management is the ongoing management of daily activities.

“Task management can’t replace project management, even though it’s part of it,” says Andrew Graf, chief product strategist for TeamDynamix. “Even if you have a system in place to adequately manage tasks, you’ll still need a project manager to oversee critical projects from start to finish.”

5. Your entire team should use the same software

Task management works best when everyone is working in one system so that your task management software becomes a true digital workspace.

“Task management’s panacea is this concept of a digital workspace where everyone comes together to get the job done, just like they would in a physical workspace,” says Graf. 

“This means that cross-team communication doesn’t disrupt workflows — like when the marketing team needs a budget approved or the IT team needs to check the security of the engineering team’s tools.”

Jotform Tables allows teams to cross-functionally manage day-to-day tasks by collecting, organizing, and managing data in an all-in-one workspace. Tables organize different tasks and allow teams to assign owners, communicate with one another, automate repetitive tasks, and much more.

Prioritizing task management for business growth 

When your task management processes improve, your team’s productivity increases, and your business scales.

If you’re working to automate repetitive tasks, assign tasks to single owners, visualize your workflow, implement project management methodologies, and stay in one software solution, you’ll be able to level up your task management practices for better results.