Handling several work items at once can feel challenging, so it’s important to outline each task and build action plans to complete each one. This ensures you finish and submit all of your work items when they’re due. Luckily, you can adopt a task management technique that supports your workflow and makes it easier for you to sort, schedule and prioritize upcoming projects. In this article, we review the different types of task management methods you can use to enhance your productivity and efficiency levels.
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Why is task management important?
Task management is important because it provides you with a strategy for completing work items within their respective deadlines. When you have your tasks outlined and prepared, you can easily know which to prioritize and complete next. Managing your tasks effectively can lead to an increase in productivity and efficiency. It also ensures you spend the necessary amount of time on each task to deliver a quality project that impresses your supervisor.
7 task management methods
Here’s a list of task management methods you can use:
1. One task at a time strategies
As you plan your day or week ahead, list your tasks and schedule a time to prioritize specific items. During this allotted time, limit any distractions by silencing your devices and turning off notifications. You can also use a public calendar to block this time out and to let other employees know that you’re working on an important task. Focusing on one task at a time allows you to place all of your energy and efforts into single items, which can reduce errors and ensure you submit a high-quality project that meets all of your client’s or supervisor’s expectations.
2. Eat the frog methods
Practicing the frog method involves completing your more time-consuming or complex work items first before moving on to easier tasks. As you build your schedule, put the items that you’re less motivated to complete at the top of your to-do list. This encourages you to complete these items when you’re most energized at the start of the day and guarantees you complete them on time. Schedule easier items to complete later in the day to encourage yourself to finish the more challenging tasks before moving on to more relaxing and simpler work items.
3. Kanban boards
Kanban methods involve building a board with columns that split your tasks into three categories: to-do, doing, and done. You can then sort your tasks into their respective categories to help you better understand what you’re currently completing and which upcoming tasks to finish in the near future. After you finish a task, you can move it over to the “done” column to better understand what you’ve accomplished.
Seeing which tasks you’ve successfully completed can motivate you to continue achieving more items and adding to this column. Most Kanban boards allow you to continue organizing your tasks further by color coding your tasks or sorting them into more specific categories according to elements like the type of client you’re submitting to or the project you’re completing.
4. Grocery lists
The grocery list technique is a more straightforward method that involves placing your tasks in a simple list and putting their due dates right next to them. This makes it easier for you to quickly see which items you have to complete next so that you can quickly move from one task to the next.
Most grocery list tasks allow you to quickly check off an item once you finish it, which can give you a satisfying feeling of knowing you’ve completed an essential task. These are typically the most effective task management methods to pursue if you only have tasks of similar difficulty levels to complete and don’t need to track your progress.
5. Rows and columns
If you have several projects and tasks to prioritize at once, you can organize them effectively by using a spreadsheet. You can place specific projects in their respective columns, and then list the action items required to complete each task. This helps you better visualize how much work, time and energy you have to spend to finish certain projects. Listing the individual tasks underneath each project can also make it feel more doable and approachable. Consider color-coding each task as well to better label the importance and urgency of each item.
7. Pomodoro Technique
An effective way to ensure you’re staying on task and are spending the right amount of time on your various work items is to use the Pomodoro Technique. This is a method that allows you to split your tasks into sections of around 25 minutes of uninterrupted time. Some tasks might take the entire 25 minutes to finish, while others might require you to spend several 25-minute time periods on them.
Set a 25-minute timer while you work on each item, and stop once the timer alerts you. Take a five-minute break before returning to the next task and working another 25 minutes. After you complete three sets of these, you can take a 15-minute break after your fourth 25-minute working period. Following the Pomodoro Technique ensures you remain on task and gives you plenty of breaks to relax your brain. You can also adjust these times according to your workflow and schedule.
7. Productivity and collaboration applications
If you’re working with a team, you can better understand what other employees are completing by adopting different types of team-based task management tools. These allow you to view the upcoming projects you and other team members are working on and the progress you’re all making on different tasks. Some of these collaboration tools allow you to comment on different tasks and hold discussions on each one. This increases communication between yourself and other team members to ensure everyone feels involved and has the necessary information and resources to contribute quality work.
I hope you find this article helpful.
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