Many of us use project management software to collaborate with teams, but when it comes to individual usage, we still rely on sticky notes or several disconnected tools like email and spreadsheets. Most of our information, tasks, and to-dos aren’t in the same place, yet we’re still hoping we can stay organized and manage our project successfully.
We’ll let you in on a little secret — it doesn’t have to be this way! From home improvement projects to freelance assignments, we can also use project management software for individual usage and reach our goals.
Let’s dive into the benefits, use cases, and specific features to look for in personal project management software. We’ll also introduce the staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud Work OS and compare it to other leading tools so you can pick the perfect PM software for you.
Get startedWhat is personal project management software?
Project management software is made up of all the platforms and tools that help managers and teams plan, coordinate, and complete projects from start to finish.
Project management software for individuals has the same purpose and many of the same features as platforms built for bigger teams. One key difference is that because these softwares are built for one or two people, it’s a more affordable (or even free!) for those wanting to keep track of their daily activities, responsibilities, deliverables, and, of course, projects.
Some of the features of project management software for individuals include:
- Unlimited boards or spaces to plan and track work
- Customization features that allow you to take notes, keep track of information, upload images, and more
- Ways to organize your boards (whether that’s by including places to attach links, files, text, formulas, dates, and more)
When working with larger teams of three and above, it might be best to choose software that can scale as you grow, includes more automations and integrations, streamlines team management, and offers advanced reporting and analytics.
So how can you know whether a project management software for individual use is right for you? Let’s take a look at a couple of use cases.
Use cases for project management software: Personal and professional needs
There are several ways to use project management software for individuals. We’ll focus on two scenarios where you can get the most out of the technology: personal projects and professional scenarios where you might want a customizable workflow to manage a job.
We’ll break down both scenarios and how the software can help you stay organized, manage tasks, and track work.
1. Managing personal projects
You can use a personal project management tool for daily to-do lists, planning a budget, creating a diet plan, preparing a family schedule, and any other personal tasks you can think of.
Below are a few key features of personal project management software that could help facilitate a smoother move:
- Multiple view types: Different view types allow you to visualize your tasks and items in whatever way suits your personal needs best. Many top personal project management software offers view types such as Kanban view, Calendar view, or Gantt view.
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Pre-built templates: Pre-built templates do all of the organizational work for you, you just need to input your information. With templates, you won’t have to create a personal project management layout from scratch.
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Custom fields: The most robust platforms will let you create checklists, embed your view into the doc, or attach it as a file so your projects are always accessible. This will help you connect and execute ideas and workflows all in one place.
With access to the above features, you can easily complete a personal project of any size on time, on budget, and as smoothly as possible.
Get started2. Managing professional workflows
You can also use personal project management software to manage your professional workflow. You’ll likely need the above key features, but you may also want a few extras to really maximize productivity and efficiency.
These extras will help you keep collaborators in the loop, calculate your rates, and keep an eye on how much time it takes you to complete a given task. Let’s go over a few of these features that will manage your work.
Collaboration features: If you’re freelancing, it’s important to update your editors on your progress and give them one place to find all of your notes, sources, and assets. It should be easy to give people access to edit, comment on, and track live changes on your workflows.
- Time tracking: This feature is great for when you’re working on multiple projects at once and need to understand how to best delegate your time and resources. With a time tracking feature, you can track time live by pressing a play button to start and end a timer.
- Formula column: Different projects require different rates. A formula column helps you keep track of complex numbers such as an hourly rate for each project.
Effective project planning isn’t just about advanced features. There are other factors you should consider when working with these platforms.
7 best personal project management tools
Now that we’ve covered some use cases and delved into what to look for in a project management tool, we’ll briefly touch on a few of the brands you may discover during your research.
All of these tools are created to help you manage your tasks and complete projects. Topping off the list is the staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud Work OS.
1. staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud
Thousands of users rely on the staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud Work OS to manage individual projects. With 200+ free templates and an intuitive UX, users can easily input their project information and get started right away.
With staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud, you can manage, and optimize workflows using automation, integrations, templates, multiple board views, and much more. A highlight of staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud is that it offers hybrid project management methodologies and features like Kanban boards and Gantt charts to make sense of your workflows. Try staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud if you want to manage multiple projects using advanced features and centralize your work by integrating with other tools you use.
Get started2. Smartsheet
Source: Smartsheet
Smartsheet is an online app for managing and tracking collaborative work. Heavily influenced by the structure of spreadsheets, Smartsheet is especially helpful for those who know their way around an Excel sheet. It lets you capture and track your plans with a rich set of workflows and reports.
Charts, cards, and dashboards on Smartsheet have limited customization features.
3. Asana
Source: Asana
Asana is a tool that can be used as a personal task management tool. It is available as both web and mobile applications. Asana helps organize, track, and manage your individual projects. It has a clean interface and you can organize your projects as sections, tasks, and subtasks.
Asana also comes with advanced task-planning features and elements like color coding, tags, and multiple views. It is suitable for both day-to-day task tracking and work projects.
Asana has very few templates to choose from and you’ll have to start from scratch. Getting set up can be overwhelming for beginners.
4. ClickUp
Source: ClickUp
ClickUp is a tool that comes with deep and rich customizations which can be used by individuals to manage projects. It’s available on the web, iOS, and Android. With its flexible drag-and-drop interface, you can easily customize a dashboard to keep track of your personal activities.
One of ClickUp’s top features is that you can get a bird’s eye view of your work progress with a wide range of custom charts. This is a great tool to use if you want to manage multiple personal projects or tasks simultaneously.
Some users report that certain features like time-tracking are not fully-functional and are too basic.
5. Notion
Source: Notion
Notion is an easy-to-use personal project management tool with a clean and uncluttered interface. It’s available on both mobile and web applications. With Notion, you can determine how complex or simple your project tracking dashboard should look — you can use it as a straightforward text editor or customize it further.
You can choose between basic blocks or databases. The former is for simple tasks, while the latter is for work that includes many steps.
The Notion mobile app is not as intuitive as the desktop version.
6. Wrike
Source: Wrike
Wrike is a personal project management software that has an interactive spreadsheet-like interface. It offers the flexibility of a spreadsheet with columns for every info you want to track. It has an interactive board, time-tracking features, Gantt boards, and other advanced features.
Wrike’s straightforward UX and Spaces system allows users to group projects together, though it is on the expensive side once you start looking at advanced features.
This is a great option if you like the spreadsheet view and you’re just looking for additional features to manage your personal tasks.
Wrike has fewer automations available as compared to other tools.
7. ActiveCollab
Source: ActiveCollab
ActiveCollab is a project management software for individuals and small teams. It’s available on web, Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
You can integrate and manage client tasks in one place along with your personal tasks. So it’s a great option to manage your side hustles. ActiveCollab has a simple interface and also comes with standard project management features like time-tracking, categorizing, and collaboration.
It is less flexible when setting up tasks, subtasks, or categories.
What to look for in a personal project management software
When choosing a software solution to manage project planning and collaboration, you want to look beyond surface-level features and sales pages. Let’s take a look at several factors to consider when choosing your project management software for individuals.
1. Excellent customer reputation
What do existing customers think of the software? When managing your work, you want a reliable vendor that can fix any bugs immediately.
One way to assess the software’s reputation is to check out third-party review sites like Trustpilot and G2 Crowd. Here, you can get a sense of what customers love about the software and even gain insights into potential challenges as well.
Sifting through both positive and negative reviews will help you get a feel for the platform’s strengths and weaknesses.
2. Ease of use
There’s a learning curve to using new software, but that doesn’t mean you need to lose days or weeks of productivity figuring out how to use it.
Explore platforms that have built-in templates for a variety of projects and fields (creative, software, event planning projects, and more) so you can use it right away. Platforms with an intuitive user experience also help you quickly get up and running.
3. Robust onboarding and training videos
No one wants to scramble trying to figure out how to use a platform to its full potential. And you don’t have to! Look for a solution with high-quality onboarding tutorials, videos, and step-by-step documentation so you can easily learn how to get started and make the most of the platform.
Some solutions even have daily live training webinars that help all new users learn how to master the platform.
4. A low-code/no-code platform
If you’re a developer, “low-code” capabilities allow you to build onto the platform to work faster and more efficiently. But for us non-developers, it’s important we have a no-code tool we can build and use to fulfill out needs.
The last thing you want to do is to learn a new coding language just to make the most of your software choice. A project management software tool should make your life easier, not harder.5. 24/7 support
Any project management tool is only helpful when you’re using it successfully. Support is your fail-safe, helping you fix any potential problems.
You want to work with a company that values its customers and makes you a priority, even if you’re not an enterprise customer.
That way, even when something breaks, you can quickly get back on top of your projects.
6. Completely customizable
We all work differently, so it’s important your software lets you choose how you view your work—whether it’s Kanban boards, Gantt chart, calendar, grid views, and more.
You may also want to customize board columns, statuses, how you attach files, who you share your work with, and so on. With a customizable platform, you can truly create your perfect workflow.
staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud : the perfect platform to manage personal projects
With staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud, you can manage your professional workflow, daily tasks, or any other personal projects efficiently. The customizable views staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud offers bring more clarity to whatever your plan may be.
Integrate with your favorite tools to collaborate, collect, and execute your personal projects all in one place. With advanced features like automations, color-coated columns, and customized fields available on staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud, you can create a workflow that ensures your personal projects are completed in an organized, timely manner.
FAQs
What is project management in personal life?
In your personal life, project management can look like setting goals for your learning endeavors or increasing productivity in your daily tasks by breaking them down into sub-tasks. Setting up such a structure in your personal life, can bring increased accountability and motivation.
How do you manage personal projects?
To successfully manage personal projects, you’ll need to create a strategy — create tasks and sub-tasks, assign a schedule for each day, and set deadlines. To keep track of your progress, you can use personal project management software like staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud.
What tools can be used to keep track of personal projects?
There are many tools available in the market to manage and keep track of personal projects. The most efficient among them are project management tools. These tools can help you plan projects, keep track of schedules, and boost productivity.
The right tool makes project management for individuals a breeze
Put away those spreadsheets, email threads, and physical notes and become more efficient with a smarter project management system. Even if you are a one-person operation, the right platform can transform your productivity levels.
Looking for an intuitive platform you can set up and customize in minutes?
staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud makes it easy to create the perfect platform for managing your projects, whether personal or professional. Craft custom templates and boards that reflect your unique workflow and visualize every step of the process.
Get started with our single project management template today.
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