A project management system, has always been a useful asset to professionals for streamlining projects. But, does it have anything to do with managing personal tasks as well? Think about a scenario, wherein you need to handle both personal and professional lives, simultaneously.
It has been a real challenge for working professionals, especially those staying alone, to come back home and take care of personal work. Even in the events like shifting a home or office, organizing social functions, etc. personal task management has always been tough.
Usually, people tend to write down a list of things on paper, or probably open up the Reminder or Notes app to jot down things. Is it always feasible? Streamlining the to-do things in personal lives is made a lot easier by a project management system.
Why is Personal Task Management so important?
A business requires a project management app to systematically arrange activities, tasks, and projects in order. An individual requires a project management system to organize things to complete, things to know, and things to ignore. Let us understand what we mean.
- Complete all the priority tasks to accomplish without fail
- Know the bits and pieces of information required to complete tasks
- Things to ignore are the non-priority tasks to carry forward if there is no time left
It is way better to have such a tool in place to keep track of things, rather than noting it on paper and then lose or forget the same. Keeping tasks organized offer a lot of benefits. However, before that, let us look at the must-have features in a project management application.
Must-Have Features within the PMS
A project management app is meant for professional use. But as we discussed, it can be used for managing personal tasks as well. There are some must-have functionalities, in a project management system, to make it viable for personal task management tool.
Mobile App – There has to be a mobile app making things portable enough to handle.
Cloud Synchronization – The system should store tasks for instant accessibility at any given place and time.
Recurring Tasks – The daily tasks will remain the same each day and hence it should have a module to save those tasks by default.
Start & End Dates – Although it is quite obvious, every task should have a start and end date.
Notifications & Alerts – Another evident functionality, yet we want to mention that an app should send out alerts as notifications to inform about doing priority tasks first.
Setting up the structure
Most people have the habit of compiling all the tasks and then sort out the important ones from the unimportant ones in a project management app. However, it is highly advisable to follow a top-down approach. First, make a list of those that you need to do, followed by ones to be done later.
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Getting started with PMS
As we just discussed, you should have a ready list of important tasks followed by unimportant tasks as per priority. Ensure to have those tasks in your mind as well. Create separate modules for important tasks, unimportant tasks, and information required to complete the tasks.
Once all the tasks are in their respective folders, do sort them as a hierarchical project structure. There might be unimportant tasks fitting between important ones. Ensure to complete them later, unless a less priority task has to be completed, to proceed further.
Finally, do add the necessary tags to each task, such as start date, end date, approximate duration, approximate resource allocation, recurring schedules, etc. These tags help in having a glance at what to be done. Also, mention the information needed from the information module.
Tuning the task manager
Say there is something to be done daily such as a morning ritual or a prayer, you will already load up that in the project management tips, to notify you each morning. Feed such things as a daily beginning activity in the task manager. The rest of the tasks for the day would follow.
Similarly, end the day with an everyday evening ritual or task, marking the end of the day. This will be a quick reminder regarding the day has ended, and it is time to check whether all tasks are done or not. Keep in mind that such a closing activity be placed after the unimportant tasks.
Maintaining the PMS regularly
It should be noted that unless all the previous day tasks are cleared, there will be a piled-up situation with new tasks mixed up with old ones. This would make things difficult in segregating things. Ensure, to first clear up all the completed tasks of the day, and keeping the rest as it is.
The pending tasks should be still there in their respective modules. Usually, it might be the unimportant tasks carried forward the next day, and so on, until they get completed. If important tasks are pending, they should be put on high priority even before the new important tasks.
This also goes with the unimportant pending tasks, to be kept right before new unimportant tasks. Not following these basic yet important steps, would only make a project management app a lot disorganized, then you possibly might expect. In the long run, things only get overwhelming.
Follow an ongoing maintenance protocol daily, and you are good to go handling the PMS easier than ever. There are not tons of projects with personal tasks, just as the case with professional tasks, yet there is a lot to do. Let us sum up some easy tips to be effective and efficient.
- Develop the habit of clearing the modules daily or once a week. The previous pending tasks should be placed right on top of the new daily tasks.
- Do review your pending tasks first and keep them on top. Try to complete them first before moving on to the new tasks.
- Stick with just one project management app. Avoid changing the app too often.