If you're struggling to find and stick to a task/project management system, this guide will certainly help point you in the right direction.

1. Task & Project Management
APP GUIDE
by Julя R

2. INTRODUCTION
MAKING A CHOICE
The App Positioning Model
I was inspired to write this guide from my own inability to stick to a
task management platform for more than a few months. I always
had excuses. I’d blame it on a lack of features, integrations and design, but the real problem was my approach to picking the right
one in the first place.
Forget specific features. Focus on what types of workflows your
tools needs to support to maximize efficiency. It doesn’t need to
be perfect, but it must support your daily workflows.
I love decision-making models, especially the Eisenhower Matrix for time management and the Brand Positioning Model for
product positioning.
For our purposes, I’ve hacked the Brand Positioning Model (pictured right) to compare features and functions of six of my favorite
project/task management tools.
I have personally used all of them at one point or another. Some I
currently use–like OmniFocus (for my personal projects & tasks), Podio (for client collaboration) and Clear (for my quick errand lists).
Please Note: The position of the apps within the matrix is based on my
experience and personal use of the platforms. I didn’t count and weigh
every feature and functionality for each application and tally a score. So,
it’s not an exact science, but it does represent what I believe to be a
rough, but fair representation for each.
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3. INTRODUCTION
HOW TO DECIDE
The Paradox of Choice
To prove that we have a too many choices, here is a list of 92 popular task management platforms that you could choose from.
Even the simple act of researching, vetting and choosing one that
fits your needs is overwhelming.
How we Choose
It doesn’t stop there. You have to sign-up, fill it up, organize it and
keep it updated, daily.
It isn’t until hours of time invested that you realize you’ve stopped
using it. All the time you spent researching, learning and keeping it
updated goes to waste once you stop opening it everyday.
There are many reasons this happens:
• It has too many features and functionality you don’t need
• It doesn’t have all the features and functionality you do need
• It’s hard to use or poorly designed (so you don’t enjoy using it)
• The entire process feels unnecessary and redundant
Yet the hard truth is–using any system is better than nothing. If you
want to productive and successful, you have to proactively manage your work.
The Paradox of Choice by psychologist Barry Schwartz explains
why the plethora of of apps to choose from makes us ultimately unsatisfied with the choices we make.
Barry Schwartz suggests the following steps to help us make
good decisions:
• Figure out your goal(s). Ask the question “what do I want?”
• Evaluate the importance of each goal.
• Array the options.
• Evaluate how likely each of the options is to meet your goals.
• Pick the winning option.
Taking Barry’s advice, we should evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of any new tool we are considering by asking “what do I
want it to help me accomplish?”
Mapping the variables on a decision matrix helps you think about
what you want the most. This helps strengthen your resolve and
confidence that you’ve picked the right one. If you believe it’s the
best choice for you, it’s way more likely you will keep at it.
The best system is the one you can stick to and use everyday.
I hope this guide provides you with a different way of thinking
about choosing and sticking to the tools that are best for you.
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4. OmniFocus
1
Quickly capture your thoughts
and ideas and process them
into actionable to-do items.

5. YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO
YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO
• Is looking for a hardcore personal task
• Organize overarching projects and
management system that allows you to
strictly implement David Allen’s GTD®
(Getting Things Done) System
• Considers yourself a highly organized
person and would benefit from having a
platform with robust features supporting the GTD® process of capturing, organizing, managing and reviewing projects and tasks
YOU’RE NOT SOMEONE WHO
• Must collaborate heavily with others
(employees, co-workers, partners, clients, etc.) on a single platform
• Is a well experienced task/project management superuser (because this platform requires quite a bit of upfront
setup, daily input and weekly review to
get the most out of it)
• Has only a few projects and tasks to
manage
goals into actionable to-dos
• Associate specific goals and tasks with
short and/or long term projects
• Assign Contexts to task (like a specific
location, application or tool which is required in order to take action on the
task
• Consistently Review the progress of
your projects, update their priority and
re-prioritize based on bandwidth
YOU WOULD GEEK OUT OVER
• A perfect GTD® digital system that
syncs you updates across all your devices (Mac, iPhone & iPad)
• Using Siri to capture tasks and get
location-based alerts pushed to your devices
• A Forecast snapshot of your day and/
or week
OmniGroup
Features
Tutorials
Pricing
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6. Podio
2
Work the way you want to. Get
your work done on with your
co-workers and clients on a
social platform that you are in
control of, instead of the other
way around.

7. YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO
YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO
• Works mostly remotely with small team,
• Have private workspaces where only
medium sized company or several clients and partners who you need to collaborate with on a daily basis
• Is juggling several teams and departments to manage all the various details,
due dates and tasks associated with various projects and deliverables
• Wants to be able to heavily customize
workspaces to fit teams and department’s unique needs
YOU’RE NOT A PERSON WHO
• Is looking for a simple, quick to set-up,
lightweight and out-of-the-box system
• Only needs to manage and organize a
few projects and tasks
• Works wih teams, clients or partners
that don’t have the bandwidth, interest
or patience for a dynamic project management system
certain employee’s, partners or clients
can access and collaborate within
• Better manage CRM, marketing, IT support, recruiting and HR teams via private workspaces that can be customized to fit their specific workflow
• Instant message and video chat with
colleagues within the interface
YOU WOULD GEEK OUT OVER
• Customizing your own apps to fit the
projects and workflows of your team
(without any technical skills required)
• Empowering everyone to work the way
they want to
• Integrating w/ Google, Sharefile, Dropbox, Evernote, Box, SkyDrive, SugarSync, Zendesk, Campaign Monitor, ect.
• Creating custom integrations using
About
Features
Tutorials
Pricing
webhooks and the API
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8. Trello
3
Get your ideas, projects and
tasks organized quickly. It’s
incredibly easy to use, intuitive
and collaborative. Just enough
features and functionality to
make it robust, but not too
much to make it hard to set up
and maintain.

9. YOU ARE A PERSON WHO
YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO
• Is a fan of the Personal Kanban
• Translate your love of index cards, sticky
method because you like to visualize
your current workload and limit your
view of work-in-progress
• Works best when you can see a project’s to-do, doing and done tasks in
one place
• Benefits from a clean, simply designed
column-view of your projects tasks
• Works alone or with small to medium
notes and whiteboards to a digital system where you can easily order and reorder project tasks in a single interface
• Visually separate all your different projects and their associated tasks
• Easily add collaborators allowing
them to contribute to specific projects
and tasks
YOU WOULD GEEK OUT OVER
sized teams
YOU’RE NOT A PERSON WHO
• Is not distracted or overwhelmed viewing all of your tasks on a single page
• Believes in the GTD® method of organization (the Personal Kanban methodology is different in several key ways)
• Manages very complex projects and
tasks
• How minimal it is compared to the
other apps but still has key features like:
file uploading, commenting, sharing,
ect
• Easily moving around tasks by simply
dragging and dropping them somewhere else (similar to how you could
with a physical sticky note)
• Adding pictures to task cards, giving a
bit of visual design to your tasks
About
Features
Tutorial
Pricing
9

10. Wunderlist
4
Simple yet powerful. Track
everything from grocery
shopping to long-term travel
plans. Create and share to-do
lists for all of the projects in
your life.

11. YOU ARE A PERSON WHO
YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO
• Has been managing your to-do list with
• Manage straightforward projects and
pen and paper but wants more functionality, design and portability
• Have your own private to-do’s but also
need to share and collaborate on projects and tasks with others
• Likes a clean, simple interface with unobtrusive advanced features and functionality
associated tasks in a clean, welldesigned interface
• Auto-sync updates you’ve made on a
task or project across many other devices
YOU WOULD GEEK OUT OVER
• A clean and simple interface with the
ability to customize the look and feel
YOU’RE NOT A PERSON WHO
• Needs a robust team collaboration platform
• Is a project manager that must diligently hold individuals accountable
with reports and project timelines
• Has used simple project/task management systems and is looking for something with more advanced features and
functionality to manage not just tasks
but very complex projects as well
• To-do check lists within individual tasks
• A Gmail Add to Wunderlist button
which adds the content of emails as a
task
• Integration with: Amazon, ASOS, Etsy,
Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia and Hacker
News (who have incorporated Add to
Wunderlist buttons on their site)
• The ability to dictate your to-dos
(*only available on Chrome)
About
Features
Tutorial
Pricing
11

12. Any.DO
5
Helps you get things done
with your friends in a simple &
elegant way. It's free, simple &
fun.

13. YOU ARE A PERSON WHO
YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO
• Want’s a simple, primarily mobile task/
• Quickly enter and organize your cur-
project management system
• Likes a quick, drag and drop system
to plan and organize your day
• Chrome is your main browser and you
are comfortable with (and frequently
use) Chrome-based toolbar extensions
• Uses Gmail and and manage email via
your Chrome browser
rent, upcoming and someday tasks
• Easily add and share tasks from within
your email (*gmail only)
• Have your tasks integrate with your
Google Calendar
• Sync tasks you’ve added via the mobile app to your Chrome browser extension (*iphone and android only)
• Is an iPhone or Android mobile user
YOU WOULD GEEK OUT OVER
YOU’RE NOT A PERSON WHO
• Predictive task adding
• Needs a feature-rich project manage-
• Customizing how you want to receive
ment and team collaboration platform
your reminders by date, time and location
• Would like to manage your projects and
tasks with a native desktop app
• Has complex projects, timelines, deliverables and workflows
• Syncing with their companion app
(Cal), which integrates your Any.DO
tasks into your calendar
• Shaking your Any.Do iPhone app to
clear the day’s finished tasks
About
Features
Tutorials
Pricing
13

14. Clear
6
Is built to make it really easy to
stay productive. No clutter, no
obstacles, just you, your tasks
and an intuitive drag and drop
design.

15. YOU ARE A PERSON WHO
YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO
• Is a Mac, iPhone and iPad user
• Quickly create multiple tasks in a row
• Likes to maintain a simple list of things
• Sort items by priority, with important
to do
• Doesn’t need advanced features and
functionalities that most of the other
task/project management platforms
have
• Loves well-executed interaction design,
that are based on gestures
YOU’RE NOT A PERSON WHO
• Is a Windows or Android user
• Needs more functionality than a simple
to-do list
• Doesn’t use iCloud to sync updates you
make within apps on your iPhone and
iPad
items highlighted at the top
• Move tasks up or down to change its priority by simply tapping and dragging
• Use iCloud to sync task list updates
made on your iPhone, iPad and Mac
YOU WOULD GEEK OUT OVER
• The wonderful simplicity of the app’s
form and function
• The vibrant and beautiful color palettes
• Swiping left or right to complete or delete a task
• The Mac app’s keyboard shortcuts
• The “shake phone” feature to undo
your previous action
About
iOS App
Mac App
Company
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