This advice may seem trite, but it cannot be overemphasized, especially if you are setting goals for the first time or at a time when everyone else is doing it (an example is New Year’s resolutions). In each of these cases, it’s easy to choose a general goal instead of focusing on what works best for you. So be sure to spend some time reflecting on your values and priorities to set a goal that will motivate you.

Start with something simple

This is especially true if you are new to setting SMART goals. If you choose a goal that is too complicated (for example, moving to another country), it can be extremely difficult to achieve, even with the SMART system. It’s better to start with something simpler and smaller to see how easy the process is for you, and then tackle a bigger goal. If you do need to start with an ambitious goal, consider breaking it down into smaller tasks that are easier and faster to accomplish.

Make sure you can control the goals

Not all goals, especially work-related goals, are up to you. Sometimes you need to ensure control over all aspects of the process and have a backup plan in case the other person is unable to fulfill their part. However, sometimes it is not crucial. In this case, you should ask yourself if sharing responsibility is really the best option for achieving a certain goal, or if it is better to be the only one responsible for the result.

Consider the specifics of different goals

The process of setting SMART goals is never the same. Bigger goals will require different metrics, deadlines, and motivation than smaller ones. Personal and professional goals may also require different approaches, as some of us are more motivated to work on work-related tasks than personal ones, while others are vice versa. Keep flexible and try to adapt your system to fit your specific goal, not the other way around.

Tune in to the positive

Positive thinking is generally good for quality of life, so why not use this approach when setting goals? Focusing on positive outcomes can serve as an additional motivation and reduce anxiety about achieving a goal. For example, if you want to start eating healthier, you can focus on eating a balanced diet on a daily basis instead of aiming to eliminate certain “unhealthy” foods from your diet.

Write down all the details

No matter how detailed your goal is, you may forget important nuances if you don’t write them down. Be sure to write down all the details on paper or in a digital document. You can create a SMART planner where you set goals and track your progress. This will help you keep on top of them and minimize procrastination. If you want, you can even decorate your planner with handwriting, illustrations, and other motivational things.

Be flexible

This is especially true for those who are setting SMART goals for the first time. In some cases, you may realize that it is impossible to achieve a goal and that it is better to abandon or change it than to make the effort. You may also find out that the goal can be achieved faster or that the result is already satisfying, even if you are still far from the original goal. Flexibility and regular review of goals allows you to make the most of your time and prioritize wisely.

Praise yourself

If your goal is successfully realized or you are progressing at the desired pace, take a moment to praise yourself and maybe even reward yourself with something. Such support will give you additional motivation to achieve your goals.

Learn from failures

Even if you fail to achieve a goal, don’t be discouraged. Instead, evaluate your path, identify potential areas for improvement, and find other valuable insights. Use this information when setting a new goal to make it more achievable.

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1. AI-Powered Task Management

One of the most significant trends in time management is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into task planners. AI is already being used in many productivity apps to automate various processes, and this trend is expected to expand in the future.

• Smart task prioritization: AI can analyze your schedule, work patterns, and deadlines to suggest which tasks should be completed first, ensuring that you’re always working on the most important items.
• Task automation: With AI, tasks can be automatically assigned, updated, and rescheduled based on changes in your workload or calendar. For example, if a meeting gets canceled, your planner will automatically shift your tasks accordingly.
• Personalized productivity insights: AI will also provide valuable insights into your productivity patterns, highlighting areas where you can improve or recommending new approaches to manage your tasks more efficiently.

As AI continues to evolve, task planners will become even more intuitive, offering users a seamless, automated experience for managing their time.

2. Seamless Integration with Other Tools

In today’s fast-paced world, task management is rarely confined to a single app. People use a variety of tools for communication, scheduling, project management, and file sharing. The future of task planners will see a greater emphasis on integration with other platforms to create a unified productivity ecosystem.

• Calendars and email: Expect better integration with calendar apps like Google Calendar or Outlook, so that your tasks, meetings, and deadlines are all in sync. Task planners will automatically pull in your calendar events and adjust tasks based on your availability.
• Communication tools: With apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams becoming staples in the workplace, task planners will integrate directly with these platforms, enabling easy task updates, notifications, and team collaboration.
• Cloud storage integration: Integration with cloud storage platforms such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive will make it easier to link documents and files to specific tasks, streamlining your workflow.

By integrating task planners with other tools you already use, you’ll be able to keep everything organized in one place, without having to jump between different apps.

3. Increased Focus on Mental Health and Well-being

As the lines between work and life continue to blur, maintaining a healthy balance becomes more challenging. Task planners are evolving to not only help you stay productive but also to promote mental health and well-being.

• Workload balance: Future task planners will analyze your workload and provide insights on whether you’re overburdened, offering suggestions to redistribute tasks or set more realistic deadlines.
• Focus and productivity tools: Features like Pomodoro timers, focus modes, and breaks reminders will become more common, encouraging users to stay focused while preventing burnout.
• Mindfulness features: Task planners may also integrate mindfulness practices, offering guided meditation, breathing exercises, or even simple reminders to take a mental break and refocus.

By addressing the mental and emotional aspects of productivity, future task planners will ensure that users can work efficiently without compromising their health and well-being.

4. Enhanced Mobile Experience

Mobile apps are central to our daily lives, and task planners are no exception. As more people use their phones and tablets to manage tasks on the go, the mobile experience will become even more critical in the world of time management.

• Offline functionality: Future task planners will offer offline capabilities, allowing users to create, update, and organize tasks even without an internet connection. Once reconnected, changes will be synced across all devices.
• Push notifications: Expect smarter push notifications that not only remind you of upcoming tasks but also offer actionable options, such as rescheduling or marking tasks as complete.
• Voice-activated task management: With the growing popularity of virtual assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa, task planners will allow users to create and manage tasks simply by speaking to their devices.

The enhanced mobile experience will ensure that task management remains accessible anytime, anywhere, making it easier to stay on top of your tasks, whether you’re at home, at work, or on the go.

5. Collaboration and Team-Oriented Features

In today’s collaborative work environments, task management extends beyond the individual. Task planners are increasingly incorporating features designed to improve teamwork and collaboration.

• Shared calendars and timelines: Teams will be able to manage tasks, meetings, and deadlines together on a shared calendar or timeline, ensuring everyone stays aligned and aware of each other’s schedules.
• Real-time updates and comments: Collaboration tools like real-time task updates and threaded comments will become standard, allowing team members to discuss and update tasks seamlessly.
• Project management features: Many task planners will incorporate more advanced project management features like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and task dependencies, making it easier to manage complex projects with multiple team members.

By offering enhanced collaboration tools, task planners will make it easier for teams to stay organized and work efficiently together, whether they are in the same office or working remotely.

6. Customizable Workflows and Task Views

Every person has a unique way of organizing tasks, and the future of task planners will be about offering greater flexibility and customization to suit different work styles.

• Flexible task views: Task planners will allow users to choose how they view their tasks, whether through a simple to-do list, a visual Kanban board, or a detailed calendar view.
• Customizable labels and categories: Users will be able to tag and categorize tasks in ways that make sense for their specific needs, such as by project, priority, or energy levels.
• Advanced search and filtering: As task planners handle larger volumes of tasks, search and filtering options will become more advanced, helping users quickly find what they need.

These customizable features will allow users to tailor their task management systems to fit their personal preferences, boosting productivity and reducing frustration.

7. Time Tracking and Resource Management

Future task planners will increasingly include time tracking and resource management features, helping users and teams better allocate time and resources.

• Automatic time tracking: Task planners will track time spent on tasks automatically, making it easier to monitor productivity and allocate time effectively.
• Resource allocation: For teams, task planners will help distribute workloads evenly, ensuring that no one is overwhelmed and that all tasks are completed on time.
• Budget tracking: Some planners may even integrate with budgeting tools to track costs associated with specific tasks or projects, making it easier to manage finances along with tasks.

By including time and resource tracking, task planners will provide users with valuable insights into how they’re spending their time and resources, helping them improve efficiency and stay within budget.

The future of task planners looks incredibly promising, with advancements in AI, integration with other tools, and a focus on user well-being all set to enhance the task management experience. Whether you’re managing tasks as an individual or leading a team, task planners will continue to evolve, providing smarter, more efficient ways to manage time and work.

By staying ahead of these trends, you’ll be able to manage your tasks more effectively, improve collaboration, and ultimately, achieve your goals more efficiently. As task planners continue to evolve, embracing these changes will ensure that you stay organized, productive, and on top of your goals.

The post Trends in Time Management: What to Expect from Task Planners appeared first on Workstack.

• Close all tabs in your browser that you don’t need to work on a particular task while you’re doing it. Websites with entertainment content are especially distracting;
• Check your email at a specially designated time, and turn off notifications of new emails.
• Don’t let social media take control of you – 10-15 minutes a day is enough for communication;
• Ask your colleagues not to distract you in the near future. If you work from home, explain to your children that you have important work to do and they shouldn’t come into your room;
• Write down your current tasks and global goals to keep them in front of you and stay on track;
• Schedule mandatory daily breaks during which you will completely turn off all thoughts of work;
• Fight the chaos and don’t let it defeat you.

Tips from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett:

• Use a two-list strategy. Remove unimportant things, which will allow you to concentrate and manage your priorities;
• Try to reduce the time you spend on the road. Try to switch to remote work or leave home earlier to avoid traffic jams;
• Give up everything that is meaningless. Warren Buffett once said that the personal boundaries of successful people are so strong that they give up almost everything. At the same time, the CEO himself often has days in his personal calendar for which nothing is planned;
• Set aside 5 hours every week to learn something new.

Bill Gates’ recommendations look like this:

• Time is a valuable resource that requires a responsible and serious approach (even more serious than money). Don’t waste it;
• Keep a book at hand to help you take a break;
• Develop a long-term mindset. Events that will happen in the next 1-2 years are always overestimated, and changes that will happen in 10 years are always underestimated;
• Structure your time. According to Bill Gates, he divides tasks into short time intervals, sometimes even in 5-minute increments, and often uses timeboxing;
• Don’t waste time on activities that don’t bring you closer to your goals. Doing so will only move you further away from what you are striving for;
• Despite the fact that there are many methods of time management, and even more principles of time management, it is worth studying at least what is written above. And try to implement at least a part of it into your life, if not the whole method, then at least a part of it. It will definitely affect your productivity.

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1. Increased Automation and AI Integration

One of the most exciting developments in the task planning space is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. AI-powered task planners will be able to:

• Automatically prioritize tasks based on deadlines, importance, and past behaviors, reducing the manual effort required to organize tasks.
• Suggest optimal times for task completion, taking into account the user’s previous work habits, productivity patterns, and available time slots.
• Automatically assign tasks based on team members’ availability, skill set, and workload, making the process of delegating work much more efficient.

This means that in the near future, task planners won’t just help you track tasks; they will proactively assist you in making the best decisions to increase productivity.

2. Enhanced Collaboration Features

As remote and hybrid work models continue to grow in popularity, collaboration tools will become even more integrated into task planners. Future task planners will offer:

• Real-time collaboration: Multiple users will be able to edit tasks, update statuses, and comment in real-time, making remote teamwork even smoother.
• Integrated communication: Direct messaging and video call integration will become more common, reducing the need to switch between multiple apps. Imagine discussing a task or project with your team right inside the task planner, without needing to open a different platform.
• Shared calendars and timelines: Team members will have access to shared calendars that sync with tasks, making it easier to understand everyone’s schedule and plan accordingly.

These enhanced collaboration features will help teams stay aligned and communicate more effectively, which is critical for successful task management.

3. More Powerful Integrations with Other Tools

The task planner of the future will seamlessly integrate with a variety of third-party tools. Whether you’re using Google Calendar, Slack, or even accounting software, you’ll be able to consolidate your workflow and make your task management system more efficient. In particular, the project stack—which refers to integrating a suite of productivity tools—will become a major trend, allowing task planners to sync with:

• CRM software to track customer-related tasks and deadlines.
• File-sharing services like Google Drive or Dropbox to easily access documents tied to tasks.
• Time-tracking tools to automatically log time spent on tasks and ensure proper allocation of resources.

By integrating more tools into a task planner, users will be able to operate from a single platform, minimizing the need for switching between apps.

4. Mobile-First Task Management

As mobile devices continue to dominate, the future of task planners will be heavily focused on mobile-first experiences. While many planners today already offer mobile apps, future versions will focus on improving mobile functionality with:

• Offline capabilities: Users will be able to add, update, and view tasks even when they don’t have an internet connection, syncing automatically once they reconnect.
• Improved push notifications: Expect more personalized, actionable notifications—such as task reminders and important updates—delivered directly to your device.
• Voice-based task creation: Integration with voice assistants like Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa will allow users to create, edit, and track tasks simply by speaking to their devices.

Mobile-first task planners will allow users to manage their tasks on-the-go with minimal friction, making task management truly accessible from anywhere.

5. Focus on Mental Health and Well-Being

In the future, task planners will not just be about managing work but will take a more holistic approach, focusing on well-being and mental health. Features designed to help manage stress and avoid burnout may include:

• Task load analysis: Task planners will provide insights into how much work a user has and help them balance their workload to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
• Focus modes: Task planners may incorporate features like Pomodoro timers or focus modes to help users concentrate on individual tasks without distraction.
• Wellness tracking: Some planners might integrate with fitness or wellness apps to remind users to take breaks, stretch, or get fresh air.

This shift toward supporting mental health and well-being is vital as people continue to experience work-related stress, and task planners will evolve to ensure users’ productivity is sustainable.

6. Customizable and Flexible Workflows

Every person and team works differently, and the task planner of the future will reflect this diversity. Future planners will offer highly customizable and flexible workflows, allowing users to:

• Create personalized task views: Whether you prefer Kanban boards, Gantt charts, or simple to-do lists, task planners will allow you to customize how tasks are displayed and tracked.
• Flexible task categories: Users will be able to categorize and tag tasks in ways that suit their needs, whether that’s by project, priority, or even energy levels.
• Advanced search and filters: Finding specific tasks or projects will be easier than ever, with customizable filters to view tasks based on tags, deadlines, or assigned team members.

These customizations will enable users to build a task management system that truly works for them, rather than forcing them to adjust their work habits to fit within rigid software structures.

7. Security and Privacy Enhancements

As more businesses and individuals move to cloud-based task planners, security and privacy will be top priorities. In the coming years, task planners will implement advanced security features such as:

• End-to-end encryption to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.
• Two-factor authentication to ensure that only authorized users can access and manage tasks.
• Granular permission settings to control who can view or edit specific tasks or projects, ensuring that confidential information remains secure.

These security improvements will help businesses feel confident in using task planners without risking sensitive data leaks.

Conclusion: Embracing the Future of Task Planning

The future of task planners is exciting, with many innovations on the horizon. From AI-powered features to mobile-first experiences and seamless integrations, task planners will become even more powerful tools for managing work and boosting productivity. By staying ahead of these trends and adopting new technologies as they emerge, businesses and individuals can ensure that they remain organized, efficient, and focused on their goals.

As the world of task management evolves, tools like project stack and enhanced integrations will help make task planning even more seamless and powerful, ultimately helping users achieve more with less effort. Embrace the future—your productivity is about to get a whole lot smarter.

The post The Future of Task Planners: What to Expect in the Coming Years appeared first on Workstack.

Until recently, artificial intelligence was very frightening to society, despite the fact that its development allows for the improvement of all areas of activity. At the beginning of 2023, there was a theory that AI would completely replace human work and perform all the necessary functions. However, the impact of artificial intelligence is determined by how we apply it. Today, people have learned to use AI to improve productivity and achieve better results.

The significant impact of AI can be seen in various industries such as education, medicine, manufacturing, and business. AI helps businesses not only cut costs but also optimize processes, establish communication with consumers, and mitigate potential risks by collecting various analytical data.

AI gained its popularity when people realized its capabilities. The fact is that it is not a single new technology, but a set of solutions that quickly find, process, and provide information based on the studied data.

Virtual assistants are used in almost all areas of activity. Project management is no exception. It is important to understand that a successful project always includes people, various reports, schedules, strategies, risks, and communication. Project managers have realized that collaboration with the latest technologies can not only improve productivity, but also free up time for more important tasks, automate ongoing processes, find new solutions to improve strategy, and much more. The key is to use smart development correctly.

Automate tasks and optimize workflow

Every business is trying to optimize its strategies and find solutions that will help achieve the desired result. Project managers are looking for ways to reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks and increase manager productivity, explore ways to avoid human errors, minimize risks, and allocate resources correctly.

With the emergence and development of artificial intelligence, it has become much easier to realize all this. Repetitive tasks can be easily automated with AI, and managers have the time and opportunity to focus on more important tasks.

Artificial intelligence is great at creative tasks. It helps to write an article, a letter to a contractor, or generate an attractive image for a banner or website. But don’t forget that the latest technology can automate everyday tasks.

Scheduling

Artificial intelligence is great at scheduling tasks, prioritizing them, and reminding you to complete them. One of the most common AI-powered apps for these functions is Trello. Here you can work alone or with a team, create different boards, and manage tasks.

Reporting

Artificial intelligence is great at analyzing and processing large amounts of data, creating graphs and charts that are used in various reporting. You may find Microsoft Power BI and Tableau useful.

Deciphering rallies

A large amount of information is not always perceived and memorized, and sometimes the necessary data is simply forgotten after meetings. Unfortunately, Google Meet and Teams don’t allow you to convert voice to text, but there are other AI-based programs that can easily handle this task. Fireflies is one of them.

To make it work, you need to add an AI assistant to the meeting. It listens to what the participants are saying, recognizes who said what, and based on this data, creates tasks, assigns those responsible for their implementation, sets deadlines, and records the main points of the call, which can be reviewed later.

Text analysis

ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot will perfectly cope with writing texts and analyzing a large amount of information.

Many programs and applications using artificial intelligence can speed up and optimize work, but don’t forget that every project consists of people, and live communication is the basis of a successful deal.

Artificial intelligence is a very useful resource for the development and improvement of not only a particular project but also the business in general. With the help of automated solutions, you can reduce costs, minimize risks, and customize all processes to increase productivity and achieve goals.

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Task management is a multi-level process of working with tasks: from planning and description to acceptance of results, work on mistakes, and, if necessary, repetition.

Task management involves managing all components of tasks: time, money, people, equipment, etc.

Task management is an important part of project management. If the team doesn’t know how to manage tasks effectively, then the question of how to meet deadlines and ultimately complete the project with a decent result will certainly arise.

We can also say that project management is about the ability to see the big picture, and task management is about working at the micro level, which then builds global success.

Task management is very important because many things depend on it:

• a consistently high level of team productivity due to the fact that the workload is distributed evenly;
• project progress according to the schedule, because everything is planned and it is clear which task takes how much time, and it is also clear whether everything is done on time;
• building cohesion even in large teams. This is facilitated, among other things, by the so-called cross-team tasks, when employees from different departments work on the same task;
• optimization of decision-making. This is facilitated by the fact that well-structured task management allows you to understand the situation in the project as a whole at any time and make decisions based on up-to-date data.

Task management skills and ways to improve them

Essentially, task management skills are what are called soft skills. They may differ for different specialists, but there are also universal ones, such as time management. However, it is still very important for a project manager to be able to set priorities, delegate, control several tasks simultaneously, and communicate well, resolving conflicts if necessary.

Other task management skills that are not quite obvious at first glance include the following:

• The ability to say no. This will allow you not to do work that does not bring you closer to your goal, but which you are forced to do for another person.
• Giving up habits that kill productivity. For example, trying to do perfectly when it’s enough to do just fine. There’s a chance that when you finally do it perfectly, you won’t need to.
• Controlling procrastination. Almost everyone is prone to it to one degree or another, and if procrastination doesn’t happen often, it doesn’t pose a threat. But when it gets out of control, tasks pile up on you like an avalanche.
• Realize that you can’t control everything. No matter how conscientiously you plan your work, there will always be some kind of force majeure. So just set aside extra time to complete tasks.
• Ability to make decisions and take responsibility for them. The success of not only one task, but also the project as a whole depends on it.

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Any.do

The application has a wide range of functionality for working with individual tasks: tags, reminders, sub-tasks, attachments, and much more. You can prioritize tasks so you don’t forget about the most important things during the day. There are also functions for sharing tasks with colleagues.

There is a special motivating function called Focus. A virtual Christmas tree will grow for completing tasks, but if you miss one of them, the tree will be destroyed. Other features of the program include a shopping list.

Todoist

We present Todoist as one of the main competitors of Any.do. The functionality is as similar as possible, but the tree is not “imported”. There are projects with tasks, tags, comments, attachments, and the ability to distribute tasks among colleagues. Todoist’s productivity tracking system is responsible for motivation.

A large layer of functionality is available in the paid version, such as adding tasks by email.

Before you start working with Todoist, we strongly recommend that you read the user manual. Without it, you may not even notice many of the service’s features. The developers of the service have tried to clearly describe everything they can offer users in the application.

Wunderlist

One of the simplest planners on the market, but no less useful. In the application, you can set tasks for several months in advance in the calendar, share them with colleagues, reschedule them to other dates and copy them.

This is all that the free version of the app has to offer, but it’s enough to set tasks and monitor their progress. The paid version adds task synchronization, widget, themes, and message repetition.

Microsoft To-Do

Microsoft’s own development, which nevertheless almost completely copied the functionality of Wunderlist: setting tasks, lists for different projects, color coding, etc.

Google Calendar

Next up is Google’s planner. Or rather, not quite a planner, but a calendar where you can set tasks and more. The peculiarity of the service is its integration – it is easily synchronized with all the above applications, and planned events in Gmail are automatically imported into the calendar.

GTask

A minimalist service for setting tasks for a specific date or time. There is an option to share tasks with colleagues. The app is completely free, and hence the main disadvantage – a lot of advertising. However, there is a complete analog in terms of functionality that does not lack this – TickTick.

Trello

The service is designed for working on projects in a team, but you can also use it for yourself. It is possible to customize task lists (boards), assign people responsible for execution, put labels, generate checklists, detailed descriptions, comments, set deadlines, and change the design.

Trello’s peculiarity is that the service is well integrated into others: Dropbox, Slack, Everote, etc. There are a lot of integrations, so there is a separate section where they are categorized.

MyLifeOrganized

Another “simple” planner that has: lists of tasks with subtasks, the ability to add notes, tag, and reminders.

The app is not suitable for a large list of tasks, as there is only one list and it cannot be shared. Therefore, it can be used for personal use within one activity.

The service has two special features: a reminder when you are in a certain location, and gesture-based task list management.

The paid version opens up several more functions: regular tasks, adding a password, the order of tasks in the list, bookmarks, and others.

OneNote

A replacement for Evernote for those who lack the customization of notes. It has a rich note formatting functionality and a clear structure for organizing documents.

Microsoft’s service also includes tags, copying web pages, handwriting, and attaching various types of files.

Unlike Evernote, OneNote does not have handwriting recognition and integrations. Also, the available teamwork functionality does not always work correctly.

Notion

Notion is a service that is ready to compete for the title of the most “converted” of all the above. For your understanding, the official website has a whole section with guides on how to work with the service.

A short list of features: comprehensive task scheduler functionality, building your own database for different projects, teamwork. The richest set of features takes a lot of time to understand. That’s why the creators of the service have created several standard templates that will simplify your work.

Google Keep

Suitable for those who like Google Calendar. It has all the necessary features for a notebook: making lists, handwriting, attaching photos, voice input.

Google Keep can be used as a universal note-taking service where you don’t need to bother with the design of individual pages, sections, etc.

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