Each new yr, month, or week, you promise your self you’ll be extra productive. But, someway, you continue to get buried in low-value duties whereas a very powerful work waits.
Why? It’s not rocket science, however you appear to have a poor relationship with time and, above all, with prioritization.
Whereas the primary takes time to get solved, I might help with the latter by sharing this sincere information with examined work prioritization instruments which might be updated for our occasions.
❗Earlier than diving in, listed below are two disclaimers: This assessment is totally impartial. Not one of the featured instruments sponsored this content material. I’ve evaluated these instruments primarily based on particular standards that affect your prioritization:
- Prioritization options: Does the app actually enable you to rank and arrange duties?
- Visible readability: Does it make precedence ranges clear, and it’s the interface user-friendly?
- Integration capabilities: Does it work properly with most used instruments?
- Cellular accessibility: Are you able to handle priorities on the go?
- Staff collaboration: Does it assist groups handle a number of initiatives?
TL;DR – Work prioritization instruments at a look
| Instrument Identify | Primary performance | Greatest for | Standout function |
|---|---|---|---|
| Timeular | Time monitoring with prioritization | Freelancers, groups of all sizes | AI-powered precedence strategies |
| Todoist | Process administration | Productiveness lovers | Pure language precedence setting |
| Trello | Visible process administration | Visible thinkers | Precedence labels and power-ups |
| Asana | Venture administration | Advanced groups | Workload view with priorities |
| Wrike | Skilled undertaking administration | Enterprise groups | Superior precedence automation |
| Microsoft To Do | Private process administration | Microsoft customers | Centered precedence lists |
| Notion | Versatile workspace | Information staff | Customized precedence databases |
1. Timeular
Primary performance: Complete time monitoring device with AI-powered insights, process tagging options,
Greatest for: Groups of all sizes, freelancers, creatives, and anybody trying to optimize their time use by means of data-driven insights and automatic monitoring.
I’ve been utilizing Timeular for nearly two years now to trace each my work and private time. By way of its AI evaluation, I found I used to be spending 40% of my peak productiveness hours on low-priority duties as a manner of procrastinating, and later within the day, when my vitality was decrease, I might do the essential duties. I fully modified how I construction my day since then.
The function I preferred essentially the most:
- The AI insights dashboard analyzes your work patterns, at what occasions you’re productive and when not, and flags instruments, apps, and web sites that waste your time.
Notable options:
- Automated time-tracking takes the trouble out of time monitoring, because it intelligently captures your actions within the background, permitting you to focus in your work and prioritize duties with out context switching.
- A complete tagging system that allows you to analyze time spent throughout various kinds of duties, purchasers, or initiatives.
- Work hours monitoring to exactly monitor work hours which helps you make higher time estimations and extra insightful time audits.
- Good undertaking finances monitoring that tracks your time towards allotted budgets and alerts you earlier than you exceed them that will help you prioritize duties and initiatives accordingly and keep away from over-delivery.
- Automated time reporting options that generate customizable and detailed experiences for purchasers or staff leads, saving you hours of guide work every week.
- AI-powered productiveness dashboard that offers you personalised insights about once you’re best and what actions is likely to be losing your time.
- Billable hours monitoring so you’ll be able to monitor consumer work and invoice with accuracy by assigning values to totally different actions.
- Go away and PTO monitoring options so you’ll be able to effortlessly monitor all sorts of leaves and absences, which lets you create a extra balanced workload for the whole staff.
- 3,000+ integrations with different apps to seamlessly join Timeular together with your present workflow.
Critiques:
- G2: 4.6/5
- Capterra: 4.6/5
- Product Hunt: 5/5
Worth:
- Private account: $6.63/month
- Private Professional: $10.10/month
- Staff: $18.41/month
- Enterprise: Customized pricing
2. Todoist
Primary performance: Clever process administration with pure language precedence setting.
Greatest for: Productiveness lovers and professionals who want a dependable system for process prioritization, which might additionally work as a undertaking administration device and to-do checklist.
I’ve been utilizing this dependable productiveness device as my predominant to-do checklist for the previous two months, and I’ve managed to deal with essential duties in a extra technique and calmer manner. Utilizing the precedence ranges P1 by means of P4, I’ve managed to scale back my “pressing however not essential” duties by half and concentrate on what actually issues.
The function I preferred essentially the most:
- Pure language precedence enter that lets me sort “Submit report at this time p1” and robotically units it as a high precedence. This easy precedence setting has saved me numerous clicks and made prioritization easy.
Notable options:
- One of many few apps that you should use to prioritize duties primarily based on pure language enter and perceive dates, occasions, and recurring schedules in lots of languages.
- Precedence ranges and process dependencies enable you to concentrate on what issues most, whether or not you’re in a undertaking supervisor position or simply managing particular person duties.
- It has a Karma system that gamifies your productiveness, and it feels virtually like a prioritization framework. You obtain streaks when you’ve accomplished duties.
- Good scheduling strategies primarily based in your process completion patterns.
- Filters and labels overview of duties primarily based on totally different standards.
Critiques:
- G2: 4.5/5
- Capterra: 4.6/5
- Product Hunt: 4.8/5
Worth:
- Free: Fundamental options
- Professional: $4/month
- Enterprise: $6/consumer/month
3. Asana
Primary performance: Complete undertaking administration with sturdy process prioritization capabilities. Greatest for: Groups dealing with complicated initiatives, organizations that want detailed process monitoring, and undertaking managers targeted on a number of workflows who want a dependable undertaking administration device.
I’ve been utilizing Asana with my staff for 3 years, and it’s been a game-changer in how we deal with complicated initiatives. Utilizing their workload view mixed with customized fields, we diminished our undertaking delays significantly and improved our on-time supply considerably.
The function I preferred essentially the most:
- The Workload view with precedence mapping helped me spot when staff members had been overloaded, and I’ve been in a position to redistribute pressing duties to different members for a extra balanced workload.
Notable options:
- A number of undertaking views that adapt to totally different work types, together with checklist, board, calendar, and timeline views for higher undertaking visualization.
- Customized fields and varieties that guarantee all process info is captured constantly, bettering undertaking readability and lowering back-and-forth communication.
- Superior automation guidelines that deal with routine process assignments and updates, saving hours of guide work every week.
- Actual-time progress monitoring that exhibits precisely the place initiatives stand and helps determine potential bottlenecks earlier than they trigger delays.
- Complete reporting instruments that present insights into undertaking well being and staff efficiency.
Critiques:
- G2: 4.5/5
- Capterra: 4.5/5
- TrustRadius: 4.6/5
Worth:
- Fundamental: Free
- Premium: €10.99/consumer/month
- Enterprise: €24.99/consumer/month
- Enterprise: Customized pricing
💡 Professional tip: Do you know that Asana is a superb AI productiveness device, too? In the event you’re fascinated with managing time higher, examine our article on tips on how to monitor time in Asana.
4. Trello
Primary performance: Visible undertaking administration with highly effective prioritization options by means of Kanban boards.
Greatest for: Visible thinkers, groups preferring a card-style view, and anybody who wants a transparent visible hierarchy for duties and initiatives.
I’ve been utilizing Trello for managing content material calendars and consumer initiatives on anf off for a few years primarily based on consumer’s preferences too. Its visible nature helps me spot bottlenecks I can’t usually see in list-based instruments as I’m fairly a visible individual. By implementing customized fields and Butler automation, I diminished precedence confusion in my workflow quite a bit.
The function I preferred essentially the most:
- The Customized Fields power-up for precedence administration helped me create a precedence scale that features each urgency and significance scores, bettering my high-priority process completion charge by 15%.
Notable options:
- Energy-ups system that extends performance with over 200+ integrations, reworking a easy board into a robust undertaking administration device.
- Butler automation handles repetitive duties robotically, like transferring playing cards primarily based on due dates or including labels primarily based on exercise.
- Superior checklists inside playing cards that enable you to break down complicated duties into manageable steps whereas protecting visible simplicity.
- Customized card covers and labels that make precedence ranges instantly seen and assist shortly determine various kinds of duties.
- A number of board views, together with timeline and calendar views, for higher undertaking planning.
💡 Professional tip: In the event you’re in search of higher time administration with Trello, you need to try the most effective Trello time monitoring integrations, as Trello alone can’t fulfill this want for you.
Critiques:
- Capterra: 4.5/5
- G2: 4.4/5
- Software program Recommendation: 4.5/5
Worth:
- Free: Fundamental options
- Commonplace: $5/consumer/month
- Premium: $10/consumer/month
- Enterprise: $17.50/consumer/month
💡 Professional tip: Searching for extra distant work options? We’ve included Trello in our high work-from-home app checklist, as many distributed groups use it as their central hub for undertaking visibility and staff collaboration.
5. Notion
Primary performance: All-in-one workspace combining notes, high free digital planner, data administration, and process group. The checklist can proceed, although!
Greatest for: Information staff, groups in search of a central info hub, and anybody trying to construct a custom-made productiveness system.
After utilizing Notion for 2 years, I’ve remodeled how I handle each private {and professional} info. Its flexibility allowed me to create a customized productiveness system that diminished my time researching articles and improved my undertaking group dramatically.
The function I preferred essentially the most:
- The database system, with its potential to create linked views and relationships between various kinds of info, helped me construct a complete project-tracking system that improved my workflow effectivity.
Notable options:
- Versatile web page group that allows you to construction info precisely the way you want it, from easy notes to complicated undertaking databases.
- Template gallery with tons of of pre-built templates that may be custom-made for any workflow or undertaking sort.
- Actual-time collaboration options that make staff modifying and updating seamless and environment friendly.
- Superior database capabilities that may be considered as tables, boards, calendars, or galleries.
- Customized formulation and properties that assist automate info group and monitoring.
Critiques:
- G2: 4.5/5
- Capterra: 4.7/5
- Product Hunt: 4.9/5
Worth:
- Free: Limitless pages for people
- Plus: $10/consumer/month
- Enterprise: $15/consumer/month
- Enterprise: Customized pricing
💡 Professional tip: Time monitoring in Notion wants an integration. Examine the linked article to grasp how an integration with a time tracker may work.
6. Wrike
Primary performance: Skilled undertaking administration with enterprise-grade prioritization options.
Greatest for: Giant groups and organizations that want subtle undertaking administration throughout a number of departments with complicated workflows with essential duties.
I carried out Wrike for our 15-person staff final yr, and its sturdy prioritization options enhanced our supply course of. I wouldn’t say it added some innovation, and it dramatically improved our processes, however I did take pleasure in its three-tiered precedence system.
The function I preferred essentially the most:
- The customized request varieties with built-in precedence evaluation automated our consumption course of and diminished our precedence categorization time.
Notable options:
- Superior workflow automation that adapts to your staff’s processes and robotically routes duties primarily based on customized standards.
- Useful resource administration instruments that assist stop staff burnout by displaying precisely who’s engaged on what and when.
- Cross-tagging system that makes it straightforward to trace work throughout totally different initiatives and departments concurrently.
- Time-tracking integration that helps monitor undertaking budgets and staff capability in real-time. Observe, although, that monitoring time in Wrike has appreciable drawbacks.
- Customized dashboards that give totally different groups precisely the view they want of their work.
Critiques:
- G2: 4.2/5
- Capterra: 4.3/5
- TrustRadius: 4.4/5
Worth:
- Free: Fundamental options
- Skilled: $9.80/consumer/month
- Enterprise: $24.80/consumer/month
- Enterprise: Customized pricing
7. JIRA
Primary performance: Agile undertaking administration and subject monitoring system.
Greatest for: Improvement groups and organizations utilizing Agile methodologies who want detailed process and bug monitoring.
Perhaps the device I’m much less acquainted with, however a device that I’ve tried with curiosity with our improvement staff, JIRA, helped me suppose extra in agile and dash completion ideas, even in my writing job. The excellent monitoring system helped us determine bottlenecks we didn’t even know existed in our workflow.
The function I preferred essentially the most:
- The automated dash experiences confirmed us we had been constantly overcommitting by 30% – adjusting our dash planning primarily based on this knowledge improved our supply predictability by 50%.
Notable options:
- Customizable workflows that may match any staff’s improvement and launch processes precisely, which helps you perceive process significance a lot sooner and be taught if it’s worthwhile to delegate duties, prioritize initiatives otherwise altogether, or possibly use one other prioritization technique.
- Superior JQL (JIRA Question Language) that makes discovering and reporting on any side of labor easy and highly effective.
- Agile boards that adapt to each Scrum and Kanban methodologies assist any staff’s most popular manner of working but additionally improve undertaking prioritization.
- Integration capabilities that join together with your whole improvement toolchain for a seamless workflow.
- Time monitoring options that assist enhance future dash planning and estimates.
Critiques:
- G2: 4.4/5
- Capterra: 4.4/5
- TrustRadius: 4.3/5
Worth:
- Free: As much as 10 customers
- Commonplace: $7.50/consumer/month
- Premium: $14.50/consumer/month
- Enterprise: Customized pricing
8. Microsoft To Do
Primary performance: Private process administration with seamless Microsoft 365 integration
Greatest for: Microsoft 365 customers, people, and small groups needing easy however efficient precedence administration.
After utilizing Microsoft To-Do for managing my private and small staff priorities for about 3 months, I’ve discovered its simplicity to be its power. The My Day function, mixed with precedence flags, helped me improve my high-priority process completion. The mixing with Outlook and Groups makes it excellent for Microsoft-centric workflows! 📋
The function I preferred essentially the most:
- The good My Day planning function helped me reprioritize duties every morning, and you may reshift the main target of all of your duties, too. It suggests high-priority gadgets from numerous lists and lets me construct a targeted each day plan.
Notable options:
- Seamless Outlook integration to sync your duties together with your calendar occasions effortlessly.
- Good each day strategies that suggest the precedence duties you need to concentrate on. In a manner, this function is categorizing duties for you, which, in essence, makes the whole managing duties course of a lot simpler.
- Constructed-in significance flags to categorize and prioritize a number of duties at a look.
- Shared lists for straightforward collaboration with teammates or relations.
- Process breakdowns with steps to make giant duties extra manageable.
- Due date reminders to remain on high of essential deadlines.
- Completion statistics to trace your progress and the undertaking staff over time.
Critiques:
- Google Play: 4.6/5
- Microsoft Retailer: 4.7/5
- TechRadar: 4.4/5
Worth:
- Free with a Microsoft 365 subscription
- Microsoft 365 Private: $6.99/month
- Microsoft 365 Household: $9.99/month
How to decide on the precise precedence administration device
After testing these instruments extensively, I’ve developed a system for choosing the precise prioritization instruments. Right here’s what issues most:
- Work type compatibility: Contemplate the way you naturally take into consideration priorities. Throughout my testing, I discovered visible instruments like Trello labored higher for artistic groups, whereas structured instruments like Asana or JIRA suited technical groups higher.
- Staff Measurement and Construction: Your staff’s dimension dramatically impacts which device works finest. I found that whereas Todoist works nice for small groups beneath 10 individuals, bigger organizations profit extra from enterprise-focused instruments like Wrike.
- Integration Necessities: Search for instruments that work seamlessly together with your present tech stack. Once I switched from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace, I needed to fully rethink my precedence administration system.
Purple flags to observe for
By way of my testing, I’ve recognized a number of warning indicators {that a} precedence administration device won’t be best for you:
- Overcomplicated precedence methods that staff members keep away from utilizing
- Lack of clear precedence visualization
- Poor cellular assist for precedence administration
- Restricted customization of precedence ranges
- Inadequate reporting on priority-based progress
- Gradual precedence updates and synchronization
Instruments will not be ok? Strive prioritization methods
You may simply be taught tips on how to prioritize duties, with some utilizing a prioritization framework as a spine in case you’re battling organizing the method itself, after which add a device within the combine to construction your behavior much more.
I’ll briefly run you thru the finest prioritization methods which you could strive, however I like to recommend clicking on every of the hyperlinks beneath to be taught extra about every method:
- Moscow technique: The Moscow Methodology is a prioritization method the place duties are categorized into Should-haves, Ought to-haves, Might-haves, and Gained’t-haves to information decision-making.
- RICE technique: The RICE (attain, affect, confidence, effort) technique is a prioritization framework in product administration, calculating prioritization scores primarily based on Attain, Affect, Confidence, and Effort to find out the order of duties or initiatives.
- Eisenhower matrix: The Eisenhower prioritization matrix is a prioritization device that categorizes duties into 4 quadrants primarily based on urgency and significance, serving to people prioritize duties and enhance time administration. It’s additionally referred to as the trouble matrix, and it was created by a former US president.
- ABCDE technique: The ABCDE technique is a prioritization framework that includes categorizing duties into classes A (essential), B (essential), C (good to do), D (delegate), and E (eradicate) to prioritize duties and arrange one’s workload.
- Kanban board: A Kanban board is a visible undertaking administration device that organizes duties into columns, permitting groups to trace work progress and prioritize successfully by visually representing the workflow phases and highlighting the standing of every process.
Conclusion
The fitting precedence administration device can remodel your productiveness and staff effectiveness. Based mostly on my expertise:
- For time-based precedence administration, strive Timeular*
- For particular person customers and small groups, contemplate Todoist or Microsoft To Do
- For visible thinkers and agile groups, take a look at Trello or ClickUp
- For enterprise organizations, consider Wrike
- For customizable options, discover Notion or Asana
💡 Professional Tip: Search for instruments that supply precedence administration templates matching your workflow. I discovered that beginning with a template and customizing it saved important setup time in comparison with constructing from scratch.
Bear in mind: One of the best precedence administration device is one which your staff will truly use constantly. Don’t be afraid to strive a number of choices earlier than making your closing alternative.
By specializing in these facets and punctiliously evaluating every device towards your particular wants, you’ll have the ability to select a precedence administration answer that really enhances your workflow slightly than complicates it.
