Picking the best free task management software can be challenging; especially if you’re still learning what’s out there. This article discusses the many “best” free task management software options for individuals. There are lots of free task management software available. These free personal task management software help you on managing tasks and projects easily. This post covers the best free task management software on Windows, Mac and Online.
A task management software is a program that helps individuals and organizations to organize and manage tasks, schedules and projects. It provides a simple way to plan, prioritize and report on multiple projects. The ultimate goal of a good task management software is to give users more time and energy so they can focus on accomplishing their goals. Task management is used in project management when the task manager assigns an individual or group of individuals to complete a task. Task managers use a variety of task management software products to track and monitor the progress on some or all tasks performed by their team.
Todoist
Todoist grew in popularity over the years and has evolved significantly encompassing more powerful features. You can create, organize and prioritize tasks, create subtasks and dependencies as well as create projects and subprojects.
You can label tasks, customize through color codes, and add due dates to keep track of the tasks. A prominent feature that comes with Todoist is the AI-powered feature known as Smart Schedule.
Through Smart Schedule, the app suggests optimum dates for scheduling and rescheduling existing tasks.
Plus, with Todoist Karma, you get points for completing tasks, using advanced features, and meeting productivity goals on a weekly and monthly basis. You can monitor your progress through graphs with differently colored projects.
Download: iOS | Mac | Android | Windows | Desktop
Key Features
Todoist comes with some of the following notable features:
- Task creation (single and recurring) and labeling.
- Create tasks directly from your email inbox.
- Task comments for providing timely feedback on important matters.
- Set priority levels for your tasks to identify what needs to be done next.
- Built-in library of project templates to instantly gearing up for work.
- Project sharing to brainstorm ideas and make smarter decisions.
- Email notifications as well as SMS and email reminders.
- Contact list integration to keep track of all your contacts and interactions.
- Automatic backups to keep your data safe.
- Real-time synchronization for creating a unified workflow.
- Customizable filters to keep your concentration on critical things only.
- User management to have more control over user access and permissions.
- Productivity tracking through Karma points and streaks.
- Sharing controls.
- Open API.
- Powerful third-party application integrations.
Pros
- A vast library of project templates to get started.
- Powerful third-party application integrations.
- Free version available.
Cons
- Built-in time tracking is missing.
- No dedicated meeting management module.
- Lacks advanced project tracking features.
Asana
Format: Web, iOS, Android
If you want to organize your individual tasks and stay on top of your productivity game, then Asana is an app to consider. Asana is a tremendous personal task management tool and is available as a web and mobile application. Asana will help you to categorize, organize, track, and manage your daily individual tasks.
You can not only create and organize your tasks or to-do list with Asana but also you will be enabled to collaborate on those tasks with your team and track completion time. It gives you the ability to assign the task and to-do list to a specified team member. Moreover, you can set the task status as closed or open, set task priorities, and leave comments on those tasks to share information.
It is an easy to use tool that can be used for organizing your personal and professional to-do list, both. Asana comes handy with iOS and Android apps to help you manage your work from anywhere. This tool can also be used to help monitor the workflow and team performance on tasks.
Best Features:
- Organize personal tasks efficiently and effortlessly as lists or Kanban boards.
- Track all your individual tasks and divide a larger task into smaller parts.
- Attach files from your computer, Dropbox, or Google Drive to any task.
Pros:
- Free version with adequate features
- Flexible, clean and fast application design
- Different task views to manage easily
- Sharing option available
Cons:
- Inability to switch between tasks and Kanban view
- Not suitable for creatives and graphics management work
- Paid plans are costly for startups
Trello
Do you like to use cards or post-it notes arranged in categories to help you figure out your thoughts and tasks? If yes, then try Trello. This tool is a fast and flexible way of organizing all your project components into various columns and cards by easily dragging and dropping, adding supporting details and comments as well as assigning to various persons in your team.
Use different boards for each project and set due dates or times for each card. Most of all, Trello is available for both iOS and Android devices with its drag and drop functionality available on phones too. Use Trello as your very own personal GTD task management tool. It’s fun and free-of-cost. However, Trello Gold, the premium version would cost you a bit to enjoy larger file attachments, stickers and custom backgrounds.
Best Features:
- Trello cards help to organize work systematically
- Trello’s in-built automation system, Butler, helps to reduce repetitive and tedious tasks.
- Easily integrates other productivity apps into your Trello.
- Public links for sharing boards with external collaborators
- Set due dates, assign cards to team members, and shift cards with drag and drop.
Pros:
- Use it on desktop, Android, iOS and Microsoft apps
- Flexible Kanban board for free
- Easy to use application
Cons:
- No internal task calendar
- No progress report
- No Gantt charts
Microsoft Todo
Microsoft To Do is a cloud-based task management app that lets you manage your tasks from a smartphone, tablet and computer. The smart daily planner helps you stay on track, and you can break tasks down into simple steps, add due dates, and set reminders, as well as share your list with friends and family.
Microsoft To-Do is another one of the best to-do list apps you can get your hands on. Developed by the team behind Wunderlist, Microsoft To-Do is cloud-based and integrates completely with Office 365. It lets you create tasks from scratch or even import tasks from other tools like Wunderlist and Outlook.
This is especially useful if you have to continue with pending tasks without having to rewrite the entire to do list again. You can customize task list presentations with themes and colors, organize and prioritize tasks, add notes and set reminders to keep the tasks in check.
Key Features
Some of the significant options Microsoft To-Do provides you with are:
- Task management through to-do lists for the day.
- Task reminders to avoid missing important details.
- Daily task lists to get a heads up for what lies ahead in a day.
- Task prioritization to define the level of urgency for getting things done.
- Outlook tasks integration for managing tasks in one centralized location.
- Data sync across devices, so you take your work wherever you go.
- To-do suggestions, recommending your most important tasks of the day.
- Multiple task lists for categorizing to-dos according to their purpose.
- Due date tracking to stay ahead of deadlines.
- List sharing to streamline communication and collaborate on ideas.
- Custom task list themes & colors to match individual preferences.
Pros
- Synchronization across multiple devices and platforms.
- Simple user-interface with a short learning curve.
- It comes with Office 365 integration.
- Free for everyone.
Cons
- Lacks powerful task management features.
- No recurring tasks management.
- Needs improvements on the collaboration front.
ToodleDo
Another best to-do list application that made to our list is Toodledo. This application focuses heavily on task management and lets you organize your to-dos in the most simple and easiest way. Under each task, you can add multiple sub-tasks, notes, and priority levels, along with other basic information.
In addition to the lists, Toodledo helps in managing tasks by creating an outline. All your tasks and subtasks displayed in the form of an outline consisting of further sections to assist you in keeping your focus on important things and give you an overall view of your tasks.
Although it’s primarily for task management, there are other rather interesting features available too. One of them is the tracking of habits. You can log multiple habits at one time and monitor the dos and don’ts to improve your daily routine. Habits come with a calendar, so you can track your progress in days.
Download: Android | iOS | Desktop
Key Features
- Tasks and subtasks management, along with sorting filters.
- Public and private sharing of lists to define accessibility.
- Recurring tasks to manage tasks repeating at regular intervals.
- Quick notes to write down ideas and putting them in relevant folders.
- Habits tracking and monitoring through graphs and charts.
- Integration with third-party applications.
- Customized tags for organizing tasks and easy retrieval whenever required.
- iOS, Android, and web compatibility.
Pros
- Elaborate tasks management, along with habit tracking.
- A good fit for GTD followers.
- Built-in time tracker.
- Cross-platform support.
Cons
- Advanced features are available with paid plans.
- No dedicated issues management module.
- Collaboration features are only available for paid users.
TickTick
Generally, TickTick offers more or less the same kind of basic features other competitors in the market are coming up with. The application supports multiple parameters like lists, tasks and subtasks, priority levels, and tags.
Coming with a neat interface, the platform makes the management of tasks clutter-free and organized. Like all other tools, you can add tasks, subtasks, set deadlines and reminders, and share them with other people. Recurring tasks can also be added and repetition can be set according to your requirements.
The tool provides smart reminders for your tasks according to due dates and time information. If you have a bad habit of snoozing through your to-dos, you can also set annoying alerts to set multiple reminders with one task.
TickTick also comes with multiple task sorting filters and tags to help you organize your tasks in a better way and make your priorities clear. Furthermore, the Pomodoro timer allows you to stay focused during your work and achieve better results.
Download: iOS | Mac | Android | Windows | Web | Chrome Extension
Key Features
- Customized to-do lists, plus voice commands for quick addition.
- Smart reminders and alerts for due tasks.
- Calendar view to keep an eye on all upcoming tasks.
- Drag and drop tasks in the calendar to set the due date.
- Sharing of lists with collaborators.
- Priority level and tags with tasks for classification.
- Personalized themes according to personal choices.
- Time tracking, with achievement scores when completing tasks.
- Advanced project statistics and workflow summary to monitor progress.
- Backup of data to store and retrieve it whenever needed.
Pros
- Smart task management module.
- Native time tracking, alongside Pomodoro timer.
- User-friendly interface, with easy drag and drop.
- Free version available.
Cons
- Advanced functionalities, such as full calendar view, is only available with the paid version.
- Cannot integrate TickTick with other task management apps to streamline workflow.
Any.do
Format: Web, iOS, Android
Any.do is an award-winning productivity and task management platform used by millions of individual professionals and business teams. Any.do is a great option for high-performing professionals and multi-taskers looking for personal task management and productivity app. Any.do enables you to organize your tasks, lists and reminders in one easy-to-use app that syncs seamlessly across all your devices. An interesting feature of the application is the voice-entry one. If you dread typing long to-do lists and prefer speaking, this application is meant for you. Any.do lets you create a to-do list of tasks by speaking into your smartphone and then creates your tasks for you, just like a virtual personal assistant.
Best Features:
- Any.do works seamlessly across multiple devices.
- Any.do enables you to customize your theme and color paletter based on your style, mood, and personality.
- Colors for organizing and prioritizing tasks.
- Recurring tasks management for regularly repeating tasks.
- Unlimited file attachments to give more context to discussions.
- Notes within tasks in case of additional information.
- Customized themes to match with preferences.
Pros
- Recurring tasks management.
- Multiple task organizing features.
- Built-in Calendar app for syncing tasks.
Cons
- Many of the critical features are available only with the Premium plan.
- Does not include advanced reporting functionality.
Things
One for the Apple crowd. Things is an award-winning personal task management app that helps you achieve your goals. You can use checklists to break down the finer details of a to-do list, view your calendar events with your to-dos, which gives you an outline of your schedule, and plan your week ahead with the new Upcoming feature, which shows everything in your diary for the next week, including scheduled to-dos, deadlines, and calendar events.
With a new and updated version, Things has tried to infuse a whole new set of amendments into its design, features, and overall look.
The easy drag and drop interface of the tool allows you to quickly rearrange your to-dos according to your priorities. Use headings functionality to create categories of your tasks and give more structure to what you need to do next.
Key Features
- Tasks and checklists management.
- Customized tags for arranging to-dos according to categories.
- Start and end dates of tasks.
- Calendar view to keep the deadlines in check.
- Upcoming tasks list for getting a heads up.
- Drag and drop for quick addition and prioritization of tasks.
- Custom headings for dividing tasks into categories.
Pros
- Effective task sorting filters.
- Elaborate task management.
- Easy to understand user-interface.
Cons
- Only Mac and iOS are compatible.
- No time tracking with tasks.
- No free version.
Evernote
Currently, everyone’s favorite seems to be Evernote and here’s why: this powerful project management app is there to help you organize your thoughts not just in form of a series of notes; but it helps you in making sense of a lot of information in the best possible presentation.
Eventually, you are able to become organized in your tasks and plans. Use Evernote to digitize your pen and paper notes, documents and other files so that you can toss them into respective project notebooks or save them as you like.
The best part about Evernote is that it’s supported by a lot of other apps from both iOS and Android platforms.
Key Features
- Projects and tasks management.
- Built-in notes templates for quickly getting to work.
- Offline access to notes to never miss any details.
- Workspaces for multiple teams working on multiple projects.
- Web Clipper to save any content from the web.
- Document scanner to always keep important documents with you.
- Multiple language recognition.
Pros
- Comprehensive task management features.
- Multiple third-party application integrations.
- Free version available.
Cons
- It can seem overwhelming for starters.
- The free version comes with basic to-do list management.
If you’re overwhelmed by a number of tasks and ideas swirling around in your brain, a personal task management tool can help you get everything in order. These applications can help you create a visual representation of your to-dos, set reminders, and prioritize your tasks. These applications make it simple to organize your tasks and ensure that you stick to your deadlines. You can use them on any device and sync between them so that no matter where you are, you’ll always have access to your to-do list.
However, with so many options, it can be difficult to choose the best one for you. Carefully think about which features are most important for you, and then try a few out to see which ones help you be the most productive and help you balance out your life.