Keep Your Business New Year Resolutions on Track with These Online Task Managers

If one of your business New Year resolutions for 2012 involves doing a better job with managing time and tasks, there’s a lot of tools on the web that can help. In fact there are SO many services and apps out there to try, you need to first consider how you think of task management before you even start comparing services. If you asked each of my friends that work online, you will get as many answers as to what tools are best.

I could simply type a list of services and websites for you to check out, but if you were to try them all, you would find that you really resonate with a few, some won’t make sense to you at all, some will just be plain overkill. So, how do you narrow it down? Ask yourself the following:

Do I have a team to manage? Almost all to-do managers have some capacity to share tasks. However, when you have subcontractors or if you ask clients to send requests through your chosen system- then you need a project manager like Basecamp, Central Desktop, Do.com (formerly Manymoon), Zoho Projects, Teambox , ClientSpot or Project Bubble. Into GTD? Look at Nozbe.
Am I a Google Apps user? If you are a GA user, start your search in the Google Apps Marketplace. All the services listed there will integrate with GA in at least one or two ways, including Mail, Docs and Calendar and will usually have a common login. This will keep your processes seamless, minimizing your “jumping” around from site to site.
Are my to-dos (in reality) time-items? Choose a solution that will create your tasks as scheduled calendar items – almost always involves Google Calendar. If you provide services to clients – this is a wonderful way to be sure that you don’t overload your bandwidth! Check out GQueues, Producteev and GetItDone …also, if you like a real simple tool, Google Tasks will work (some group management tools will also write to, or create a Google Calendar, like Zoho Projects and Do.com).
Is mobile access important? Although most online task lists have some capacity to see your to-dos on a mobile device, If you need full task management for your phone, not every solution is perfect. Some require an additional app to make that work, such as Astrid. Tops for mobile: Remember The Milk, Toodledo, Producteev, Nozbe, and Get It Done.
Am I a Getting Things Done (GTD) devotee? You’ll love Nozbe , Vitalist and Get It Done – all focused around the GTD method.
Am I willing to pay a fee? If your solution must be free, there’s good solutions to consider, but will have fewer feature lists (which may be fine for your needs). If you do pay, fees are normally nominal, unless you are managing a large team and have sophisticated collaboration requirements. If you want free or freemium- look at the list of simple solutions below.
I just need a simple online to-do list! There’s a lot of simple task list apps out there – try Google Tasks, TaDa Lists, ToDoist, or Remember The Milk.