Remote work has become more and more of a norm in today’s highly digital landscape. Along with this is the growing increase in demand for remote employees, particularly virtual assistants.

Virtual assistants are typically individual contractors who provide an array of services to aid and support online businesses and organizations. Virtual assistant jobs include administrative tasks, graphic design, customer service, human resource management, data entry, and more. 

Considering virtual assistants’ various tasks, VAs must find ways to organize and manage themselves as remote employees. With this in mind, here is a list of the top project and task management platforms perfect for remote virtual assistants. 

 

Advantages Of Using Project Management Platforms

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Before anything else, let’s look at what project management platforms are. Project management platforms are tools designed to aid in organizing, managing, tracking, and executing work. It is an interactive workspace suited for remote employees to coordinate their tasks with larger projects. 

Using project management platforms brings in a handful of benefits:

 

Better project planning and task scheduling

Virtual assistants can handle several tasks at once. For example, they can be assigned administrative tasks and customer support responsibilities. Considering this, planning and scheduling are critical in maintaining a clear and organized task list. 

Project management platforms come with a variety of task management frameworks. Some feature Kanban boards, while others come with a simple bullet list. Regardless, project management platforms are greatly helpful in providing users with a clear picture of their day-to-day tasks and overarching projects.

Aside from that, project management platforms help significantly in creating an organized project through functions such as resource allocation and management, deadline setting, and even identifying specific project deliverables. With these, virtual assistants can keep track of their numerous tasks and know which ones to prioritize. 

 

Improved collaboration process

One of the challenges of remote work is the lack of in-person communication, making it difficult for some to work collaboratively with other team members. With this in mind, one of the benefits of utilizing project management platforms is that virtual assistants have an all-in-one and unified workspace.

Project management platforms come with task management features and communication tools available for anyone involved to see. Thus, project management tools can bridge the gap between team members by providing them with a comprehensive and detailed view of any work that needs to be accomplished together. 

 

Pricing

While most project management platforms come with a free plan ideal for individual users or personal uses, some virtual assistants may still need to avail of a higher subscription tier to unlock more tools and features. Another factor to consider when choosing a project management platform is its price.

However, it is not limited to that. Aside from the mere pricing, paying close attention to the tools, features, and other benefits of a paid subscription is also important. Generally, payment plans are available via monthly or yearly subscriptions, offering a significant discount if you avail of their yearly plan instead of renewing every month. 

 

Choosing A Project Management Platform

Ideally, project management platforms are there to help increase productivity and efficiency. However, there are several factors that virtual assistants need to consider when it comes to choosing the right place to manage their tasks and projects. With that in mind, here is a brief list of factors to consider when selecting a project management platform.

 

User Interface and User Experience Design

One of the first things anyone should look into regarding online applications and programs is its user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design. Management apps should be easy to use and intuitive enough for beginners to grasp and understand after several uses.

 

Third-party App Integration Capabilities

A critical part of working online is using numerous apps and programs, from Slack for communication to Google Drive for file storage and sharing. Considering this, good project management platforms should have easy and hassle-free integration options with some of the most popular digital apps for a smoother workflow.

 

Remote Work and Collaboration Features

As remote work setups become more and more popular, remote collaboration has also become a norm in today’s work environment. But to make collaboration possible among remote teams and employees, project management platforms need features such as task management, deadline setting, scheduling, file sharing, and the like to support collaborative work. 

 

Top Project Management Platforms For Virtual Assistants

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Now that you have a better idea of project management platforms and their purpose, let’s jump into the top choices best suited for virtual assistants. 

 

Asana

When it comes to project management platforms, Asana surely belongs as one of the top choices for remote employees, teams, and online organizations. Asana is a cloud-based software that has made it extremely easy for remote employees to work collaboratively through its extensive project and task management tools and features. 

Asana boasts of a handful of pros, especially when compared to other platforms available online. One of the primary advantages of using Asana is that it has one of the most intricate and complete dashboards that allow users to simultaneously track and monitor each member’s activities, view their task lists, create deadlines, and more. 

Aside from that, Asana is also known for its number of app and program integrations that are critical to remote work. It is compatible with numerous third-party apps, such as Dropbox, Slack, Google Calendar, and Salesforce, offering a more seamless experience.

The app also offers ready-made project templates where managers can simply input task details and start projects with ease. Furthermore, Asana is known for its automation features, making task assignment and scheduling less time-consuming and hassle-free.

Most importantly, users can access Asana free of charge, but this comes with some limitations. Asana’s most basic plan still comes with unlimited tasks, projects, messages, activity logs, and file storage for files up to 100MB. It comes with several subscription tiers, starting at $13.49 per month for its premium plan and $30.49 for its business tier.

 

Trello

Trello is widely considered the beginner’s best friend for project management platforms. Accessible through the browser and app, Trello features a unique Kanban-board style of framework that makes it easy for users to track tasks with regard to their progress.

Users can organize their tasks under a number of categories. The most basic labels used in Kanban-style dashboards are “Not Started,” “In Progress,” and “Done or Completed.” This makes tracking progress extremely simple as users simply transfer their tasks from one category to another.

Trello also comes with a variety of project management and productivity features. The app comes with a simple task management system where users can assign tasks to specific members. One cool feature of a Kanban-style board is that everybody involved in a team or project is updated whenever one task is transferred to another category, whether it is now in progress or already completed.

 

Notion

Notion is a highly versatile project management platform. With its user-friendly interface, it is fairly easy to start creating projects, tracking tasks, and organizing files and databases. Notion boasts of a variety of tools and features, allowing users to personalize and customize their digital workspace according to their needs. 

It is an amazing project management app with features such as to-do and task lists, project roadmaps, database storage and management, Kanban-style dashboards, and project plan templates. 

Because of Notion’s flexibility and versatility, it works perfectly for all uses. Notion is a great choice for individual or personal projects, making it easy to organize tasks, manage to-do lists, create notes, and track progress and activity. Remote employees, such as virtual assistants, can use Notion for online collaborative work through task management and document sharing.

However, Notion also works perfectly for larger groups, from startups and SMEs to larger organizations. The platform comes with subscription plans that provide access to more tools and features that make project management so much easier.

Luckily, Notion’s pricing plans are relatively cheaper than those of other project management platforms. Notion Plus comes at a mere $8 per user per month, while Notion Business is priced at $15 per user per month. 

 

Bottomline

As individual contractors, virtual assistants need to develop a personal system that will increase their productivity and efficiency. One way to do so is to leverage project management platforms to organize and track their numerous tasks.

With platforms such as Asana, Trello, and Notion in hand, virtual assistants have the ability to work for several clients and take on a variety of tasks without feeling lost and overwhelmed. These apps can give them a clear picture and idea of their day-to-day responsibilities and track important or urgent work they must focus on.

However, there is a lot more to consider when it comes to choosing the right project management platform for you. This includes elements such as user-friendliness, key features, integration options, task management tools, and pricing. 

 

Want to know more ways for virtual assistants to improve their productivity? Sidekicks is an on-demand virtual company, and we’re eager to help visionaries and entrepreneurs like you. Get a free ebook and learn more about how we can help you by signing up for our newsletter. We also offer a free 30-minute consultation if you prefer something more personal.

 

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