It sometimes happens that you’re doing a lot of things and you’ve got a really busy task list, busy days and no rest. Yet you’re not quite moving forward to your goals. The reason of this entrepreneurial disaster is lack of focus and concentration which can be cured with a more flexible approach to task management.
When ordinary to-do lists don’t give visibility into where you’re going, visual task management can present your Outlook task list in a form of a mind map which is far easier to analyze and correct.
TaskCracker is a rather cheap and quick solution for your Outlook task list which enables you to see your task list in a form of a visual matrix, based on the principles of the famous Eisenhower matrix time management technique, also called Urgent Important Matrix. The matrix gives instant visibility into what direction your tasks are moving you to.
The solution makes it possible to move the tasks around with drag and drop: each time you place the task into a new cell of the matrix, the status and the due date change automatically. Basically, it gives you what a simple to-do list view can’t give: the possibility to strategically manage your time and tasks.
Installation
The solution is definitely made for busy people: it installs in less than 30 seconds, according to what the website claims. Indeed, after I downloaded the trial from TasckCracker.com, it took me 26 seconds, the time between the “Accept” button hit and the “successful installation” message. After that no additional setting are required: I simply opened my Outlook the usual way and the TaskCracker button was already there, in the left bottom corner of my main working application:
Interface
To put it simple, TaskCracker is just another view for your task list which provides you with additional features such as drag and drop status and deadline selection, visual planning. Outlook has already a set of views to represent your tasks, and since I installed TaskCracker, all of my tasks were already presented in this new view. I can switch from TaskCracker visual view back to Outlook list view by simply hitting the button, and it’s quick. The TaskCracker interface looks clean and neat, and nice to take a glance at, so it’s really pleasant to work with this tool. Here’s how it looks:
Visual Task Management
First, you get more data at a glance, you can analyze it at once. The quickest way to perceive the most information is visual. Indeed, it’s better to see once rather than hear 100 times. That is why we use charts, Gantt charts, infographics, mind maps. This way, you get more data for analysis in less time. And that’s the principal that lays in the basis of visual task management: your to-do list is not a list anymore; it’s more like a view upon what’s going on.
It takes you much less time to re-organize your task list with TaskCracker matrix view because when you simply move them around your visual schedule matrix, the priority and the deadline is automatically assigned to the task once you place it in a new cell. Which is different from opening one task after another to set time and priority – it saves time.
You can optimize your tasks in a more productive way: the less time is spent on organizing the task list, analyzing and improving it, the more time is left for other productivity techniques application: after you’re done with planning, simply switch to the usual task list view and start completing tasks one by one using Getting Things Done, Pomodoro or any other time management method which works best for you when it comes to getting things completed.
Verdict
I vote up for TaskCracker because it’s good looking, quick, simple and efficient. It provides you with a completely new power of strategically planning your to-dos while you still stay within the same planning tool you use: MS Outlook. Planning and staying on top of your work as a project takes much less time which frees you to spend more time on completing tasks one by one. When the tasks to do are carefully selected basing on a visual time management matrix, you can be sure that you’re focused on the things that move you towards your goals. And here’s the download link for the product.
Product video:
With TaskCracker you can visually manage tasks using Urgency / Importance matrix inside the native Microsoft Outlook interface.