Recurring tasks are the backbone of most jobs, yet they can be incredibly tedious. This is especially true if you work in the creative spectrum; with most of your mental energy devoted to ideating and creating, you don’t want to waste time and shut off your brain for simple, repetitive, yet necessary tasks.
But recurring tasks don’t need to be a chore to accomplish. With the right project task management software, these tasks can be completed efficiently and consistently each time, with very little effort on your part. How? Automation is the key to managing these tasks.
How project task management software Can Solve This Problem
No matter how much you want to believe that you are capable of handling more than one task at a time, neuroscience has proven, time and time again, that the human brain simply isn’t designed for it. When we believe that we’re multi-tasking, the best we can hope for is the ability to move quickly between tasks—but with just one wrong move, the details get lost in the shuffle.
The role of project task management software, then, is to take the human error out of task management. When it comes to a recurring workload, automated tasks and workflows can be the perfect tool to help you make sure you don’t miss something important even in a task you’ve done thousands of times.
If you’re able to automatically generate these repeatable tasks, you’ll save both time and money, both of which are always in short supply for content creators, marketers, and freelancers.
Recurring Tasks Best Suited for Automation
Digital marketers and content creators have a variety of tasks in any given day or week that would be great for automation. Some of the most common tasks include:
- Assigning, editing, and approving content
- Issuing payment to freelancers or vendors
- Cross-posting content to social media
- Managing billing cycles and reminders
- Sending newsletters
- Link building and media outreach follow-ups
- Producing weekly and/or monthly reports
- Planning meetings
However, it’s also important to note that some tasks aren’t suitable for automation. By keeping this in mind, you can focus your task management on aspects that make sense, and free up your time for higher-priority/billable tasks, and also those that respond poorly to automation.
There are two primary tasks that, while recurring, are not best handled by automation:
Content Creation: As mentioned above, you can easily automate the process around your content production pipeline: tasks to regularly brainstorm new ideas; order content with in-house or freelance creators; and edit, upload, and share that content can all be automated.
But one thing you can’t automate is the content creation itself. Many companies have tried and the result are clumsy, keyword-laden blocks of text with little to no readability. Instead, web copy should be informative and easy to read, and you should augment the static pages of your website with new and fresh content regularly, like a blog. It’s important that you take the time to write thoughtful pieces that will engage your readers.
Audience Engagement: As with content creation, engagement on social media should also feature limited automation. Individuals turning to social media or other online platforms are looking for companies to be authentic and genuine in their interactions. If you automate responses you run the risk of sounding robotic when replies are sent to people who are looking to your company for answers.
A hands-on approach to audience engagement will not only satisfy the need to communicate effectively with your end users but also establish trust. Those engaging with you online will feel that they are being answered directly and are more likely to recommend working with you in the future.
How Gryffin Help You with Recurring Tasks
Gryffin is a powerful project management software that improves efficiency and productivity in organizations of all sizes, whether you’re a team of one or running a large agency.
With Gryffin, you can create…
- Recurring tasks for repetitive, one-time tasks.
- Automated workflows for recurring projects with similar processes.
Creating a Recurring Task
Go to your Task Manager. Create a new task by clicking the red “Add” button in the top-right corner:
Click the Recurring Task icon (
) at the top of the task window (second to the left). Here you will be able to select the conditions of the recurring task, including when it will repeat, and for how long.
Once you’ve set the conditions, click Set Recurring and then fill out the rest of the information for your task. (Setting the Due Date will only affect the first task assigned, not the subsequent recurring tasks).
To create the recurring task, hit Ok.
You will see both the first tasks and all recurring tasks in your Task Manager.
Note that in this example we created a task from the Task Manager. You can also create recurring tasks that are attached to a single project. To learn how to create connected tasks, watch our quick video here.
Creating an Automated Workflow
Automated workflows are ideal for any type of recurring project. With Gryffin, you can define each stage of a project and the task(s) needed at that stage. You can then automate your workflow so that when all those tasks are marked done, it automatically moves your project to the next stage and generates the next task (or set of tasks).
You aren’t limited to a single auto workflow, either. You can create multiple workflows depending on what type of project you are executing, what client you’re working with, or who is in charge of the workflow.
Get a sneak peak of the automated workflows in action:
[arve url=”https://vimeo.com/297231207″ title=”Gryffin’s Automated Workflows” description=”Learn how easy it is to automate your workflows – and improve your productivity – with Gryffin!” upload_date=”2018-10-25″ thumbnail=”https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/735601015_640.webp” /]There’s no need to struggle with task management with Gryffin.
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