Best Planners for Project Managers to Choose From in 2024

Best planners for project managers are the tools that facilitate your planning efforts no matter your projects small or big, simple or complex.

This post contains the description of the best online planners widely used for project management needs as well as the tools’ examples you may apply right away.

The meaning of a planner in project management

What is a project planner?

A planner for project management is a tool that helps to visualize and plan projects with their activities and time frames. With its help, you can track tasks, costs, and time — all in one place.

You can utilize a planner to replicate all aspects during project plan building from a WBS work breakdown structure to resource management.

What are the advantages of project planners?

There are many benefits you can get using a planner for project management.

The best planners for project managers help to:

• Track projects.
• Manage schedules.
• Manage scope.
• Ensure high quality.
• Allocate resources.

Now it’s time to move on to listing the best planners for project managers in any sphere.

6 best planners for project managers and scheduling gurus

Selecting an appropriate planner for project management means gaining confidence in business and ensuring the right course of action.

Let’s consider the best solutions right away.

1. Gantt chart

Most project managers know the power and role of a Gantt chart or their projects.

This professional planner visualizes schedules and demonstrates the relationships between tasks and current project status. It provides a simple way to communicate what it will take to deliver a project on time and in accordance with budget.

In typical Gantt chart software, all tasks are listed on the left and then fill the timeline to the right. The diagram provides you with the big picture, organizes your tasks, and lets you manage daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly plans.

GanttPRO is the example of a Gantt chart planner for project managers

GanttPRO allows for generating a Gantt chart and applying it to your projects. The advanced additional features help to manage and complete the tasks of various complexity.

The tool allows for planning and scheduling tasks, setting dependencies and milestones, managing resources, and collaborating with stakeholders. You can export and import your projects there.

The software serves as a professional helper for Windows users and also considered as a reliable project management software for Mac https://blog.ganttpro.com/en/best-project-management-software-for-mac/.

Top-5 features:

• Project planning.
• Drag and drop functionality.
• Collaboration.
• Export/import.
• Gantt chart templates.

By the way, a professional PM planner may reliably assist in private affairs and events, providing handy templates for various every-day cases.

For example, GanttPRO offers the following templates:

• Life planning template free https://ganttpro.com/life-planner-template/.
• Trade show planning template excel https://ganttpro.com/exhibition-planning-template/.
• Sample wedding planning timeline template https://ganttpro.com/wedding-planning-timeline-template/.

2. Task list

A task list or a to do list is a prioritized set of activities you have to do to complete your project. This planner may include certain time frames when the tasks need to be done.

The tool perfectly suits if you create a daily or weekly work plan or when you desire to manage even more complex schedules.

Software solutions based on a task list functionality usually allow for editing, filtering, and adding tags to prioritize work.

Todoist is the example of a task list planner for project managers

Todoist is a powerful task list and task management platform that also allows its users to collaborate with other team members with ease.

By combining tasks, attachments, comments, notifications, and more, Todoist users can work more effectively and streamline their personal and team productivity. The tool is available on every device.

Top-5 features:

• Task management.
• Scheduling.
• Collaboration.
• Prioritization.
• Reporting.

3. Kanban board

Kanban boards enable project teams to plan and manage workflows in the form of convenient cards and columns. They provide a streamlined layout to make changes by moving cards with drag & drop functionality.

In a typical Kanban board, a card is a task that is placed underneath columns which stand for the different stages in the production cycle.

The typical columns are:

• To do.
• Doing.
• Test.
• Done.

Kanbanize — the example of a Kanban board planner for project managers

Kanbanize is a great platform for creating effective Kanban boards and tracking task movements there.

You can modify a Kanban board with different columns and visualize your tasks by status, priority, or assignments. The tool also allows for generating work item links between different boards, creating business rules, and adding WIP limits (work in progress limits limits) to run a process that will work even for a large enterprise.

Top-5 features:

• A comprehensive Kanban board with columns and cards.
• Data imports/export.
• Time tracking.
• Portfolio management.
• Reporting.

4. Spreadsheets

A spreadsheet is usually composed of rows and columns. It helps to sort, organize, and arrange different data in a proper manner. With the help of this project planner you can calculate numerical tasks with ease.

You can use this too to manage a work plan for a project or to build a more complex system. Overviewing a bank’s balance is a good example here.

When it comes to project planning, a spreadsheet can be applied to prepare basic charts and task lists.

Smartsheet is the example of a spreadsheet planner for project managers

Smartsheet is known for a table-like interface, a database of basic features, and an intuitive UI.

The tool offers a rich library of templates that you can modify at any time. The existing project management templates can be customized to your needs. You may add tasks, due dates, and implement many other options.

Top-5 features:

• Activity planning.
• Resource management.
• Time tracking.
• Task prioritization
• Reporting.

5. Project calendar

Calendars display a project schedule. These project planners assist managers in organizing timelines and let them plan project milestones, ensuring delivery of things on time.

A project calendar allows for tracking all your deadlines in one place, setting goals, and promoting transparency.

Google Calendar id the example of a calendar planner for project managers

Google Calendar allows for calendar sharing that makes it a great choice for scheduling meetings or dropping important milestones. You can use this planner to customize event notifications to be always aware of those upcoming meetings or commitments.

However, Google Calendar is not so good for professional project scheduling. That is why you need additional tools or extra functionality to manage your projects in the right manner.

Top-5 features:

• Schedule view.
• Time tracking.
• Advanced search.
• Desktop notifications.
• Time zone conversion.

6. PERT chart

A PERT chart is used for mapping out separate tasks and planning the overall project schedule.

With this planner, you can see essential scheduling details. For example, task duration estimates, dependencies, and the time your project can be completed within.

Lucidchart is the example of a PERT chart planner for project managers

Lucidchart is also a handy planner for project managers. It allows the creation of PERT charts and other robust diagrams. Using it, you can create diagrams for various purposes from organization charts to emergency-exit illustrations. The tool is also good for planning and brainstorming projects as it can easily compress the flow of work or tasks to be achieved.

Top-5 features:

• Professional charts and diagrams.
• Document management.
• Drag and drop functionality.
• Mockup management.
• Customisable templates.

Best project planners: which one will you choose for your business needs?

Consider planning an essential business activity and part of the project management process.

Don’t rush when choosing the right solution for planning, study every single solution, and try to work with the available tool templates.

The only thing you need now is to make a choice. Be sure, the success of the most complex project always starts with a simple plan.

Would you like to get more information on this topic? Feel free to follow the article Best Planners for Project Managers to Help Become the Master of Planning in 2022 https://blog.ganttpro.com/en/best-planners-for-project-managers/ to get more.