As a project manager, you need a tool that keeps your team organized and on the same page. Easy time tracking and collaboration are a must, too. Is there an all-in-one platform that can do it all?
There is! We love recommending ClickUp to project managers thanks to its features that help you plan ahead and track progress for every project. ClickUp’s ease of use and customization options don’t hurt, either.
Here are five ClickUp features every project manager should know below to get you started!
First up? Hierarchy. If you want a strong foundation in ClickUp, it’s important to understand how the basic ClickUp Hierarchy works. The Hierarchy helps you structure your projects and organize your teams so that you can always find the info you need.
Here’s how the Hierarchy goes from largest to smallest:
You have one Workspace for your entire company. Then there are Spaces, which you can assign to individual departments and teams, like marketing, operations, sales, and so on. We recommend having five to eight Spaces max so things don’t get too overwhelming.
Within Spaces, there are Folders (which are optional) to help you keep your projects in order.
In each Folder you can have multiple Lists of Tasks, and then Subtasks within those Tasks.
At the very bottom of the chain there are Checklists to further organize complicated projects and processes.
If you have a project that has a definitive start date and end date, it’s super helpful to contain that project in one list. As the project manager, you can then see all of the things going on: project phases, assignees, statuses, due dates…all of it.
Grab our Workflow Mapping Template and we’ll outline your projects for you!
Next, we recommend utilizing Custom Fields. Custom Fields add context to your data to make collaboration and project management easier.
Some examples of what you can do with Custom Fields include:
With Custom Fields in place, you can filter for specific info you need and organize tasks by importance.
While we love Custom Fields, we know that overusing them can stop being helpful and start being overwhelming. Make sure you and your team are on the same page about Custom Field use. Talk about which types you use, how many you can use, and how to apply them.
One of our favorite ClickUp features? Dashboards! Dashboards compile all of your information within ClickUp and outside of it. Think of them as your mission control center for your project.
You can create a specific dashboard for a project or initiative. Take the “Today’s Tasks” dashboard that I cover in this video, for example. Instead of clicking around multiple spaces or folders or lists, I have one dashboard that compiles all of my tasks for today in one spot. It helps me stay on top of my workload and in touch with my team.
On a related note, using different Views to look at your project is super helpful!
If you stay organized with checklists, use the List view. If Kanban boards help you envision the pieces of a project, use the Board view. Need to see how time overlaps between team members? Gantt view is your friend! Toggle between different views so you can see the best way to view your project information.
Time is money. And as a project manager, you’ll be working with everyone’s time and schedules a lot. It’s essential that you have your team members track their time accurately in ClickUp.
All you need to do is enable the Time Tracking ClickApp for your Workspace or for individual Spaces. Your team members can track time from their Task view, List view or Board view; or the Quick Action menu.
When you’re ready for time reporting, ClickUp has a handy Time Sheet that’ll show you information like:
Use ClickUp’s Time tracking cards along with Time Estimates to compare how much time your project is taking against actual time spent. You can add Time Estimates from tasks and views from a simple dropdown menu or Custom Field. With all three of these features, you can look at your team’s capacity by person or across projects.
Last but not least, we have Automations. (Which actually might be our favorite!) ClickUp’s native Automations can save you time and make your project management duties easier. Why not let ClickUp do some of the heavy lifting for you?
Here’s just one example of how Automations can free up your time. Say your team is batching social media content. Your copywriter has finished writing the posts and now they’re ready to be reviewed.
ClickUp can automatically reassign the task to the next person so that the workflow keeps moving. Your copywriter just has to change the task status to “Ready for Review” and ClickUp will reassign it to the appropriate person, plus update the due date. These kinds of Automations make it easier on your team and easier on you!
Whether you’re a new project manager, a temporary one, or leading your own team, we know that ClickUp can help you do things better and more easily! ClickUp’s time management, structural, and automated features are every project manager’s best friend.
Ready to learn more about ClickUp’s capabilities? Try our Systems School ClickUp Course!
With this course, you get over 70 on-demand video lessons on ClickUp, with step-by-step instructions and helpful examples. Plus, you get lifetime access and course updates so that you’re always in the know with every new ClickUp feature and update!
We threw in bonus trainings, three months of community membership access, and access to a ClickUp FAQ Database, too. Join the course now and take your ClickUp game to the next level!
