For consultants and freelancers
Project management for one person
Every project you run alone, what matters today, and a clear run at doing it, without team software.
Project management for one person needs less than team software: your projects with their deadlines, the next task in each, a plan for today, and time to focus. In PrimeTask that's projects that track their own health, Compass for what's next, the Day Planner for today, and Focus Mode for the work.
Updated · Checked with PrimeTask 1.0.5 · PrimeTask Team
PrimeTask
How it fits together
Select a part, in the drawing or here, to see what it does and what it feeds.
What flows
Progress and health
Projects to Projects page
What's next
Tasks to Compass
Dragged into the day
Tasks to Day Planner
Set to start today
Tasks to Dashboard
One click to focus
Dashboard to Focus Mode
Every connection, in words
- Tasks is part of Projects.
- Routine work is part of Tasks.
- Projects is linked to Projects page.
- Tasks is linked to Focus Mode.
- Tasks is linked to Compass.
- Tasks is linked to Day Planner.
- Tasks is linked to Dashboard.
- Dashboard is linked to Focus Mode.
- Progress and health: Projects to Projects page.
- What's next: Tasks to Compass.
- Dragged into the day: Tasks to Day Planner.
- Set to start today: Tasks to Dashboard.
- One click to focus: Dashboard to Focus Mode.
How the parts of project management for one person connect, from each project to the task you do next
The problem
Most project tools are built for teams: assignments, approvals, permissions, a meeting to update the board. Working alone, you pay for all of it, use none of it, and the list still doesn't tell you what to do this morning.
One person needs three things: every project in one view, the next task picked for you, and a clear run at doing it.
What it uses
Five parts, one connected system
Each card opens its docs article in a new tab, for the detail behind the steps.
Projects
One project per outcome, with its health worked out for you
Docs for Projects (opens in a new tab)Step 1
Make one project per outcome
Creating projects (opens in a new tab)Open Projects and choose New Project for each thing you're trying to finish, such as a website launch or a course, with its deadline. Ongoing work, such as admin, is better as a tag than a project.
Step 2
Keep every project on one page
Project health and progress (opens in a new tab)Open Projects to see them all, each with its progress, anything overdue, and a health label PrimeTask works out from the dates and the work.
Filter by health to see what's slipping before it's late.
Step 3
Let Compass pick what's next
How Compass picks tasks (opens in a new tab)Press Cmd + J (Ctrl + J on Windows). Compass looks across every project and names a few tasks worth doing, overdue first, then today's, with the reason on each.
Take the first one, and the decision is made.
Step 4
Plan today in the Day Planner
Day Planner (opens in a new tab)Open Calendar and press 2. Drag the tasks you'll do today from the inbox into times, and leave gaps: a day planned to the minute breaks by ten.
Step 5
Work on one task at a time
Task Focus Mode (opens in a new tab)Right-click a task and choose Start Focus Session. PrimeTask goes full screen with a 25-minute timer and the task's checklist and notes beside it, and suggests a break when the time's up.
Step 6
Put routine work on repeat
Recurring tasks (opens in a new tab)Add the work that comes round every week or month once, such as Weekly review every friday 4pm, and it comes back on its own each time you tick it off.
The checklist
The whole list
A weekly review in about fifteen minutes, to keep several projects moving:
- Clear anything overdue: do it, give it a new date, or drop it
- Check each project's health on the Projects page
- Give every project a next task with a date
- Look at next week in the Calendar and move what won't fit
- Pick the one thing that must happen next week, and plan it first
Variations
Make it yours
Four ways to change the setup to fit how you work.
Work and personal apart
Where the time went
ProA lighter week
Your Dashboard
Reuse
Save it for next time
Set it up once, and start the next one from it.
A project you start often
Questions
Common questions
Keep it light: one list of projects with deadlines, a next task in each, and a short plan for today. Skip anything built for coordinating a team, such as approvals and status meetings.
Put them all in one view with their deadlines and health, give each a dated next task, and review them once a week. Let the tool pick today's tasks across all of them, rather than switching between lists.
It's built for one person first. Every step on this page works on the Standard licence, with nothing to set up for a team.
Yes. PrimeTask runs on your computer, and your projects stay in your own files.
Related
More setups like this
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Every phase, job and contractor in order, with what you've paid adding itself up.
Set this up with your own work.
The free trial runs for 14 days and includes Pro.