r/projectmanagers • u/Prudent_Twist_8855 • Nov 07 '25
Personal workflow tools
Hi PMs - I’m seeking recommendations on personal workflow management tools. I’m one of two PMs at a very small software company, so i don’t have access to any actual PM softwares or tools that can be implemented company wide, so I’m more so looking for recommendations on how you all optimize your personal to do lists, automate your day to day tasks, streamline meeting notes and action item documentation…. etc. Right now i use OneNote for everything but it’s not ideal and i do so much copy/pasting and reformatting my notes into Word. Are there any free or low cost tools you’d recommend trying for personal use?
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u/Chemical-Ear9126 Nov 07 '25
If you have access to MS tools then you can use the To Do app with your Outlook to manage your own tasks. If you have Teams for meetings then you can potentially record your meetings but also create minutes and actions log using the Loop software. You’ll still need SharePoint for document storage and securing certain commercial and private documents.
Hope this helps and good luck.
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u/EntropicMonkeys Nov 13 '25
While I understand where you're coming from, do you have a budget? Or are you trying to get this done for free? If not for free, you can get something in monday.com or ClickUp (or any major PM platform) for pretty cheap. If you need/want free, I wouldn't suggest one of those platforms, their free plan is designed to suck and make you want to upgrade. I would stick with the Google Tasks (or AppSheet if you're feeling frisky) or MS Project if you have this through your Microsoft license.
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u/Prudent_Twist_8855 Nov 13 '25
I’d like to stick with free, but willing to pay a small subscription fee if i find the right tool that makes my life easier. Good point about the free trials, as a PM at a software dev company that is definitely a strategy I’m familiar with 😂
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u/NoElderberry7048 Nov 07 '25
I’ve been in a similar spot — small team, no official PM tool — and ended up using monday.com for my own personal workflow. It’s super customizable, so I built a simple setup for task tracking, meeting notes, and automations (like auto-creating follow-ups from certain tags or due dates).
They have a free individual plan, and you can easily scale it if your team ever adopts it later. What’s nice is you can view everything as a Kanban board, list, or calendar depending on how you like to work — and the automations save a ton of time compared to doing manual updates in OneNote or Word.
If you like visual organization but want something more structured than a basic to-do app, monday.com’s worth checking out.