Why You Should Use Flow for Task Management (Over Basecamp or Asana)

I’ve long used Flow for task management. My Socialexis team used it, my editorial team now uses it at Taylor Media, and my husband and I even use it to keep track of household tasks.

In short, I’m a huge Flow fan.

So I’m always surprised when this app doesn’t make it into conversations about the best options for project management. People often recommend Asana, Trello and Basecamp, but you’ll rarely hear anyone mention Flow.

I tried those other options too, back when I was first looking for a way to facilitate team collaboration. And we actually do use Trello for one specific purpose: to track the progress of blog posts we’ve assigned to writers.

But after running trials on a number of task-management platforms, I found Flow was the best fit for what we needed.

Flow makes it easy to assign tasks to my team (they can assign tasks to me, too) and follow progress on those tasks until we check them off as complete. It helps me and my team stay organized and ahead of schedule, which is essential not only for doing great work, but for reducing stress. Best of all, it’s intuitive, so new users can pick it up quickly.

Why I’m telling you about Flow today

I’ve had on my blog list to create a video that shows you how we use Flow, but I haven’t gotten around to it. And because of that, I’ve put off telling you about Flow. Because I’d rather show you how to use a tool instead of simply gush about how great it is.

But today, Flow introduced a new feature that makes it even more useful, which prompted me to hit publish on this post. The feature is still a little buggy, but once the initial launch period is complete, I think this will finally push Flow into the big leagues, so it gets the chatter it deserves.

The feature is chat. Just like the uber-popular Slack, but integrated right into the task-management app. In fact, you can now create tasks from within Flow’s chat.

The Flow team shared details of the development today on their blog, and Product Hunt also featured it prominently.

While my team wants to experiment with Flow’s chat before declaring we’ll use that instead of Slack, it looks promising. (Though as one of my editors noted, we’ll want a giphy integration!)

Ready to try Flow for task management?

If you want to learn more about how Flow works, this page from the company outlines some of its best features. You can add up to 10 people for $59/month, and if you’re just looking to use it as your own personal to-do list, there’s a $19/month individual plan. They also offer a free trial, which is always helpful if you’re not sure you want to commit before giving it a whirl.

I’ve found Flow’s support team to be incredibly helpful, especially during my company’s acquisition this summer, when we needed to transition our workflow to a new account. While the app does have some limitations — it’s difficult to keep task lists private, for example, when you’re in a team account — the company constantly releases updates and improvements.

Oh, and as a bonus, the team behind Flow isn’t venture-backed; it’s small and bootstrapped, and you know how much I love supporting that type of company.

At some point, I’ll get around to updating this post with a video that shows how we use Flow. But for now, take my word for it: If you’re managing a small team that juggles a lot of tasks and projects, this tool will make your life easier.

And while I’ll shamelessly add an affiliate link to this post when I can, Flow doesn’t yet offer an affiliate option. So the only way I’m benefiting from this testimonial is by spreading the Flow love.

Have you tried Flow for task management? What’s your favorite feature?