project management calendar

How To Find The Perfect Project Management Calendar For Your Team in 2023

In one of the first professional jobs I ever had, the company owner was a self-professed coder. He built all sorts of websites and loved getting involved in the technical side of things. He created a project management calendar for us to use and it was a no-frills, no-nonsense tracker. Was it helpful to track projects? Absolutely. Was it easy to use and efficient? Absolutely not. It was clunky, buggy, and the complete opposite of user-friendly.

However, it was groundbreaking software at a time when almost nothing but Excel existed as a project management calendar. Fortunately, companies today don’t have to build their own custom project management calendars. Instead, excellent platforms like Hive exist to help teams be more productive and organized.

Types of calendars for project management

There are many calendar tools out there which aim to help businesses work efficiently and effectively — but not all calendars are created equal. Some calendars focus on a specific aspect of project management like resource planning or task management. On the other hand, robust project management platforms like Hive offer an all-in-one solution that can help your business track projects in multiple ways.

So if you know that you need a project management calendar but are unsure which type of tracking method will fit your business and style, familiarize yourself below with the options.

  1. Standard calendar
  2. Resource planning calendar
  3. Task Management calendar
  4. All-In-One Project calender

1. Standard calendar

Many older generations started with the original tracking method: a standard calendar that tracks high-level projects and workdays. These standard calendar tools, such as Google or Outlook calendars, typically display meetings, company-wide events, holidays, and a high-level view of projects and team members.

While this type of generic calendar may not be enough on its own, it should be the basis that all your other calendar tracking starts from. How can you track projects and timelines if you don’t know the days your team will be in the office? Start with one of these standard calendar tools and build from there.

2. Resource planning calendars

Resource planning calendars help you track and optimize the use of your team’s time. This type of calendar is helpful if you need to know what needs to be done, who will do it and when they will have the capacity to work on it. Using resource planning can help your business see how quickly people work and build on projects, and give you the option to base assignments around on time/availability.

A resource planning calendar tracks people and assets working on a project. This calendar will show the dates, times, and resources available to work on a particular project. A “resource” can be a person or even a piece of equipment. The calendar is where you can see if anyone is available to work on a job. If the resources are available.

Resource planning calendars are perfect for companies who want to track and optimize the use of their team’s time. (Tip: Hive’s project management platform offers resource management, among many other awesome functionalities).

3. Task management calendars

Task management calendars are designed to track the progress of specific tasks within a project. This type of calendar is helpful if you need to know what needs to be done, the details of each task, and who is responsible for completing it. Tasking within a calendar can become extremely granular, breaking down your project into specific tasks with deadlines.

A task management calendar will show the assigned tasks, deadlines, and the people responsible for completing them. This type of calendar is helpful if you need to track the progress of specific tasks within a project.

A task management calendar can group all the tasks needed to complete a project together, so businesses can gauge how long projects take, who is working on what, and set up future milestones and goals.

4. The All-In-One Project Management Calendar: Hive

What if you could bring all project management functions into one single calendar? Well that’s where a full project management calendar like Hive can come into play. Hive’s all-in-one calendar can help businesses see what needs to be done, who is available to do it, and when it needs to be completed — all in one place.

This type of project management calendar is helpful for companies who want to track both resources and tasks within a project. Hive’s Calendar view layout lets you Zoom in if you’d like to focus on just a specific week, or Zoom out to view your upcoming months at a glance. The drag and drop functionality lets you move tasks to other days right on the calendar, while Hive labels allow you to give tasks specific colors for added visual organization.

Even more, Hive integrates with other popular scheduling tools like Google calendar and Outlook so you can also access your meetings and company events on the same dashboard. And if someone on your team prefers to view tasks in another view — say Kanban, Gantt, or Table — Hive has those too. It’s a project management calendar with total flexibility, giving you and your team the power to tackle all of your upcoming tasks.

How to pick the right project management calendar

Now that you are familiar with project management calendars, it’s time to choose which one is best for your business. The answer to this question is not always black and white. The best solution for your business might be combining two or more types of calendars. Consider the following factors when making your decision:

  • Size of company: If you are a small business with a team of fewer than 15 people, a standard project management calendar might be all you need. If you have a large team or multiple projects underway at one time, you might need a resource or task management calendar (or both).
  • The complexity of projects: If your projects are relatively simple with a clear beginning and end, a standard project management calendar can help you stay on track. If your projects are more complex with multiple tasks and milestones, a task management calendar can help you break down your project into manageable pieces.
  • Team availability: If you have a team that is always on the go or working on different projects at different times, a resource management calendar can help you track who is available to work on what and when.
  • Team preferences: I always love when companies give their team the ability to choose what tracking works for them. Some businesses find that a mix of resource and task management works best for their team, and employees like the transparency and ability to plan in multiple ways.
  • Budget: There are a variety of project management calendar solutions on the market, ranging from free to enterprise-level. Choose a solution that fits your budget and offers the features you need.

When it comes to project management calendars, there is no one size fits all solution. It is essential to find the right calendar type for your business needs, from the ease of use, flexibility to budget, and even the consensus of your team. Find a platform that works for your business and see if it works!

If you are still unsure what kind to try, we recommend trying out a free trial of Hive to experience the benefits for yourself. With Hive, you can create custom workflows, add an unlimited number of users, and get real-time insights into how your team is performing.