That's the goal! 🙏 We appreciate that you appreciate it. Our goal is to be opinionated, in the same way that a close friend would ask us for software advice-we wouldn't sugar coat it. That said, we're always open to having our opinion changed, it would just take a lot, or helping us see where a given software fits into the competitive landscape (and us validating that). We know we could "make more money" partnering up with the behemoths, like Salesforce or Monday, but we love software, we want to enjoy the software that we use, and the behemoths have actually been the reason that we have developed these strong opinions in the first place. There's nothing worse than people just saying "oh you're a business, you need Salesforce", we're like... Does your business have people in it or machines? If it's people, do they actually ENJOY using Salesforce? No they don't, so let's look at something that fits the business and the people working there better. Let's make software enjoyable again, and that comes from being opinionated, which may offend some companies at times. We're not meaning offense, we're just being candid. Apologies for the ramble, this comment just struck a chord-appreciate you 🙏
I love how you actually give an answer! Most people review different softwares and at the end always say... "I cant tell you which ones right for you, thats for you to decide" lol
Haha we made it a point to not have a video like that because we hate when we see it. Have some opinions people, please! 😬 glad you enjoyed it and appreciate your comment! 😁
Haha I mean don't get us wrong, we're super impressed by what Notion has managed to build... But we very much think people are trying to use it for everything, when they shouldn't be. It's not the best solution on the market for most things. These "all-in-one" tools are a strange category. It's like, "I can't figure out what we are, so let's be everything to everyone!"-where has that worked in any other industry over the long-run? 🤔
+Big sigh+ Soo... as a 3+ yr notion user (and others like anytype, coda, etc.) this is tough. Even though the PPV system (august bradley's) has been a life changer (literally), I'm now looking at other platforms. I just started using akiflow. Its speed, shortcuts, quick adds, etc are amazing but now that I'm seeing reviews on reclaim, skedpal and motion - using ai's help looks like a no-brainer. @@efficientapp
Ah yes, we're fans of Akiflow and Sunsama, although the manual-ness of it all didn't fit for us. Not sure if you saw our Daily Planner video that goes into this: efficient.yt/planner But yeah, I definitely recommend checking out Motion. If you do, be sure to lock in our course for free (probably going to be selling it for $400 otherwise) if you sign up for motion here: efficient.link/deal/motion We'll have some content coming out soon with some best practices for setting it up. Also happy to make a recommendation on if Motion or something else would be best based on your needs and you sharing your current stack via a Loom video here: efficient.link/audit Appreciate your comment and I'm confident you'll figure it what works best for you!
20 years experience speaking here: first question should be, "which platform does your Project Management Organization leadership prefer?" if the answer is "uh, we dont have a PMO leader" then that's your first challenge. the software will not run itself. it is a tool that a good leader can deploy to get max gains out of the rest of your teams
Yes! GREAT point 🙌 That’s why we prefer Motion, because it’s “easier to self-manage” but this will only work with teams up to a certain size. Thank you for watching! 🙏🙏
Your insight highlights the importance of organizational leadership in implementing project management software effectively. Identifying leadership preferences ensures alignment with strategic goals and enhances adoption across teams. A strong leader can leverage the software as a tool to streamline processes and optimize team performance, ultimately driving project success.
Totally, I mean it's a mixture, right? Having someone internal as a champion to lead product adoption is crucial, but also, the better the tool, the more you should be able to get some small wins when using it solo which brings people onboard to fully adopting it. The sheer number of companies using Salesforce, but their team HATES using it is incredibly high (the far majority, in our experience at least), so great, upper management loves it, but sales reps don't enjoy using it, so they don't, and the "data" that upper management is reporting on isn't even accurate. So again, it's a mixture of both. The tool needs to be useful to the individual, making their job easier, as well as for managers to derive insights from and manage the team. Of the bunch in this video, Motion does seem to do this the best: efficient.link/r/motion
Our aim with any software reviews we do is to be opinionated and direct to the point! We don’t want to be another channel/website that says “at the end of the day, it’s up to you as there is no bad choice”, we’d rather tell people what is actually working for us and businesses we work with. Appreciate you commenting!! 🙏
You're 100% right when you talk about apps trying to do too much. It's a modern curse. I don't want every app to let me "message my coworkers", because I don't want to be getting messages and notifications from a thousand apps!
Haha can so relate! Internally we had to come up with some rules to essentially say "when it's this type of message, use this tool", because every tool does the same thing in some way-it's a lot! For example, a CRM has tasks, but our project management tool has tasks too... So do we create the task in Motion? Or in Copper? The decision we've made internally is, if it's a relationship-focused task (e.g. reach back out to x about y) then it goes into the CRM tied to the person it's related with. Anything else goes in Motion. So we're finding that even when you thoughtfully pick software that doesn't overlap, there's still some overlap, and that's when internal standard operating procedures need to be made (if you're small, don't need to write them up, just needs to be a general ethos), of which tool should be used when. Also Slack DM's are good for quick message exchanges without much structure, but if you're actually moving project work forward, maybe a comment inside of the task within the project manager is a better place to post that Loom video you recorded so the entire team can see it and can reference it back when you're in the type of work that the comment relates to, otherwise a Slack DM could just be disruptive. It's a delicate balance and just getting more difficult with so many tools moving to all-in-one because they all want to own your entire work stack! Haha
Absolutely, the proliferation of features in apps can lead to information overload and decreased productivity. Simplifying app functionalities to focus on their core purposes can enhance user experience and reduce distractions. Prioritizing efficiency over excessive features is key in navigating the modern app landscape.
Thank you for getting to the point on each of these. This is the video I have been looking for to help me with which move to make in choosing between Asana and Motion. You gave me the exact information that I needed. Thank you!
Curious how things are going for you? We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it helpful: efficient.yt/motion
Our team brought in ClickUp and has had much success with it. The projects we work on are extremely complex so we do require a tool with a lot of customisation that can be tailored to suit the niches of our project. I can see how someone would be easily overwhelmed by the functionality of ClickUp.
That makes sense, how large of a team is it that you work with? And did you have a full-time internal and/or external champion helping you set it up in the way that you needed it configured?
Great opinions on each. But unless money is no object for you and your business, there is a HUGE hole in this. Cost is never mentioned. If you're solo Motion is $39/month. STEEP when some of the others have free versions with every feature you need (IMHO).
Thanks for the comment Brian! So we are, first and foremost, a B2B software review channel, our target audience is businesses and teams. With that, part of running a business means you’ll have software costs and we don’t encourage teams to evaluate tools on price alone (or even a primary driver) - unless a tool literally starts at thousands of dollars per year, we won’t mention it as a part of our reviews. With that, Motion is actually $19/m on the annual tier and $12 per user for teams. For small teams, Motion and Asana are nearly identical per seat as compared to Asana (paid annual). P.S. it's $34/mo when billed monthly, not $39. Not to mention, if you move to their "Team" plan, you get 2 seats for $20/user/mo, so maybe get a friend to go on a team with you if you don't have a business and save 40%? While there is a "free" tier in Asana for example, it's incredibly restrictive feature-wise (just about everything you try to do prompts you to upgrade). We used it for 7 years and were paid users on the advanced tier the entire time (it was literally more expensive than Motion). If the free tools do everything *you* need, then there’d be no reason to consider another option! For us, we’re a small team (2 people) and couldn’t get away from using the free tiers on any of the tools in this video. And for what a tool like Motion does for us in terms of peace of mind and organization, and helping us get work done, it more than pays for itself (like with all the tools we use).
@@efficientapp i'm sorry i agree with Brian's point. I tried Asana based on this and other reviews and found that it aggressively inactivates even simple features even in costly versions. For instance unless you have the VERY MOST expensive version you can't even see a report showing which tasks are done and which aren't. For $40 per month this task management software won't trackthe completion of tasks. When that's missing from a review it's misleading.
I recently hit the wall with the extended stress of juggling the various tiers and projects in my life that I decided it's time to outsource this to a better solution and give my brain a break. I started down the notion rabbit hole even buying a template for it without really knowing how expansive the program was. First impressions were it could be really robust but I wouldn't get full benefit from it without first becoming a notion wizard... Motion then became a leader and your videos have really solidified that for me. Really appreciate the breakdowns and I expect Motion will be a powerful ally as a solo-preneur managing private life, work, youtube content launch and competition prep / training for areas of interest. Thanks so much and keep up the great work.
Love it! So glad we could help! And we use it for TH-cam content launch as well, flows work SO good for that. Definitely be sure to claim the course, hope you made sure to use our link when signing up, here's the deal and how to claim it for free: efficient.deals/motion
Rookie mistake! Was the first time filming with my phone and I realized after filming that I was looking at myself instead of into the camera. Recorded something last week and tried to look into the camera during that one, we’ll see if it’s any better! Thanks for being here & the comment! 🙌 Glad the video helped!
You did a great job. I noticed you looking off to the side and wondered if it was intentional. It didn't actually bother me you're beautiful and came across very professional.
I love how you are jumping for joy about Notion. 😂Jk. I feel the same way. Notion is FAR too overwhelming and confusing for me. I am a solopreneur who uses 3 tools to manage my tasks and projects. Much like the screenshot on Motion's website, I am using Todoist for task management, Google Calendar for calendar appointments, and ClickUp for project management. Ugh, I'm overwhelmed talking about it. Motion ads have been on my social feeds for a month. After seeing this video, which confirms everything I've thought about these tools, I'm secure in signing up for Motion. Thank you for your thorough overview, Andra. 🧡
Awe! So appreciate your comment and can totally relate with what you're describing, sounds just like what I was doing when I was solo as well 😁 Quick tip, if you sign up here, you might even be able to message their support and ask if they'd be open to extending your trial by an extra week, if they ask why, just say Efficient sent you 😉😁 efficient.link/r/motion
Finding the right tools that align with your needs and preferences is key to staying organized and productive. It sounds like Motion will be a great addition to your toolkit, offering a more streamlined and intuitive experience. Best of luck with your productivity journey!
Hahaha, we hear you 😅 there's a lot vying for your attention. Use us for tasks! For notes! No projects! No embed everything inside of us! Use us for everything!!!! Curious what you end up settling on?
Wanted to check-in on how implementation was going? We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it helpful: efficient.yt/motion
Stoked to hear this! And thanks for your comment 🙏 so we've explored Microsoft Projects, although we're a Google Workspace company (and most of our customers are as well), and once you start messing with the Microsoft solutions, they want you on Teams and all things Microsoft. What I can say though is my brother works at a larger company 500+ employees, and they evaluated Microsoft Project vs Asana extensively, and even embraced Microsoft Project for a month, before switching back to Asana as it was too limited for what they were looking to use. He now personally uses Motion to get his work done (more as his daily planner), and manually updates Asana, as their team is already too reliant on Asana at this point to switch again. Regarding Zoho Projects, we're just not a huge fan of the Zoho suite. Explored it deeply (as how could you not consider it?) But once you go Zoho, they are much like Microsoft, in that they want you to use Zoho email, Zoho CRM, Zoho all the things. The Zoho suite does a lot, but it definitely pales in comparison to built-for focused category solutions. Personally, I'd like to use the best tool for the job, not settle for "good enough" for all my tools, while watching startups like Motion/Routine/etc. popping up and innovating into a space, only to where you have to watch from afar because it's not part of the full cohesive "Zoho" or "Microsoft" core stack. Not sure if that makes sense? But we've done more of a deep dive on the all-in-one tools space here that you might be interested in: efficient.app/comparisons/all-in-one
@@efficientapp wow, thank you for such a comprehensive reply, much appreciated! I know exactly what you mean by Microsoft and Zoho slowly tractor beaming you into their entire ecosystem bit by bit 👍
The point you made about Notion not having any guardrails is a frustration I’ve shared in. It might be great for someone who is willing to learn it and wants to have all of that functionality. But I feel like it should “just work”, and it should know what it needs to do and be intuitive. But then on the other hand you have Monday which is much more structured - and pretty, that was my draw to it - but they as a contrast have a very certain way of how they think it should work, which is different from Notion, but they’re doing it in a non-intuitive way. I need to give Asana another try. I used them AND Monday and found I liked Monday better, but I’ll have to check again.
Appreciate you sharing this, because I feel like not many people are talking about it... It's even one thing to invest the time into learning, it's another thing to train your team on, and have them be successful without the clear guardrails. Every corner you run into edge-cases when trying to build something like Notion into a project manager. And the tough part is, it doesn't make sense to put guardrails on Notion, because it defeats the entire point of what Notion is trying to be (the all-in-one flexible tool). And I've heard what you're saying a lot in the past, Monday looks nicer than Asana, I even know a team that uses Asana but created a Chrome extension to make it look more like Monday 😂 But yeah, I'd say give Asana a shot if you have a large team, if not, why not try something new and see if Motion can give you a bit more of something that maybe you weren't even considering before? The AI scheduling component is really something that we can't live without having gotten used to it, and it doesn't seem like Asana or Monday are going that direction for some reason 🤷♂️
Your frustration with Notion's lack of guardrails and the contrasting structured approach of Monday resonates with many users seeking intuitive productivity tools. Exploring alternatives like Asana could offer a balance between structure and flexibility that aligns better with your preferences. It's always worth revisiting tools to find the best fit for your workflow.
Really helpful and concise review. Thank you so much. Ive been using Asana and a paper planner and 3959 sticky notes as a solopreneur, but i keep seeing Motion ads and it looks like it really solves my morning routi-- *ahem* time waster of migrating yesterday's to-dos to today's list
Haha we hear you! We were in the same boat, spending a good 20+ minutes per day (sometimes an hour), manually re-evaluating for the nth time priority and importance to push our tasks back. With Motion, it just recommends a new date/time automatically and takes away so much of that DAILY friction: efficient.link/r/motion
Transitioning from multiple tools to a more integrated solution like Motion can indeed streamline your workflow and save time on daily tasks. With its features tailored to solopreneurs, Motion could be just what you need to boost productivity and stay organized. Good luck with your transition!
I'm very interested in Motion. Not for my teams necessarily. I do video games development so we use Jira, which is better suited as we work in sprints, etc. But for personal work and tasks as a manager, I definitely see myself using it. Thanks for the fantastic breakdown!
Love it! Yeah it's tough to get off Jira especially when you have a larger team. I know the team over at Motion actually moved off of Linear and over to Motion for their engineering development team which was a big deal. That said, personal work and tasks as a manager is a great use-case for it. I'm also sure your team will see it and get jealous over time and ultimately join in 😉😁 Glad we could be of help and appreciate the comment! 🙌
Jira, interesting, my job often looks like a developer's sprint -even though it is not development at all- and I have moved more and more into Agile/Scrum methodologies. Maybe I'll take a look. What is it that makes it so tailored to sprints?
So Jira was actually created more for engineering as the parent company is Atlassian which also owns Bitbucket (competitor to GitHub) so they were very much building for that ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), and engineers often do sprint-based work. That said, Jira has since moved to a large team focus (e.g. 500+ people), they are like the Salesforce of the engineer sprint world. New modern competitors have come out and have been eating their lunch though. If you're in any way interested in Jira, Linear is 10x better in every single way: efficient.app/apps/linear In-fact early days at Motion I know they were using Linear to even build their own product funny enough (since they are technically competitors now). They said they absolutely loved it at the time. So yeah, Linear is definitely the tool to check out if you're considering Jira, it's better in every way.
@@efficientapp Pretty cool, I have been toying with Jira today, I can see a lot of uses with my common Use Cases. I manage grants and proposals and Agile is a great way of doing it. I also consult for small businesses and startups that need proposal management options within their existing solutions. Qvidian and Loopio are too expensive for small companies. I'll check Linear too.
So glad to hear it was helpful! Which PM software did you land on in the end? And curious for what use-case/team size! If you went with Motion, hope you used our link and locked in the deal we have going on: efficient.deals/motion
Thanks for this review, so helpful! I’ve had a good experience with Trello as well but mostly for personal life things. Absolutely agree with asana and motion! Could you show us a bit more on how you’re using these platforms? I’m looking for some ideas for adding team members
Thank you Lydia! That's a good request, we can put it on our list of content to create but might be a little while because we have backlog of videos to release atm that are filmed! But make sure to subscribe to keep an eye out for them as we think this would be super useful to record 👀
We just watched your video about what you learned your first year on TH-cam-well done 👏 just subscribed! Didn't realize you had a TH-cam channel. So funny enough, our video editor signed up for Motion as he was editing this video and he's still using it today and loves it 😁 It's primarily me and Andra using it, sometimes she'll throw tasks on my calendar for customer work that is blocking her, or I'll throw tasks for content ideas on her calendar. Often, I'll do a detailed comparison, and then we'll collaborate on how to turn it into a video, determining who's more passionate about the topic and that'll dictate who will record the video. We're working on getting into a more consistent flow within Motion to be more like a hand-off upon each task being completed: 1. Alex writes rough thoughts 2. Andra refines and turns into a deeper comparison, adding her own thoughts 3. Alex proofreads/reviews 4. Andra/Alex record a video 5. Cory (video editor) edits video 6. Alex/Andra revisions Motion lets us hand off these tasks back-and-forth to entire we don't block each other when it's our turn, or our video editor when it's his turn. Motion is also going to get way more refined in that way in the months to come (allowing for better handing-off and back/forth of work).
@@efficientapp thanks for this detailed outline, that is so helpful. I’ve been playing with motion and love it as well, but haven’t expanded to including my husband or any handoff tasks. I’m definitely going to take inspiration from your workflow and see how we can learn from it. So glad I came across your channel when I was researching this. It’s inspiring to see other people building businesses :-) very excited to follow along!
This is so sweet, thanks for the comment Lydia! We know that Motion is undergoing some changes/improvements, so we're more apt to make a video to help others set it up once these changes are complete and rolled out, just so the video isn't immediately outdated 😀 hope to see you when that video does eventually come out! Appreciate your support, and we're excited to hear how things expand when you eventually rope your husband into Motion 😉
Appreciate the kind words! We actually have a video coming out comparing Reclaim with Clockwise-in that video we explain how they are substantially different meant for different use-cases. You can read the write-up comparing Motion vs Reclaim though: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-reclaim Motion is not pricey when viewing it as a replacement to a paid Asana + Calendly. For personal usage, sure, as you're looking more at TickTick and ToDoist, but those tools are not powerful enough for actual business and team collaborative use-cases. As business project management software, annual license, Motion is completely reasonable price-wise. So it really depends on what you're specifically looking for. We're a business and write content primarily about business software.
So I actually used Akiflow for 7 months or so alongside Motion early on. What I liked about it was it integrated with Gmail and Asana, alongside other tools. So what Akiflow is really trying to be is a task aggregator tool with a calendar at the core. It was quite a manual process though adding all of my various tasks onto the calendar for when I wanted to work on them. Same with stared emails from Gmail, etc. Ultimately, I ended up just getting too overwhelmed with tasks in using Akiflow, with things getting out-of-date. It just became too manual of a process. I realized that versus trying to use an aggregator tool, I should instead just use a tool that better handles it all in a single platform (Motion), and actually get rid of Asana + not rely on Gmail for turning emails into tasks, and instead just use Superhuman to help me triage through email, etc. Not super bullish on these calendar task aggregation daily planning tools, it misses the full picture of projects and dependencies and true prioritization of tasks. It's so manual, whereas a tool like Motion has all the context, and auto-plans each day. We really should add it to the site and do a more proper write-up for it here: efficient.app/comparisons/project-management
We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, that should get across why we need a tool like Motion as opposed to a task aggregation tool like Akiflow: efficient.yt/motion
While both Motion and Akiflow offer compelling features, Motion's focus on simplicity and intuitive design resonated more with my workflow needs. It ultimately comes down to personal preference and which tool aligns best with individual work styles and requirements.
We're in progress of a write-up for this right-now in-fact. It's about 75% complete if you want to check it out: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-sunsama We still have a few more hours of work to put into the article, although it's our highest priority to complete over the next week.
Thanks for the kind words and for your comment! Okay, so this comment inspired me to do a write-up of Trello on our website, you can check it out here: efficient.app/apps/trello But yeah, the main gist is that Trello was an innovator of kanban board view for project managers over a decade ago. They dominated the B2C space, and moved a bit into B2B. With Atlassian acquiring them though, it feels like their UI hasn't evolved in the past 6+ years. They just seem stagnant now and definitely aren't innovating in the space. You can read more at the link above though, hope it helps! - Alex
Solid write up. I just found this channel but you seem really legit? So Trello could still be a fine choice but they're simply stagnant. Still a great choice if you use all the other Atlassian stuff. Dare I ask about your thoughts on Miro?
Totally missed this reply until now! We've used Miro in the past to map processes or when we needed to create visual aids. We found it *pretty* good, buggy at times, but if you need a whiteboard type of software we'd say go for it, it's one of the best out there. A few years ago, our knowledge base software Slite (efficient.link/r/slite) introduced a sketch feature and we just use that now as we were really only using the barebones of Miro.
I bet this channel will take off. Great content! I love your website as well. Very clean and well organized. I look forward to seeing more reviews. What tech stack do you use at Efficient App? Also how do you pick what apps you will review? Keep up the good work 👍 I look forward to seeing this channel grow.
Hey Paul, this comment just made our day (Alex & Andra)-genuinely appreciate you saying that. We've been pouring our heart into the website, so that means a lot, super exciting things coming down the pike! Regarding our tech stack... It's long 😅we actually have all our current (and prior) stack live updating here if you want to check it out: efficient.app/stack/efficient - For right now we do have the "stacks" section to our site gated behind a login (it's free to sign up, and we have tons of exciting things coming to the free membership on the site). Regarding how we choose what apps we review... Right now it has really just been whatever Andra and I have been feeling motivated to record on. Sometimes we'll do a paid call with a VC firm on a specific B2B SaaS market segment, and then feel motivated to summarize what we spoke about in a video/writeup, because why not! Overall, no major rhyme or reason, still figuring that all out! Appreciate your comment and excited to connect!
@@efficientapp Hey Alex and Andra! Thanks so much for the reply! I signed up and look forward to checking out your tech stack 👍 I reached out on the website so feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat. I love the TH-cam platform and always enjoy connecting with other creators. Cheers!
Completely and totally agree. Because of the foundation of how it's built (database infrastructure), it was built as a knowledge-base tool, storing things in blocks, so moving to project management and other more complex use-cases result in it totally falling apart and slowing down at scale. Wish more people learned this before building everything in their business atop of it.
Thank you for a great summary. Like some of the other commenters, I appreciate that you made recommendations and stated your reasons. Very helpful! I am a sole practitioner bookkeeper looking for a simple way to keep track of which jobs have to be done for which clients by when. I am not sure whether I really need PM software but I do need something that is simple and reliable. Maybe a fancy to-do list is all it would take. Anyway, I'm off to find out more about Motion, but if you have any advice for my situation I would love to hear about it.
Hey Terry! Glad to hear it was helpful, maybe a more useful video would be our best to-do list apps video here: efficient.link/yt/todo That said, Motion, while a PM tool, is also a basic daily planner and task management app at the core when just used as an individual. The others mentioned in this video would probably be quite overkill for what you're describing, but Motion might be a good balance. Here's a dedicated video on Motion that should help: efficient.link/yt/motion My gut is saying that you're looking for more of a daily planner though since you're talking about client jobs that need to be done by a certain date (calendar is pretty core in this, and it understanding your availability so that you can complete work on time, even if other things come up). In that case, efficient.link/r/motion should be able to help with that quite well. We have a standalone video on the best daily planners available on the market here: efficient.link/yt/planner Apologies, know I just threw a bunch at you-but to summarize, I do think Motion would work well for what you're describing and isn't "overkill" so to speak. Be sure to check out our site for a deal off our setup course if you do decide to give it a shot (you just need to make sure you use our link to lock the discount in): efficient.deals/motion Let us know if you have any more context you want to add, throw a comment on any of those other videos and we can get more specific if needed or if you're in-between 2 tools!
This is the most helpful yet concise video I’ve seen on all these different PM apps. Thanks! I have a couple of questions: we are a small team of 3-5. I’m new to PM apps and I’m learning before I roll it out to the team. I’m currently learning Asana & find the templates feature very useful. 1) does Motion have anything similar?, 2) although we’re a small team, we have a lot of projects, at out busiest it can be 100+. I know you recommended Motion for smaller teams, however, do the number of projects affect your recommendation? Thanks again for such a helpful video. Best one I’ve seen so far!
This is such a nice comment, thank you 🥹🙏 so yes, Motion has gone quite deep on the templating tasks feature. I also know they are going more and more down the templating + team handoff of a task/project direction (which should be helpful for the type of work you're describing). Question around the 100+ tasks as part of a project, couldn't some of these simply be sub-tasks? Essentially having a project with larger tasks, and some of those tasks just have sub-tasks? Either way it works, even if you want to have a templates project with 100+ tasks. Since your team is 3-5 people, would genuinely recommend you giving Motion a shot as well since the additional functional that Motion brings with a team that size, that Asana doesn't have, should be quite beneficial (around actually handing off and passing work along to the team and calendar integration to ensure it gets done). All of this to say, Motion is totally reworking their project manager in the coming months to greatly improve the UX especially around larger projects (we'll probably make a video on it), so we recommend having it be in the running, even if you don't sign up for a trial just yet: efficient.link/r/motion
@@efficientappSorry, I see I didn't mention the 100+ is number of projects, not tasks. I would say we have anywhere from 15-50 tasks and subtasks per project and although each project may be slightly different a lot are repetitive which is why I find Asana's templates so useful so it's good know Motion has them too. So, I guess my question still stands...with 100+ projects, but small team do you still recommend Motion? Thanks again!!
Oh yeah, in this case totally! You'd be totally fine having 100+ projects, and they've put a lot into the task/project template functionality. I will say that they are investing even more into projects, templates, and a few other cool features around that. So if you sign up, just know that it'll be getting a makeover soon (in a good way) 🔥 but how it works in the current state will still work perfect for what you're describing. 👌
Curious to hear how it went/how it's going? Did you have a chance to get it set up for you and your team? We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it helpful: efficient.yt/motion
Thank you so much for this video. I feel like I've read every article on which project management tool I should use as a solopreneur and after just two videos on TH-cam, you've helped me decide. Thank you so much!
Awe, so happy to hear this! Which did you land on? If Motion, be sure to sign up using this link: efficient.link/r/motion So you qualify for the deal here: efficient.deals/motion
Love to hear it! Keen to hear what you think! Be sure to use this link efficient.link/r/motion and let support know that we sent you and they might even extend your free trial if you ask them nicely 😉
We actually have a video on that coming out in the future, (it's already filmed), although it's just lower in the queue due to our mini-series launching soon (trailer dropping tomorrow in-fact!) That said, we did a pretty extensive write-up on Motion vs Reclaim if you're interested in checking that out? efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-reclaim
This was so helpful! I just wanted to organize all of my projects/gigs and personal items so I tried Notion only to realize I’d spend the next year learning how to use it and make it work for me when what I really need are guardrails and accountability on the spot. ❤
Awe, love it! So glad to hear! Be sure to sign up with Motion with this link: efficient.link/r/motion so you can lock in the course (as we give even more guardrails and accountability to help you set it up!) promotion details: efficient.deals/motion But yeah, I have a feeling you're going to REALLY like our next video 🤭
So we use Motion for our software dev sprints. We don't have a huge team though, so I think a better example is that Motion's engineering team used Linear for their sprints for years and loved it. They officially switched fully over to Motion for their engineering sprints about a year ago and it has been working well for them. So depends on the genuine size of your engineering team, but if you have less than 50 engineers, you should be able to get away with Motion standalone for it all. They have an update to the project management section coming out soon (we're beta testing it now), that makes managing sprints in their project management side of the tool significantly better, so stay tuned! Otherwise, you can't go wrong with Linear, though Motion and Linear are such different tools in a sense, that it does make sense for using both, but leaning more on Motion: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-linear Though if you wanted it integrated, you'd need to build something custom with their API.
We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it interesting as it relates to using it for more structured processes like dev sprints: efficient.yt/motion
many software development teams integrate tools like Jira or Trello for managing sprint tasks. While Motion may not be specifically tailored for software development, it could still be used for high-level project planning and coordination alongside more specialized tools for development tasks. Integration options may vary depending on the specific tools being used.
Awe, thanks! We're trying to do more of them, glad it helped! Did you end up moving forward with any of the tools mentioned in the video? Or just checking it out?
We did a full video on that here: efficient.link/yt/crm - personally we use efficient.link/r/copper alongside Motion, although we don't really need to integrate it. We use the CRM for relationship management and sales, then Motion for the project management/task management/daily planner side of things. We're a team of 7 now and it works well for us. How would you envision wanting Motion to integrate with your CRM?
We actually put all the equipment we used in the description of the video actually! We didn't have much equipment in this video though, it was an iPhone and a microphone. Check our more recent videos description to see the equipment we use now though! 👌
This review convinced me to switch to Motion from Notion. I have a question - Does the Motion iPhone app provide notifications? I’ve missed some important tasks because of this. I LOVE the desktop app but I work remote a lot.
Awesome to hear! How are you liking it so far as compared to Notion? Always curious to hear what people's experience is that have used both. Mobile notifications will come by end of year, they just completely re-built the mobile app from the ground up a couple months ago and are planning for feature parity with the desktop app very soon. Completely hear you and relate here re: working remote. A couple more months if you're able to stick it out 👌
@@efficientapp Appreciate this - I love the desktop app! Notion has turned to a space where I build out a project but Motion is my new go to that manages the projects. Notion just doesn’t have the management tools that I was needing. I’ll stick it out! Looking forward to seeing you do a Mobile app review soon
Awesome to hear! I will say that we're planning a bit more Motion content based on the reaction to this video, that said, we did just update the written review of Motion on the website here: efficient.app/apps/motion That said, super exciting things seem to be coming to Motion soon, so we're definitely going to be creating more content around it as they release!
Awe, of course! Jira is very much more built for enterprise teams, unless you're an engineering team of 500+ people, there's just better options available. We actually go more into it in the overview section of the best project management software page on our site: efficient.link/pm#overview It's more that it serves its purpose for some enterprise teams (it's like the Salesforce of the PM world, which isn't a good thing), like Salesforce it has been replaced by more modern players. With Jira, even in the engineering world it has been replaced by tools like Linear and Motion: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-linear
These are project managers, wouldn't recommend any as a CRM. Our CRM recommendation depends on your size of team and what core cloud suite you're using for your business (e.g. Google Workspace vs Microsoft). We've done a full writeup and video that should help answer that question for you here: efficient.tips/b/crm We personally use Copper CRM: efficient.link/r/copper though mind you we use Google Workspace and have a smaller team. Definitely check out the blog post and video here though as it'll best answer your question: efficient.tips/b/crm
Thanks, appreciate your comment! 🙌 Motion doesn't tie in budget management (at least yet), but it's very deeply tied to hours around tasks (and thus projects), so you can set budgets in that sense. How much time did you actually take based on the budgeted hours in a sense. It's not a direct reporting type of feature though, just to not set the wrong expectations 👌
Fill us in! What are your current painpoints and what tools have you tried, and what type of business are you? Go ahead and give Motion a shot with a free trial: efficient.link/r/motion and keep us posted how it goes, though happy to learn a bit more to let you know if it could work based on your needs. Happy to help 🚀
My workflow is somewhat simple. I use samsung notes, set reminders, then add to folders based on organization. Task are weighted weekly, and that's it.. I work off those reminders while adding reminders throughout the week. I found most software I looked at to be cumbersome and not a good fit. So I'm looking at motion and todoist now.
Oh got it, so you're looking for a relatively basic task manager then. Yeah it depends how much you value calendar integration. If you want your tasks to show up on your calendar, ensuring you get them done, that's where Motion excels. If you're looking for something relatively basic and just want a phone reminder when something is due, ToDoist would probably work well enough. Curious to hear your experience after testing out both! Good luck 🙌
We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it helpful if you haven't yet decided which tool to move forward with: efficient.yt/motion
Awe, thanks so much! Did you get a chance to check out our more recent videos? We've been working hard on maintaining a better connection and looking into the camera (you) 🙏 curious what you think though? And also curious if you went with any of the project management tools mentioned in the video?
@@efficientapp I haven’t yet but will def click your videos next time I need a no BS comparison. 😊 I am going to give Asana a go. I think it suits my needs better. I was only considering Notion because I was given a content planner on it and it already integrates with Blitzit, their Asana integration is still in development.
Awe, that means a lot! Glad to hear we can live up to our tagline 😁 And sounds like a solid plan! Curious how you get on with Asana-Blitzit looks pretty interesting, I do feel like Motion serves some of the purpose of Asana + Blitzit both in one tool combined. Did you consider giving it a shot? efficient.link/r/motion
@@efficientapp First impression of Asana is good. I like how the UI is clean and uncluttered. I have a LTD for Blitzit so would choose tools that work with it. 😉
Haha I hear that, glad to hear Asana is working for you! What is LTD? Lifetime Deal? Edit: oh nevermind, I see, makes sense! Looks like a fun tool for personal time tracking like Rize 👌👌
I love how you packaged the entire video, very detailed and well thought through. By the way what colour are your eyes? captivated! #Will definitely try out motion
I'm a solo operator but I'm sooooo deep down the Monday rabbit hole with automation I wouldn't even know where to start to try and pull away. I just got a trial to Motion though so we'll see how it goes!
Course! Thanks for being here and your comment! Which project management tool did you end up going with? Curious as to your team size and use-case as well?
Ah, you'd definitely be in Motion category, maybe take a look at our full tutorial here on how our team of 5 use Motion together: efficient.link/yt/motion Be sure to claim our setup course if you do decide to give it a shot here btw: efficient.deals/motion (you'd need to do it before signing up for a free trial). Feel free to share more specifically your use-case and type of business and any questions you have and we can probably give a bit more help with more context!
Awesome! Make sure you use this link: efficient.link/r/motion to sign up and then fill out this form: efficient.deals/motion and you'll get our paid Motion course for free! 🙌
Thanks for the no fluff review. My only issue is “I wouldn’t recommend it” should be better qualified. Like, I wouldn’t recommend it for…..(insert your industry and team need that it didn’t meet) I’m with you on Asana and I teach my clients how to use it for Government Contracting but we switched to Monday where we manage several businesses operations. Monday handles Our Coworking Space, Consulting Company, online school, and Venue Rentals. The forms, automations and integrations are INCREDIBLE for us.
Appreciate your comment! Okay, that's fair-so we wouldn't recommend Notion, Monday, or ClickUp as the BEST project management tool for… anybody 😁 Don't get us wrong, we know it can be used and many do use it, the point of this video (and our channel) is to be incredibly opinionated about software for businesses (as there's no shortage of channels that talk about X is great for Y, but not Z). We're generalizing in a sense, but the "generalization" is coming from looking at the tools available in a specific category. So what you're describing (Monday handles your Coworking space, consulting company, online school, venue rentals, etc. etc. etc.) what you just described is potentially 2-3 different business functions/businesses/tools. So what you'll get from our channel is "you should use this (best) project management software + this (best) CRM to run your business", whereas what you're pointing out is using an all-in-one tool that does many things (not all of them well), but the all-in-one component of it is worthwhile to you in your business, which we completely understand, we just disagree with the premise that Monday is the best project management software on the market, because it isn't. It's more of an all-in-one tool, for which we aren't particularly fans of. That doesn't mean it won't work for people or that you haven't been able to get use out of it, for that we can completely see and understand where that's coming from. Not sure if that makes sense? Not trying to invalidate any of the success you've had with Monday, we totally believe it and are happy it's what is working for you, it's just not what we are going to particularly recommend to businesses for all of the reasons above. Appreciate you being here, and people don't hate us! 🙏
So we use Harvest to actually do this, have an entire comparison write-up on time tracking tools here: efficient.tips/vs/harvest That said, Harvest integrates with Google Calendar, and Motion allows tasks to show up on Google Calendar, and thus, your tasks essentially show up to add to Harvest if you'd like. So directionally we use Motion for that, just in addition to Harvest if that makes sense? Here's more info and a write-up on Harvest + a free trial & credit if you want to check it out: efficient.app/apps/harvest
@@efficientapp thanks, I’ll check out your write up. We’ve been using SpringAhead but the reporting and analytics is non-existent so I’m looking for options.
Apologies, YT doesn't do a great job at notifying when we get a comment reply-haven't heard of SpringAhead. At first glance, it definitely seems a bit dated. You'd be better off with any of the apps listed on the link posted above for sure! Did you end up picking a solution? If so, curious with what you went with, and why? 🤔
Appreciate it! You can read our in-depth write-up about Trello here: efficient.app/apps/trello Along with the history of Project Management and Trello's role in it here: efficient.link/pm
I spend an ungodly amount of time looking at 10 different to do lists for 10 different projects and trying to figure out what should I do next or what order I should do things in to make the absolute most of the limited time that I have and it ends up burning up the few brain cells that I have left. A software that can answer the question “what do I need to do next?” relatively accurately and can automatically reschedule itself is sounding pretty promising to me! …. and yes, I am aware that those are run-on sentences… It is a written representation of the entanglement in my brain. If motion can help, sort it out, imma go d/l it right now 😆
Haha yes! It should be able to help with exactly that! Be sure to claim our free course if you use our affiliate link to sign up though! efficient.link/r/motion Full deal details here: efficient.deals/motion
Definitely don't recommend using Notion as a CRM. In fact, we have an entire video about why not + what our CRM recommendations are. Watch here & let us know what you think after watching: efficient.link/yt/crm
Appreciate that! And this is an interesting one... While they are promoting 3.0 like it's a huge release, and we'll admit it does look better, it still suffers from the same point as the video mentioned. They aren't just focused on project management, but rather they are more of an all-in-one tool, which leaves it feeling overwhelming as everything is vying for your attention. If there's one area that we wish they improved with v3, it would be their daily planner/calendar functionality. We believe this to be so core to actually improving the end-user experience of task management and getting work done, when managing large projects. That said, we were just visiting family and friends over the holidays, and one of my closest friends has been using ClickUp at his startup (30 employees or so) for the past 2.5 years. We asked what he genuinely thought about it and we were told he really disliked it as it's just trying to be too much with too many features and not enough focus or TLC in the areas that are important. We're updating our ClickUp review on the website for 2024: efficient.app/apps/clickup but I will say that it's software that we have higher expectations of because of their size, scale, resources, and time in the market, and it feels like they are lacking focus and true innovation in the space. v3 just feels like a face lift of the main dashboard, without focusing much on the core functionality/stability.
Appreciate your comment! Are you referring to the Motion + Slack integration video? We have it linked in the description, although it's not a setup guide, it's just showing off what we've built with it (we're an integration company). Depending on how comfortable you are with integration tools like Zapier though, you could build it. You can try giving Motion a shot with a free trial here: efficient.link/r/motion And experiment with their Zapier integration to connect it with your other tools. Thanks for your comment!
So happy to hear! Our background is actually in software implementing, integration, and automation, so we've been consulting companies of all sizes on exactly this type of thing for over a decade now. There's so much we still want to share with people that we've learned! Appreciate the comment! Did you end up going with any of the tools mentioned in the video?
So we probably won't do a video on Jira, although we've explained in other comments here. Jira is essentially the leader in the project management space when it comes to sprints and large engineering teams. It's almost like the Salesforce of the project management world. It works well, integrates with a lot, but it's not all that modern or enjoyable to use. We recommend using something like Linear over that of Jira if you're an engineering team less than say 200 people (efficient.app/apps/linear). If you're deep in the Atlassian suite (e.g. Confluence + Bitbucket + Trello), then maybe consider Jira. Otherwise we'd honestly recommend giving Linear or Motion a shot as you'll have a much more enjoyable experience with it.
Was just catched by your title - and hooked. I agree, Notion is one tool for everything - except for something special. I did the mistake and bought a complex project management notion template and tried to figure out how to put my daily project work into it. No chance. I use it now as knowledge base. For that use, I guess it's cool. I will give Motion a try, your hint that tasks could fit into my schedule automatically is mind blowing - and exact what I was wondering why other tools don't have it (my todo-list was done with ToDo from M$, really a super stupid tool). Thank you very much for that video!
Amazing the title caught you? Or the thumbnail? 👀 So glad you commented, yeah, that's the exact situation you described is what we see so many people fall into. Totally understand the temptation of complex templates. We call out this a bit in our recent to-do list video actually: efficient.link/yt/todo Be sure to claim the Motion deal by using our link to sign up if you do give it a shot: efficient.deals/motion Thanks for your awesome comment and excited to have you here in the community our new friend!
We already have a CRM we use for ticketing, creation of projects and we track time, progress, start/end dates, budgets, etc. within the CRM. So I've found it difficult to find a PM tool that is really good at everything else. No sense in creating extra / duplicate work for people. I want to use templates for simple project task plans based on project type (for consistency), a good visual representation of milestones and progress, a simplified customer/client view of their tasks and minimal view of our internal tasks, while having a very detailed tasklist, checklists for our internal views. Basically, I want to hide all the minutia for the clients and keep it simple for them. Also important is document sharing, notes, and chat. What tool do you think I should take a hard look at?
Love the way that you're getting the most out of your CRM 🙌 Which CRM are you using btw? So sharing projects with external members is not something that Motion has (at the moment anyway), so we'd recommend Asana. With Asana you can share entire projects or specific tasks with someone external: blog.asana.com/2012/03/guest-accounts-asana-for-clients-contractors-and-consultants/ All that being said, it sounds like your CRM is doing most of the heavy lifting internally, does your team mainly want a project management tool to share the progress with clients? Or is the CRM busting as the seams in terms of tracking projects internally also? Asking because setting up a PM tool just to share progress with clients is a pretty big lift. Obviously we have no idea of your industry or business or how critical sharing the process is, but as an overall thought we've seen that most customers won't even log into third party tools to view progress, and they'll just ask you for updates on email anyway. We tried going down this path (sharing larger projects in Asana with our clients and adoption didn't last very long). Another idea if you wanted to go down this path is that you could integrate your CRM in with Asana so that templated tasks are created upon deal/opportunity stage change for example, and this can be how you share the progress with your customers, but again, a huge lift and I'd be 100000% percent sure they want it/will use it if you go through the trouble of setting this up. For collaborating on actual work fore example, we typically recommend a shared workspace. For example, we have a shared workspace which each of our customers for collaboration on a software called Slite: efficient.app/apps/slite. In general, tough to say without speaking further, but from what you shared it seems like you're using your CRM better than most folks so first I'd be wondering where the PM tool will help the most internally, and then thinking about the external collaboration aspect secondly. Hope this gives some food for thought!
@@efficientapp well, we have been using Microsoft Sharepoint to create sites for project collaboration with documentation. We can freeze changes and not allow customer to make any changes after a certain date, and have notes automatically stored in OneNote. The CRM is Connectwise - commonly used with IT VARs and MSPs like us....but we do sort of use it for a lot, and it seems to restrict how we want to work based on it's constraints and limitations. We use smartsheet for actual project / task plans, but it's kludgy, and I dislike how everything is just a spreadsheet. The more I look around, I am concerned that a single PM tool won't do everything well. I worry about buy in and duplicating efforts, and working in a platform the rest of the company doesn't have visibility to.
Ahhhh this all makes sense, had me at Connectwise. Yeah we actually used to be an MSP, I was using IT Glue religiously and saw deeply how critical every tool needed to integrate with an IT CRM like Connectwise. They feel like the Salesforce of CRM. Not super intuitive, but integrated with most IT tools. We were never more than just a couple/few people using it, so I had gotten away with NinjaRMM (I think now goes by NinjaOne now), Copper CRM (not using ConnectWise), and IT Glue. Now that we're no longer an IT company though, dropped IT Glue because it was insanely expensive, picked up Dashlane in its place which covered most of our use-cases in the new integration business, and kept using Copper as our CRM. Duplicate work is a huge thing in the IT/MSP/VAR industry, so yeah this is a totally different scenario than I had thought initially. Completely empathize with trying to modernize the IT services stack, it just feels impossible and why I ultimately left MSP, in many parts because of the software stack just feeling old/not modern. But yeah, using Smartsheets sounds like a bummer, another older software that was built for enterprise companies and just isn't very innovative anymore. Hope you can figure out something that works for you and is also more enjoyable to use!
Thanks! Copy/pasting from a different comment that we answered because we haven't added it to our site efficient.app yet: Basecamp is an odd one. They're probably the most outdated and stagnated of all the ones listed in the video. They actually totally stopped building the product a few years back, and prevented new customers from even buying it. It wasn't until recently that they realized maybe they should start allowing new customers onboard, but the product hasn't changed much (aside from 3-4xing the price). Their userbase is primarily legacy customers that used it as an all-in-one project manager and communication tool, but just using it, you quickly see how old and outdated it feels, and the methodology they used to build it. Not a tool we're excited about because of that, I'd genuinely be wary considering them when the competitors in this video haven't stopped putting their foot on the gas. Hope this helps!
Of course, thanks for commenting! Jira is very much more built for enterprise teams, unless you're an engineering team of 500+ people, there's just better options available. We actually go more into it in the overview section of the best project management software page on our site: efficient.link/pm#overview It's more that it serves its purpose for some enterprise teams (it's like the Salesforce of the Project Management world, which isn't really a good thing 😅), like Salesforce it has been replaced by more modern players in the space. While Jira is still most popular in large engineering teams, even in the engineering world it has been replaced by tools like Linear and Motion: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-linear Hope this helps clear things up a bit!
Ah, that's actually the sweet spot for Motion: efficient.link/r/motion and similar to the team size we're building for. Once you get closer to 50-100 you're probably going to want more deep reporting capabilities for managers, which is probably coming more later this year from what the team has said. We have a full video on it that you can check out to see if it'll work for you, Flows and Gantt is in the product (releasing to everyone in a week or two), we've been using it in beta for 2 months now and it has been great. Here's a free setup course that's coming too if you use this page to sign up for a free trial: efficient.deals/motion Happy to answer any specific questions you might have if you want to describe more your needs, industry, internal or external, and any specific use-cases/processes you'll be using the PM tool for? Here's the video: efficient.yt/motion And here's a deal
@@efficientapp thanks for the quick response. Should I be using these kinds of tools if the other project members don't? (I was just assigned to be leader) Do you have any recommendations for an app that is free? I suspect that there aren't really any good program management tool that is free, as all the ones that have a free version, are extremely limited until you purchase it.
It's totally up to you, you can use a tool like Motion solo just to get your own work done if you'd like, team adoption can come in time as you see a benefit of inviting others in, and they see a benefit of being added in. Regarding a free Project Management tool, especially for that of a team of 20+ people is going to be a bit short-sighted, as the actual cost of a project management tool is the time that goes into setting it up and training the team on it, not the actual cost of the software, so if you can't even justify the cost of the software, the chance at team adoption and the team sticking with it more than even just a few months isn't very likely. We're trying to help teams and companies find and use the best software on the market that will save their team time and help them become more efficient, if your criteria is "free", then you're not really going to find a tool that we would recommend for such a critical role in the business, if that makes sense?
Do let us know what you think, and be sure to sign up with this link so you can tie in the Motion deal: efficient.link/r/motion (you can claim the deal on our site here after signing up: efficient.deals/motion - apologies on the delay here as you probably already signed up). MS Planner is a very simplified task management tool-in general, we work with Google Workspace most often, so we don't get too excited about diving into the built-by Microsoft task solution. Those solutions are never as good as standalone companies building them. In-fact, Microsoft acquired Sunrise Calendar back in the day, rolled it into Outlook (in an awful way), and then shut down Sunrise. So if anything, Microsoft is doing the reverse of things that we like and would recommend when it comes to task and calendar management haha.
We have a full Trello write-up on the website. Trello is the OG, but has stagnated massively over the past 5+ years. We go deeper on it all here: efficient.app/apps/trello
has Asana implemented unique human friendly numbering for tasks? It's feature number one, without it nothing exists, I cannot say to colleague "have you done that thing about that stuff that yesterday I created", I need to say "completed no. 86"
So, sorta... In settings they have the option to "show row numbers", but they are only visible in ListView, and if a task above it is completed, it'll shift up, so it's not tied to the task itself. But yeah, fair point-I actually don't know many project management tools that do that naturally. Linear sorta does with issue numbers: efficient.link/r/linear - that said, it's more common in product/engineering, so it makes sense that Linear has it. My guess is it's not likely to come to Asana given it hasn't come yet, and they even have a row number setting that has existed for as long as I can remember, so yeah, I'd say outlook is not bright there haha
Course! Not exactly sure what you mean? We use and love Google Workspace (and tools like Motion require Google Workspace/Google Account or Microsoft 365 at the core), so in general we recommend it especially if you're a business. That said Google Workspace isn't a project management tool, so not exactly sure how that fits here or what exactly you're asking, care to clarify a bit more?
Been messing around with Walling lately. Kinda like it. Seems simple and allows me to keep up with any large undertakings. I may be using it as a lone wolf, but my projects are imprtant to me. Used to use a paper and pencil planner and Kanban board but Walling allows the same without all of the home office clutter.
My brother is similar, he does the walling approach but on a literal whiteboard for personal tasks, although for work he uses a proper project management tool. Trying to get him to try out Motion for personal usage as I think he'd quite like it since he does also rely on his calendar as well as it feels like a good mix of walling and software. Walling seems like a good first app to try in going from actually writing on a whiteboard though, especially if you are image/screenshot heavy in your task management 👌
Simplifying your workflow while still maintaining organization is key, especially for solo endeavors. Embracing digital tools like Walling can help streamline your process and reduce clutter, ultimately enhancing productivity and focus on your important projects.
Awe, this means a lot 🥲 so glad to hear and thank you for that! Curious if you ended up going with any of the project management software mentioned in the video?
@@efficientapp Actually I did :) I immediatelly installed Asana on my personal laptop because I am working on a personal project as well and would like to test it for personal usage. So far it looks really nice! And btw, I wasn't aware about half the tools you mentioned in the video so big thank you ^_^
Ooh, congrats on taking the leap! Know it's tough to get started with all the options available, and also awesome to hear that you haven't heard of all the tools mentioned in the video! It's really cool to hear that actually because I think we're just so accustomed to thinking most watching have already heard of these tools, so that makes our job more fun actually! Appreciate your comment and wishing you the best with Asana! Hope to catch ya on other videos our new friend!
So glad to hear! Thanks for your comment 🙏 did you end up deciding on any of our recommendations in the video? 👀 Curious of your use-case/team size and what you ended up going with!
@@efficientapp To be honest, nope. The one that would suit my services the best is Asana, but I am a freelance logo designer, and I don’t think I need that much power yet. So I am sticking to Google Keep (for idea planner) and Microsoft One Note for everything else. 👀
But are there demands in freelancing markets for these tools? I’m starting my freelancing career as a pm and started with click up and next up is notion, now I see your video. What tools do you suggest I should go through with, I have a decade of experience in the field with Jira mostly but happy to learn tools that will help me.
So we actually used Motion solo (as a freelancer essentially) for a while before expanding it to the wider team. Of all the tools you mentioned, it's definitely the one to consider. Maybe try checking out our full tutorial here: efficient.link/yt/motion The easiest way to know is just by signing up for a free trial and giving it a shot: efficient.link/r/motion You'll even get access to our Motion course for free if you use that link and sign up here: efficient.deals/motion But yeah, all that said, if you have any specific questions, happy to answer them, but if you're used to Jira and a freelancer, think Motion will be a huge upgrade for you (and more focused on a freelancer/solopreneur).
@@efficientapp thanks. Yes going through the course. Yes one simple question, which tools should be in my toolkit that I might get jobs in platform like up work or fiverr
Ah, depends on the type of work you want to do on there. In general, you might want to check out efficient.app/apps/zapier as integration is a big need of many companies, and it's almost like a toolbelt itself versus it just being a tool on the toolbelt. Other than that, maybe a CRM would help you manage your relationships (clients, etc.) and the communication with them. We'd recommend watching this video to see which one would be best for you: efficient.link/yt/crm
Oh wowies! I REALLY appreciate that you discuss the minusses of the softwares, too. This really helps me with my decision on what to use for my personal project organization
Gantt is coming very soon (it's probably even out by now if you're reading this comment), if not, here's a sneak peek of what it'll look like: efficient.yt/motion
Quick update-Gantt is coming very soon 👀 have a video coming out in a few days that shows what it'll look like and featured your comment in the video 🙌
Quick update #2-here's the video we featured your comment on and it also shows a sneak peek of what Gantt will look like in Motion: efficient.yt/motion
Glad to hear it helps! And the closest app that does this is Motion, in that it will automatically plan and manage your day, you just need to add in the tasks and it does all the work. Is that what you mean or are referring to? It's the most management hands-off tool of all those referenced 👌
refreshing to hear someone say "i like this and I dislike this", rather than trying to not offend anybody and end up not saying anything. Thanks :)
That's the goal! 🙏 We appreciate that you appreciate it. Our goal is to be opinionated, in the same way that a close friend would ask us for software advice-we wouldn't sugar coat it.
That said, we're always open to having our opinion changed, it would just take a lot, or helping us see where a given software fits into the competitive landscape (and us validating that).
We know we could "make more money" partnering up with the behemoths, like Salesforce or Monday, but we love software, we want to enjoy the software that we use, and the behemoths have actually been the reason that we have developed these strong opinions in the first place. There's nothing worse than people just saying "oh you're a business, you need Salesforce", we're like... Does your business have people in it or machines? If it's people, do they actually ENJOY using Salesforce? No they don't, so let's look at something that fits the business and the people working there better.
Let's make software enjoyable again, and that comes from being opinionated, which may offend some companies at times. We're not meaning offense, we're just being candid.
Apologies for the ramble, this comment just struck a chord-appreciate you 🙏
@@efficientapp LOVE this
Awe, means a lot, appreciate you saying that 🥹🥲
agreeeeeeee
This makes us so happy 🙏
I love how you actually give an answer! Most people review different softwares and at the end always say... "I cant tell you which ones right for you, thats for you to decide" lol
Haha we made it a point to not have a video like that because we hate when we see it. Have some opinions people, please! 😬 glad you enjoyed it and appreciate your comment! 😁
thank you for giving us an opinion, its actually extremely rare, its crazy how people are so afraid to give an opinion of a software @@efficientapp
This comment definitely encourages us to do more of it! Appreciate your support!
You know this is authentic when it’s not a Notion ad 😂
Haha I mean don't get us wrong, we're super impressed by what Notion has managed to build... But we very much think people are trying to use it for everything, when they shouldn't be. It's not the best solution on the market for most things. These "all-in-one" tools are a strange category. It's like, "I can't figure out what we are, so let's be everything to everyone!"-where has that worked in any other industry over the long-run? 🤔
+Big sigh+ Soo... as a 3+ yr notion user (and others like anytype, coda, etc.) this is tough. Even though the PPV system (august bradley's) has been a life changer (literally), I'm now looking at other platforms.
I just started using akiflow. Its speed, shortcuts, quick adds, etc are amazing but now that I'm seeing reviews on reclaim, skedpal and motion - using ai's help looks like a no-brainer.
@@efficientapp
Ah yes, we're fans of Akiflow and Sunsama, although the manual-ness of it all didn't fit for us. Not sure if you saw our Daily Planner video that goes into this: efficient.yt/planner
But yeah, I definitely recommend checking out Motion. If you do, be sure to lock in our course for free (probably going to be selling it for $400 otherwise) if you sign up for motion here:
efficient.link/deal/motion
We'll have some content coming out soon with some best practices for setting it up.
Also happy to make a recommendation on if Motion or something else would be best based on your needs and you sharing your current stack via a Loom video here:
efficient.link/audit
Appreciate your comment and I'm confident you'll figure it what works best for you!
Yup😂
Do you trust a company from Israel with all your data and info?
20 years experience speaking here: first question should be, "which platform does your Project Management Organization leadership prefer?" if the answer is "uh, we dont have a PMO leader" then that's your first challenge. the software will not run itself. it is a tool that a good leader can deploy to get max gains out of the rest of your teams
Yes! GREAT point 🙌 That’s why we prefer Motion, because it’s “easier to self-manage” but this will only work with teams up to a certain size. Thank you for watching! 🙏🙏
True true
Your insight highlights the importance of organizational leadership in implementing project management software effectively. Identifying leadership preferences ensures alignment with strategic goals and enhances adoption across teams. A strong leader can leverage the software as a tool to streamline processes and optimize team performance, ultimately driving project success.
I was thinking that when she said that people were lost about when or how to use the tool.
Totally, I mean it's a mixture, right? Having someone internal as a champion to lead product adoption is crucial, but also, the better the tool, the more you should be able to get some small wins when using it solo which brings people onboard to fully adopting it.
The sheer number of companies using Salesforce, but their team HATES using it is incredibly high (the far majority, in our experience at least), so great, upper management loves it, but sales reps don't enjoy using it, so they don't, and the "data" that upper management is reporting on isn't even accurate.
So again, it's a mixture of both. The tool needs to be useful to the individual, making their job easier, as well as for managers to derive insights from and manage the team.
Of the bunch in this video, Motion does seem to do this the best: efficient.link/r/motion
Thanks!
Oh wow, this means a lot 🥹🥲 thank you so much for your support 🙏🙌
Thanks for this overview! Detailed but also no fluff
Our aim with any software reviews we do is to be opinionated and direct to the point! We don’t want to be another channel/website that says “at the end of the day, it’s up to you as there is no bad choice”, we’d rather tell people what is actually working for us and businesses we work with. Appreciate you commenting!! 🙏
You're 100% right when you talk about apps trying to do too much. It's a modern curse. I don't want every app to let me "message my coworkers", because I don't want to be getting messages and notifications from a thousand apps!
Haha can so relate! Internally we had to come up with some rules to essentially say "when it's this type of message, use this tool", because every tool does the same thing in some way-it's a lot!
For example, a CRM has tasks, but our project management tool has tasks too... So do we create the task in Motion? Or in Copper? The decision we've made internally is, if it's a relationship-focused task (e.g. reach back out to x about y) then it goes into the CRM tied to the person it's related with. Anything else goes in Motion.
So we're finding that even when you thoughtfully pick software that doesn't overlap, there's still some overlap, and that's when internal standard operating procedures need to be made (if you're small, don't need to write them up, just needs to be a general ethos), of which tool should be used when.
Also Slack DM's are good for quick message exchanges without much structure, but if you're actually moving project work forward, maybe a comment inside of the task within the project manager is a better place to post that Loom video you recorded so the entire team can see it and can reference it back when you're in the type of work that the comment relates to, otherwise a Slack DM could just be disruptive.
It's a delicate balance and just getting more difficult with so many tools moving to all-in-one because they all want to own your entire work stack! Haha
Absolutely, the proliferation of features in apps can lead to information overload and decreased productivity. Simplifying app functionalities to focus on their core purposes can enhance user experience and reduce distractions. Prioritizing efficiency over excessive features is key in navigating the modern app landscape.
@AkshayKumar10xTech Why are you leaving a bunch of AI comments on our videos? They aren't adding anything to the conversation.
Thank you for getting to the point on each of these. This is the video I have been looking for to help me with which move to make in choosing between Asana and Motion. You gave me the exact information that I needed. Thank you!
Very glad to hear that! What did you end up choosing for your team? Super curious! 👀
Curious how things are going for you? We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it helpful: efficient.yt/motion
Our team brought in ClickUp and has had much success with it.
The projects we work on are extremely complex so we do require a tool with a lot of customisation that can be tailored to suit the niches of our project.
I can see how someone would be easily overwhelmed by the functionality of ClickUp.
That makes sense, how large of a team is it that you work with? And did you have a full-time internal and/or external champion helping you set it up in the way that you needed it configured?
Excellent video! I love the stat about the project management tool usage
Glad you enjoyed it! 🙏
Great opinions on each. But unless money is no object for you and your business, there is a HUGE hole in this. Cost is never mentioned. If you're solo Motion is $39/month. STEEP when some of the others have free versions with every feature you need (IMHO).
Thanks for the comment Brian! So we are, first and foremost, a B2B software review channel, our target audience is businesses and teams. With that, part of running a business means you’ll have software costs and we don’t encourage teams to evaluate tools on price alone (or even a primary driver) - unless a tool literally starts at thousands of dollars per year, we won’t mention it as a part of our reviews.
With that, Motion is actually $19/m on the annual tier and $12 per user for teams. For small teams, Motion and Asana are nearly identical per seat as compared to Asana (paid annual). P.S. it's $34/mo when billed monthly, not $39. Not to mention, if you move to their "Team" plan, you get 2 seats for $20/user/mo, so maybe get a friend to go on a team with you if you don't have a business and save 40%?
While there is a "free" tier in Asana for example, it's incredibly restrictive feature-wise (just about everything you try to do prompts you to upgrade). We used it for 7 years and were paid users on the advanced tier the entire time (it was literally more expensive than Motion).
If the free tools do everything *you* need, then there’d be no reason to consider another option! For us, we’re a small team (2 people) and couldn’t get away from using the free tiers on any of the tools in this video. And for what a tool like Motion does for us in terms of peace of mind and organization, and helping us get work done, it more than pays for itself (like with all the tools we use).
@@efficientapp i'm sorry i agree with Brian's point. I tried Asana based on this and other reviews and found that it aggressively inactivates even simple features even in costly versions. For instance unless you have the VERY MOST expensive version you can't even see a report showing which tasks are done and which aren't. For $40 per month this task management software won't trackthe completion of tasks. When that's missing from a review it's misleading.
I recently hit the wall with the extended stress of juggling the various tiers and projects in my life that I decided it's time to outsource this to a better solution and give my brain a break. I started down the notion rabbit hole even buying a template for it without really knowing how expansive the program was. First impressions were it could be really robust but I wouldn't get full benefit from it without first becoming a notion wizard... Motion then became a leader and your videos have really solidified that for me. Really appreciate the breakdowns and I expect Motion will be a powerful ally as a solo-preneur managing private life, work, youtube content launch and competition prep / training for areas of interest. Thanks so much and keep up the great work.
Love it! So glad we could help! And we use it for TH-cam content launch as well, flows work SO good for that.
Definitely be sure to claim the course, hope you made sure to use our link when signing up, here's the deal and how to claim it for free: efficient.deals/motion
Hi. Just wanted to ask... You're not looking at the camera. Is that intentional? Useful video. Thanks. Notion and Clickup have been driving me nuts.
Rookie mistake! Was the first time filming with my phone and I realized after filming that I was looking at myself instead of into the camera.
Recorded something last week and tried to look into the camera during that one, we’ll see if it’s any better!
Thanks for being here & the comment! 🙌 Glad the video helped!
You did a great job. I noticed you looking off to the side and wondered if it was intentional. It didn't actually bother me you're beautiful and came across very professional.
really love your video, such clarity and value. Thank you!
That means so much to hear! Thank you!! 🚀🚀🚀
I love how you are jumping for joy about Notion. 😂Jk. I feel the same way. Notion is FAR too overwhelming and confusing for me.
I am a solopreneur who uses 3 tools to manage my tasks and projects. Much like the screenshot on Motion's website, I am using Todoist for task management, Google Calendar for calendar appointments, and ClickUp for project management. Ugh, I'm overwhelmed talking about it.
Motion ads have been on my social feeds for a month. After seeing this video, which confirms everything I've thought about these tools, I'm secure in signing up for Motion. Thank you for your thorough overview, Andra. 🧡
Awe! So appreciate your comment and can totally relate with what you're describing, sounds just like what I was doing when I was solo as well 😁
Quick tip, if you sign up here, you might even be able to message their support and ask if they'd be open to extending your trial by an extra week, if they ask why, just say Efficient sent you 😉😁
efficient.link/r/motion
Finding the right tools that align with your needs and preferences is key to staying organized and productive. It sounds like Motion will be a great addition to your toolkit, offering a more streamlined and intuitive experience. Best of luck with your productivity journey!
@AkshayKumar10xTech Why are you leaving a bunch of AI comments on our videos? They aren't adding anything to the conversation.
It's true that ClickUp is super overwhelming, I'm using the free trial and I'm only up to naming my tasks and that's it, forgot about it.
Hahaha, we hear you 😅 there's a lot vying for your attention. Use us for tasks! For notes! No projects! No embed everything inside of us! Use us for everything!!!! Curious what you end up settling on?
Thank you for this video. It was the best one on the subject I could find and it helped me make a decision.
Amazing to hear! What did you end up going with and how big is the team you'd be using it with? Super curious to hear!
@@efficientapp I'm going to proceed with Motion for our 4 person team. Haven't implemented yet.
@JohnnieVibes Awesome! Hope it works for you like it does for us!!
Wanted to check-in on how implementation was going? We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it helpful: efficient.yt/motion
Thanks so much for doing this. You’ve really helped me make decisions much more quickly.
Amazing! Thanks for sharing-as that's exactly what we were hoping for 🙌 what'd you end up going with?
super helpful! Thank you!
Of course! Appreciate you commenting 🤗
Just the review I was looking for👌Could I ask whether you've explored Microsoft Project or Zoho Project?
Stoked to hear this! And thanks for your comment 🙏 so we've explored Microsoft Projects, although we're a Google Workspace company (and most of our customers are as well), and once you start messing with the Microsoft solutions, they want you on Teams and all things Microsoft.
What I can say though is my brother works at a larger company 500+ employees, and they evaluated Microsoft Project vs Asana extensively, and even embraced Microsoft Project for a month, before switching back to Asana as it was too limited for what they were looking to use. He now personally uses Motion to get his work done (more as his daily planner), and manually updates Asana, as their team is already too reliant on Asana at this point to switch again.
Regarding Zoho Projects, we're just not a huge fan of the Zoho suite. Explored it deeply (as how could you not consider it?) But once you go Zoho, they are much like Microsoft, in that they want you to use Zoho email, Zoho CRM, Zoho all the things. The Zoho suite does a lot, but it definitely pales in comparison to built-for focused category solutions. Personally, I'd like to use the best tool for the job, not settle for "good enough" for all my tools, while watching startups like Motion/Routine/etc. popping up and innovating into a space, only to where you have to watch from afar because it's not part of the full cohesive "Zoho" or "Microsoft" core stack.
Not sure if that makes sense? But we've done more of a deep dive on the all-in-one tools space here that you might be interested in: efficient.app/comparisons/all-in-one
@@efficientapp wow, thank you for such a comprehensive reply, much appreciated! I know exactly what you mean by Microsoft and Zoho slowly tractor beaming you into their entire ecosystem bit by bit 👍
Of course! Appreciate you writing something meaningful. And 💯 they aren't hiding anything 😁
The point you made about Notion not having any guardrails is a frustration I’ve shared in. It might be great for someone who is willing to learn it and wants to have all of that functionality. But I feel like it should “just work”, and it should know what it needs to do and be intuitive. But then on the other hand you have Monday which is much more structured - and pretty, that was my draw to it - but they as a contrast have a very certain way of how they think it should work, which is different from Notion, but they’re doing it in a non-intuitive way. I need to give Asana another try. I used them AND Monday and found I liked Monday better, but I’ll have to check again.
Appreciate you sharing this, because I feel like not many people are talking about it... It's even one thing to invest the time into learning, it's another thing to train your team on, and have them be successful without the clear guardrails.
Every corner you run into edge-cases when trying to build something like Notion into a project manager. And the tough part is, it doesn't make sense to put guardrails on Notion, because it defeats the entire point of what Notion is trying to be (the all-in-one flexible tool).
And I've heard what you're saying a lot in the past, Monday looks nicer than Asana, I even know a team that uses Asana but created a Chrome extension to make it look more like Monday 😂
But yeah, I'd say give Asana a shot if you have a large team, if not, why not try something new and see if Motion can give you a bit more of something that maybe you weren't even considering before? The AI scheduling component is really something that we can't live without having gotten used to it, and it doesn't seem like Asana or Monday are going that direction for some reason 🤷♂️
also notion is extremely slow and laggy
Totally, that's what happens when you try to become all things to do people 😁
Your frustration with Notion's lack of guardrails and the contrasting structured approach of Monday resonates with many users seeking intuitive productivity tools. Exploring alternatives like Asana could offer a balance between structure and flexibility that aligns better with your preferences. It's always worth revisiting tools to find the best fit for your workflow.
Thanks so much! Really helpful
Awe, glad to here-appreciate your comment, it made our day! 🙌 curious to hear what you end up going with and if for personal or work!
Really helpful and concise review. Thank you so much. Ive been using Asana and a paper planner and 3959 sticky notes as a solopreneur, but i keep seeing Motion ads and it looks like it really solves my morning routi-- *ahem* time waster of migrating yesterday's to-dos to today's list
Haha we hear you! We were in the same boat, spending a good 20+ minutes per day (sometimes an hour), manually re-evaluating for the nth time priority and importance to push our tasks back. With Motion, it just recommends a new date/time automatically and takes away so much of that DAILY friction:
efficient.link/r/motion
Transitioning from multiple tools to a more integrated solution like Motion can indeed streamline your workflow and save time on daily tasks. With its features tailored to solopreneurs, Motion could be just what you need to boost productivity and stay organized. Good luck with your transition!
thank you. Thank you!.
Nono, thank you. Thank you for watching and sharing some love! 🙏
I'm very interested in Motion. Not for my teams necessarily. I do video games development so we use Jira, which is better suited as we work in sprints, etc. But for personal work and tasks as a manager, I definitely see myself using it. Thanks for the fantastic breakdown!
Love it! Yeah it's tough to get off Jira especially when you have a larger team. I know the team over at Motion actually moved off of Linear and over to Motion for their engineering development team which was a big deal.
That said, personal work and tasks as a manager is a great use-case for it. I'm also sure your team will see it and get jealous over time and ultimately join in 😉😁
Glad we could be of help and appreciate the comment! 🙌
thanks Andra for giving us an opinion vs saying it depends like every other channel
Jira, interesting, my job often looks like a developer's sprint -even though it is not development at all- and I have moved more and more into Agile/Scrum methodologies. Maybe I'll take a look. What is it that makes it so tailored to sprints?
So Jira was actually created more for engineering as the parent company is Atlassian which also owns Bitbucket (competitor to GitHub) so they were very much building for that ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), and engineers often do sprint-based work.
That said, Jira has since moved to a large team focus (e.g. 500+ people), they are like the Salesforce of the engineer sprint world.
New modern competitors have come out and have been eating their lunch though. If you're in any way interested in Jira, Linear is 10x better in every single way:
efficient.app/apps/linear
In-fact early days at Motion I know they were using Linear to even build their own product funny enough (since they are technically competitors now). They said they absolutely loved it at the time.
So yeah, Linear is definitely the tool to check out if you're considering Jira, it's better in every way.
@@efficientapp Pretty cool, I have been toying with Jira today, I can see a lot of uses with my common Use Cases. I manage grants and proposals and Agile is a great way of doing it. I also consult for small businesses and startups that need proposal management options within their existing solutions. Qvidian and Loopio are too expensive for small companies.
I'll check Linear too.
Thank you for this great summary of choices! ⭐
So glad to hear it was helpful! Which PM software did you land on in the end? And curious for what use-case/team size!
If you went with Motion, hope you used our link and locked in the deal we have going on: efficient.deals/motion
Thanks for this review, so helpful! I’ve had a good experience with Trello as well but mostly for personal life things. Absolutely agree with asana and motion! Could you show us a bit more on how you’re using these platforms? I’m looking for some ideas for adding team members
Thank you Lydia! That's a good request, we can put it on our list of content to create but might be a little while because we have backlog of videos to release atm that are filmed! But make sure to subscribe to keep an eye out for them as we think this would be super useful to record 👀
We just watched your video about what you learned your first year on TH-cam-well done 👏 just subscribed!
Didn't realize you had a TH-cam channel. So funny enough, our video editor signed up for Motion as he was editing this video and he's still using it today and loves it 😁
It's primarily me and Andra using it, sometimes she'll throw tasks on my calendar for customer work that is blocking her, or I'll throw tasks for content ideas on her calendar.
Often, I'll do a detailed comparison, and then we'll collaborate on how to turn it into a video, determining who's more passionate about the topic and that'll dictate who will record the video.
We're working on getting into a more consistent flow within Motion to be more like a hand-off upon each task being completed:
1. Alex writes rough thoughts
2. Andra refines and turns into a deeper comparison, adding her own thoughts
3. Alex proofreads/reviews
4. Andra/Alex record a video
5. Cory (video editor) edits video
6. Alex/Andra revisions
Motion lets us hand off these tasks back-and-forth to entire we don't block each other when it's our turn, or our video editor when it's his turn.
Motion is also going to get way more refined in that way in the months to come (allowing for better handing-off and back/forth of work).
@@efficientapp thanks for this detailed outline, that is so helpful. I’ve been playing with motion and love it as well, but haven’t expanded to including my husband or any handoff tasks. I’m definitely going to take inspiration from your workflow and see how we can learn from it.
So glad I came across your channel when I was researching this. It’s inspiring to see other people building businesses :-) very excited to follow along!
This is so sweet, thanks for the comment Lydia! We know that Motion is undergoing some changes/improvements, so we're more apt to make a video to help others set it up once these changes are complete and rolled out, just so the video isn't immediately outdated 😀 hope to see you when that video does eventually come out! Appreciate your support, and we're excited to hear how things expand when you eventually rope your husband into Motion 😉
Thank you!
Of course! Thanks for your comment 🙏
Cool Video, did you ever consider Reclaim AI?
Also don't you think Motion is very pricy?
Appreciate the kind words! We actually have a video coming out comparing Reclaim with Clockwise-in that video we explain how they are substantially different meant for different use-cases.
You can read the write-up comparing Motion vs Reclaim though:
efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-reclaim
Motion is not pricey when viewing it as a replacement to a paid Asana + Calendly. For personal usage, sure, as you're looking more at TickTick and ToDoist, but those tools are not powerful enough for actual business and team collaborative use-cases.
As business project management software, annual license, Motion is completely reasonable price-wise. So it really depends on what you're specifically looking for. We're a business and write content primarily about business software.
How do you migrate from Asana to Motion?
We talked a bit about it in our Motion Tutorial video, did you get a chance to watch that one? efficient.link/yt/motion
Refreshing take on the suite of project management tools. Why have you opted for Motion as a pose to it's competitor Akiflow?
So I actually used Akiflow for 7 months or so alongside Motion early on. What I liked about it was it integrated with Gmail and Asana, alongside other tools.
So what Akiflow is really trying to be is a task aggregator tool with a calendar at the core. It was quite a manual process though adding all of my various tasks onto the calendar for when I wanted to work on them. Same with stared emails from Gmail, etc.
Ultimately, I ended up just getting too overwhelmed with tasks in using Akiflow, with things getting out-of-date. It just became too manual of a process. I realized that versus trying to use an aggregator tool, I should instead just use a tool that better handles it all in a single platform (Motion), and actually get rid of Asana + not rely on Gmail for turning emails into tasks, and instead just use Superhuman to help me triage through email, etc.
Not super bullish on these calendar task aggregation daily planning tools, it misses the full picture of projects and dependencies and true prioritization of tasks. It's so manual, whereas a tool like Motion has all the context, and auto-plans each day.
We really should add it to the site and do a more proper write-up for it here:
efficient.app/comparisons/project-management
We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, that should get across why we need a tool like Motion as opposed to a task aggregation tool like Akiflow: efficient.yt/motion
While both Motion and Akiflow offer compelling features, Motion's focus on simplicity and intuitive design resonated more with my workflow needs. It ultimately comes down to personal preference and which tool aligns best with individual work styles and requirements.
How does Motion compare to Sumsana?
We're in progress of a write-up for this right-now in-fact. It's about 75% complete if you want to check it out:
efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-sunsama
We still have a few more hours of work to put into the article, although it's our highest priority to complete over the next week.
Wonderful video! One question: Is Trello outdated by now? Or does it fit into some other kind of category for you guys?
Thanks for the kind words and for your comment! Okay, so this comment inspired me to do a write-up of Trello on our website, you can check it out here: efficient.app/apps/trello
But yeah, the main gist is that Trello was an innovator of kanban board view for project managers over a decade ago. They dominated the B2C space, and moved a bit into B2B. With Atlassian acquiring them though, it feels like their UI hasn't evolved in the past 6+ years. They just seem stagnant now and definitely aren't innovating in the space.
You can read more at the link above though, hope it helps!
- Alex
Way to go above and beyond! Subscribed!
Solid write up. I just found this channel but you seem really legit? So Trello could still be a fine choice but they're simply stagnant. Still a great choice if you use all the other Atlassian stuff.
Dare I ask about your thoughts on Miro?
Totally missed this reply until now!
We've used Miro in the past to map processes or when we needed to create visual aids. We found it *pretty* good, buggy at times, but if you need a whiteboard type of software we'd say go for it, it's one of the best out there.
A few years ago, our knowledge base software Slite (efficient.link/r/slite) introduced a sketch feature and we just use that now as we were really only using the barebones of Miro.
Wonderful analysis. Thank you! 🙂
Awe, of course! Appreciate your comment ☺️ what tool did you end up going with, and for what use-case?
I bet this channel will take off.
Great content! I love your website as well. Very clean and well organized. I look forward to seeing more reviews.
What tech stack do you use at Efficient App? Also how do you pick what apps you will review?
Keep up the good work 👍 I look forward to seeing this channel grow.
Hey Paul, this comment just made our day (Alex & Andra)-genuinely appreciate you saying that.
We've been pouring our heart into the website, so that means a lot, super exciting things coming down the pike!
Regarding our tech stack... It's long 😅we actually have all our current (and prior) stack live updating here if you want to check it out: efficient.app/stack/efficient
- For right now we do have the "stacks" section to our site gated behind a login (it's free to sign up, and we have tons of exciting things coming to the free membership on the site).
Regarding how we choose what apps we review... Right now it has really just been whatever Andra and I have been feeling motivated to record on. Sometimes we'll do a paid call with a VC firm on a specific B2B SaaS market segment, and then feel motivated to summarize what we spoke about in a video/writeup, because why not! Overall, no major rhyme or reason, still figuring that all out!
Appreciate your comment and excited to connect!
@@efficientapp Hey Alex and Andra! Thanks so much for the reply! I signed up and look forward to checking out your tech stack 👍
I reached out on the website so feel free to reach out if you ever want to chat. I love the TH-cam platform and always enjoy connecting with other creators. Cheers!
LOVE the honesty and how straight up you are! Thank you for that!
Ayyyy, thanks friend! 🙏 Curious what you ended up going with, and just for yourself, or your team? (Or just exploring for fun? 😉)
Notion is chaotic, and it's everything and nothing at the same time. Takes more time to design your toll than use it.
Completely and totally agree. Because of the foundation of how it's built (database infrastructure), it was built as a knowledge-base tool, storing things in blocks, so moving to project management and other more complex use-cases result in it totally falling apart and slowing down at scale. Wish more people learned this before building everything in their business atop of it.
Thank you for a great summary. Like some of the other commenters, I appreciate that you made recommendations and stated your reasons. Very helpful!
I am a sole practitioner bookkeeper looking for a simple way to keep track of which jobs have to be done for which clients by when. I am not sure whether I really need PM software but I do need something that is simple and reliable. Maybe a fancy to-do list is all it would take. Anyway, I'm off to find out more about Motion, but if you have any advice for my situation I would love to hear about it.
Hey Terry! Glad to hear it was helpful, maybe a more useful video would be our best to-do list apps video here: efficient.link/yt/todo
That said, Motion, while a PM tool, is also a basic daily planner and task management app at the core when just used as an individual. The others mentioned in this video would probably be quite overkill for what you're describing, but Motion might be a good balance. Here's a dedicated video on Motion that should help: efficient.link/yt/motion
My gut is saying that you're looking for more of a daily planner though since you're talking about client jobs that need to be done by a certain date (calendar is pretty core in this, and it understanding your availability so that you can complete work on time, even if other things come up). In that case, efficient.link/r/motion should be able to help with that quite well. We have a standalone video on the best daily planners available on the market here: efficient.link/yt/planner
Apologies, know I just threw a bunch at you-but to summarize, I do think Motion would work well for what you're describing and isn't "overkill" so to speak. Be sure to check out our site for a deal off our setup course if you do decide to give it a shot (you just need to make sure you use our link to lock the discount in): efficient.deals/motion
Let us know if you have any more context you want to add, throw a comment on any of those other videos and we can get more specific if needed or if you're in-between 2 tools!
"Chaos is probably the exact word that I'd use to describe trying to manage any kind of projects in Notion" ... roasted 😬
Bahaha sorry (not sorry) 😁
I signed up for the free Motion trial only to find out that the app isn’t supported in landscape mode on my ipad, deal breaker 😢
Wait, if you have an iPad, we'd recommend you instead use the website in desktop view, it's way way way better than the mobile/iPad app.
This is the most helpful yet concise video I’ve seen on all these different PM apps. Thanks!
I have a couple of questions: we are a small team of 3-5. I’m new to PM apps and I’m learning before I roll it out to the team. I’m currently learning Asana & find the templates feature very useful. 1) does Motion have anything similar?, 2) although we’re a small team, we have a lot of projects, at out busiest it can be 100+. I know you recommended Motion for smaller teams, however, do the number of projects affect your recommendation? Thanks again for such a helpful video. Best one I’ve seen so far!
This is such a nice comment, thank you 🥹🙏 so yes, Motion has gone quite deep on the templating tasks feature. I also know they are going more and more down the templating + team handoff of a task/project direction (which should be helpful for the type of work you're describing).
Question around the 100+ tasks as part of a project, couldn't some of these simply be sub-tasks? Essentially having a project with larger tasks, and some of those tasks just have sub-tasks?
Either way it works, even if you want to have a templates project with 100+ tasks.
Since your team is 3-5 people, would genuinely recommend you giving Motion a shot as well since the additional functional that Motion brings with a team that size, that Asana doesn't have, should be quite beneficial (around actually handing off and passing work along to the team and calendar integration to ensure it gets done).
All of this to say, Motion is totally reworking their project manager in the coming months to greatly improve the UX especially around larger projects (we'll probably make a video on it), so we recommend having it be in the running, even if you don't sign up for a trial just yet: efficient.link/r/motion
@@efficientappSorry, I see I didn't mention the 100+ is number of projects, not tasks. I would say we have anywhere from 15-50 tasks and subtasks per project and although each project may be slightly different a lot are repetitive which is why I find Asana's templates so useful so it's good know Motion has them too. So, I guess my question still stands...with 100+ projects, but small team do you still recommend Motion? Thanks again!!
Oh yeah, in this case totally! You'd be totally fine having 100+ projects, and they've put a lot into the task/project template functionality. I will say that they are investing even more into projects, templates, and a few other cool features around that. So if you sign up, just know that it'll be getting a makeover soon (in a good way) 🔥 but how it works in the current state will still work perfect for what you're describing. 👌
@@efficientapp Great, I'll give it a try! Thank you.
Curious to hear how it went/how it's going? Did you have a chance to get it set up for you and your team?
We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it helpful: efficient.yt/motion
Thank you so much for this video. I feel like I've read every article on which project management tool I should use as a solopreneur and after just two videos on TH-cam, you've helped me decide. Thank you so much!
Awe, so happy to hear this! Which did you land on?
If Motion, be sure to sign up using this link: efficient.link/r/motion
So you qualify for the deal here: efficient.deals/motion
Awesome stuff, going to give Motion a try
Love to hear it! Keen to hear what you think! Be sure to use this link efficient.link/r/motion and let support know that we sent you and they might even extend your free trial if you ask them nicely 😉
Great video! What do you think about Reclaim?
We actually have a video on that coming out in the future, (it's already filmed), although it's just lower in the queue due to our mini-series launching soon (trailer dropping tomorrow in-fact!)
That said, we did a pretty extensive write-up on Motion vs Reclaim if you're interested in checking that out?
efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-reclaim
Thank you
🙏 for watching! Which tool will you try out? 🤔🚀
↳ Motion: efficient.link/r/motion
↳ Asana: efficient.link/r/asana
↳ ClickUp: efficient.link/r/clickup
↳ Monday: efficient.link/r/monday
↳ Notion: efficient.link/r/notion
This was so helpful! I just wanted to organize all of my projects/gigs and personal items so I tried Notion only to realize I’d spend the next year learning how to use it and make it work for me when what I really need are guardrails and accountability on the spot. ❤
Awe, love it! So glad to hear!
Be sure to sign up with Motion with this link: efficient.link/r/motion so you can lock in the course (as we give even more guardrails and accountability to help you set it up!) promotion details: efficient.deals/motion
But yeah, I have a feeling you're going to REALLY like our next video 🤭
Good job, thanks.
Appreciate your comment and glad we could help! What did you end up moving forward with? 🤔
@@efficientapp Trying Asana now thanks!
Awesome! Interested to hear how it goes for you 🙌 do you have a large team?
Do you use Motion for software dev sprint tasks or what do you use for that and how does it integrate with Motion?
So we use Motion for our software dev sprints. We don't have a huge team though, so I think a better example is that Motion's engineering team used Linear for their sprints for years and loved it. They officially switched fully over to Motion for their engineering sprints about a year ago and it has been working well for them.
So depends on the genuine size of your engineering team, but if you have less than 50 engineers, you should be able to get away with Motion standalone for it all.
They have an update to the project management section coming out soon (we're beta testing it now), that makes managing sprints in their project management side of the tool significantly better, so stay tuned!
Otherwise, you can't go wrong with Linear, though Motion and Linear are such different tools in a sense, that it does make sense for using both, but leaning more on Motion:
efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-linear
Though if you wanted it integrated, you'd need to build something custom with their API.
We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it interesting as it relates to using it for more structured processes like dev sprints: efficient.yt/motion
many software development teams integrate tools like Jira or Trello for managing sprint tasks. While Motion may not be specifically tailored for software development, it could still be used for high-level project planning and coordination alongside more specialized tools for development tasks. Integration options may vary depending on the specific tools being used.
I love this authentic review! I need more of these clear, concise and honest reviews in 2024. Also, your eyes are STUNNING 😍
Awe, thanks! We're trying to do more of them, glad it helped! Did you end up moving forward with any of the tools mentioned in the video? Or just checking it out?
What crm do you use to integrate with motion?
We did a full video on that here: efficient.link/yt/crm - personally we use efficient.link/r/copper alongside Motion, although we don't really need to integrate it. We use the CRM for relationship management and sales, then Motion for the project management/task management/daily planner side of things.
We're a team of 7 now and it works well for us. How would you envision wanting Motion to integrate with your CRM?
Great insight❤
Awesome to hear! Did you end up moving forward with any of the project management tools mentioned? 🤔
Well done, thank for going through the +/- of each option...!
Awe, thanks! 🙏 Curious what you ended up going with and what your needs/team size are? 🤔
great vidoe and presentation
Thank you so much! 🙏 Appreciate you leaving us this note!
What equipment are you using to record?
We actually put all the equipment we used in the description of the video actually! We didn't have much equipment in this video though, it was an iPhone and a microphone. Check our more recent videos description to see the equipment we use now though! 👌
@@efficientapp Thank you!
This review convinced me to switch to Motion from Notion. I have a question - Does the Motion iPhone app provide notifications? I’ve missed some important tasks because of this. I LOVE the desktop app but I work remote a lot.
Awesome to hear! How are you liking it so far as compared to Notion? Always curious to hear what people's experience is that have used both. Mobile notifications will come by end of year, they just completely re-built the mobile app from the ground up a couple months ago and are planning for feature parity with the desktop app very soon.
Completely hear you and relate here re: working remote. A couple more months if you're able to stick it out 👌
@@efficientapp Appreciate this - I love the desktop app! Notion has turned to a space where I build out a project but Motion is my new go to that manages the projects. Notion just doesn’t have the management tools that I was needing. I’ll stick it out! Looking forward to seeing you do a Mobile app review soon
Awesome to hear! I will say that we're planning a bit more Motion content based on the reaction to this video, that said, we did just update the written review of Motion on the website here: efficient.app/apps/motion
That said, super exciting things seem to be coming to Motion soon, so we're definitely going to be creating more content around it as they release!
And Trello?
We have a full writeup on Trello here: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-trello
Thanks for the video Andra! Have you tried Jira? What do you think about this other tool?
Awe, of course! Jira is very much more built for enterprise teams, unless you're an engineering team of 500+ people, there's just better options available.
We actually go more into it in the overview section of the best project management software page on our site: efficient.link/pm#overview
It's more that it serves its purpose for some enterprise teams (it's like the Salesforce of the PM world, which isn't a good thing), like Salesforce it has been replaced by more modern players. With Jira, even in the engineering world it has been replaced by tools like Linear and Motion: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-linear
Perfect, thanks for your reply!!
Of course! Appreciate you leaving a comment and engaging! Talk to you on other videos! 🙌
Is this what you would recommend as a CRM?
These are project managers, wouldn't recommend any as a CRM. Our CRM recommendation depends on your size of team and what core cloud suite you're using for your business (e.g. Google Workspace vs Microsoft). We've done a full writeup and video that should help answer that question for you here: efficient.tips/b/crm
We personally use Copper CRM: efficient.link/r/copper though mind you we use Google Workspace and have a smaller team. Definitely check out the blog post and video here though as it'll best answer your question: efficient.tips/b/crm
Nice video. Does Motion have Budget Management capabilities to manage a project budget automatically?
Thanks, appreciate your comment! 🙌 Motion doesn't tie in budget management (at least yet), but it's very deeply tied to hours around tasks (and thus projects), so you can set budgets in that sense. How much time did you actually take based on the budgeted hours in a sense. It's not a direct reporting type of feature though, just to not set the wrong expectations 👌
You rock, thank you for direct and to the point overview. no BS, love it
Awe, so happy to hear! Super curious what you ended up going with and for just yourself? Or for your team?
I'm struggling to find the perfect fit. Will check out motion
Fill us in! What are your current painpoints and what tools have you tried, and what type of business are you?
Go ahead and give Motion a shot with a free trial: efficient.link/r/motion and keep us posted how it goes, though happy to learn a bit more to let you know if it could work based on your needs. Happy to help 🚀
My workflow is somewhat simple.
I use samsung notes, set reminders, then add to folders based on organization.
Task are weighted weekly, and that's it..
I work off those reminders while adding reminders throughout the week.
I found most software I looked at to be cumbersome and not a good fit.
So I'm looking at motion and todoist now.
Oh got it, so you're looking for a relatively basic task manager then. Yeah it depends how much you value calendar integration. If you want your tasks to show up on your calendar, ensuring you get them done, that's where Motion excels. If you're looking for something relatively basic and just want a phone reminder when something is due, ToDoist would probably work well enough.
Curious to hear your experience after testing out both! Good luck 🙌
We actually just released a full video tutorial of how we use Motion in our business, think you might find it helpful if you haven't yet decided which tool to move forward with: efficient.yt/motion
Amazing and useful video!!! Thank you so much!! 🙌🙌
Awe, so glad to hear! What do you think you'll end up going forward with? Would love to hear the use-case you're looking to achieve as well 🙌
Great comparison. Clear, no fluff, insightful, helpful. Shame you kept looking off camera, lost connection there.
Awe, thanks so much! Did you get a chance to check out our more recent videos? We've been working hard on maintaining a better connection and looking into the camera (you) 🙏 curious what you think though?
And also curious if you went with any of the project management tools mentioned in the video?
@@efficientapp I haven’t yet but will def click your videos next time I need a no BS comparison. 😊
I am going to give Asana a go. I think it suits my needs better. I was only considering Notion because I was given a content planner on it and it already integrates with Blitzit, their Asana integration is still in development.
Awe, that means a lot! Glad to hear we can live up to our tagline 😁
And sounds like a solid plan! Curious how you get on with Asana-Blitzit looks pretty interesting, I do feel like Motion serves some of the purpose of Asana + Blitzit both in one tool combined. Did you consider giving it a shot? efficient.link/r/motion
@@efficientapp First impression of Asana is good. I like how the UI is clean and uncluttered. I have a LTD for Blitzit so would choose tools that work with it. 😉
Haha I hear that, glad to hear Asana is working for you! What is LTD? Lifetime Deal?
Edit: oh nevermind, I see, makes sense! Looks like a fun tool for personal time tracking like Rize 👌👌
I love how you packaged the entire video, very detailed and well thought through. By the way what colour are your eyes? captivated! #Will definitely try out motion
Appreciate the kind words! Awesome to hear you'll check out Motion 🔥
efficient.link/r/motion
yes u did a great job @@efficientapp
This means a lot! Thanks so much 🙏
I'm a solo operator but I'm sooooo deep down the Monday rabbit hole with automation I wouldn't even know where to start to try and pull away. I just got a trial to Motion though so we'll see how it goes!
Ah! Yeah that can happen with automation. What's the main reason you're looking to switch away from Monday?
Thanks for sharing!
Course! Thanks for being here and your comment! Which project management tool did you end up going with? Curious as to your team size and use-case as well?
What do you recommend for a team of 2-4 people?
Ah, you'd definitely be in Motion category, maybe take a look at our full tutorial here on how our team of 5 use Motion together: efficient.link/yt/motion
Be sure to claim our setup course if you do decide to give it a shot here btw: efficient.deals/motion (you'd need to do it before signing up for a free trial).
Feel free to share more specifically your use-case and type of business and any questions you have and we can probably give a bit more help with more context!
thank you
Of course! And thank you for watching and commenting, means a lot to us! 🙌
This was great! I'm going to the Motion website right now.
Awesome! Make sure you use this link: efficient.link/r/motion to sign up and then fill out this form: efficient.deals/motion and you'll get our paid Motion course for free! 🙌
Motion, though, does not offer a free plan. Am I right?
So not a free plan, but a 7 day free trial if you just want to give it a shot: efficient.link/r/motion
@@efficientapp Yeap, I wish they offered a free plan for personal users!
Totally hear ya! They are focused more on B2B. Maybe some day they'll add a basic free plan 🤷♂️
Thanks for the no fluff review. My only issue is “I wouldn’t recommend it” should be better qualified. Like, I wouldn’t recommend it for…..(insert your industry and team need that it didn’t meet) I’m with you on Asana and I teach my clients how to use it for Government Contracting but we switched to Monday where we manage several businesses operations. Monday handles Our Coworking Space, Consulting Company, online school, and Venue Rentals. The forms, automations and integrations are INCREDIBLE for us.
Appreciate your comment! Okay, that's fair-so we wouldn't recommend Notion, Monday, or ClickUp as the BEST project management tool for… anybody 😁
Don't get us wrong, we know it can be used and many do use it, the point of this video (and our channel) is to be incredibly opinionated about software for businesses (as there's no shortage of channels that talk about X is great for Y, but not Z). We're generalizing in a sense, but the "generalization" is coming from looking at the tools available in a specific category. So what you're describing (Monday handles your Coworking space, consulting company, online school, venue rentals, etc. etc. etc.) what you just described is potentially 2-3 different business functions/businesses/tools.
So what you'll get from our channel is "you should use this (best) project management software + this (best) CRM to run your business", whereas what you're pointing out is using an all-in-one tool that does many things (not all of them well), but the all-in-one component of it is worthwhile to you in your business, which we completely understand, we just disagree with the premise that Monday is the best project management software on the market, because it isn't. It's more of an all-in-one tool, for which we aren't particularly fans of. That doesn't mean it won't work for people or that you haven't been able to get use out of it, for that we can completely see and understand where that's coming from. Not sure if that makes sense? Not trying to invalidate any of the success you've had with Monday, we totally believe it and are happy it's what is working for you, it's just not what we are going to particularly recommend to businesses for all of the reasons above.
Appreciate you being here, and people don't hate us! 🙏
Are you tracking the team’s time and expenses so they’re billable to clients in Motion or a separate tool?
So we use Harvest to actually do this, have an entire comparison write-up on time tracking tools here:
efficient.tips/vs/harvest
That said, Harvest integrates with Google Calendar, and Motion allows tasks to show up on Google Calendar, and thus, your tasks essentially show up to add to Harvest if you'd like. So directionally we use Motion for that, just in addition to Harvest if that makes sense?
Here's more info and a write-up on Harvest + a free trial & credit if you want to check it out:
efficient.app/apps/harvest
@@efficientapp thanks, I’ll check out your write up. We’ve been using SpringAhead but the reporting and analytics is non-existent so I’m looking for options.
Apologies, YT doesn't do a great job at notifying when we get a comment reply-haven't heard of SpringAhead. At first glance, it definitely seems a bit dated. You'd be better off with any of the apps listed on the link posted above for sure!
Did you end up picking a solution? If so, curious with what you went with, and why? 🤔
Thumbed up. But what about Trello? I've seen they have a generous free plan with automation, even email notifications.
Appreciate it! You can read our in-depth write-up about Trello here: efficient.app/apps/trello
Along with the history of Project Management and Trello's role in it here: efficient.link/pm
I spend an ungodly amount of time looking at 10 different to do lists for 10 different projects and trying to figure out what should I do next or what order I should do things in to make the absolute most of the limited time that I have and it ends up burning up the few brain cells that I have left.
A software that can answer the question “what do I need to do next?” relatively accurately and can automatically reschedule itself is sounding pretty promising to me!
…. and yes, I am aware that those are run-on sentences… It is a written representation of the entanglement in my brain. If motion can help, sort it out, imma go d/l it right now 😆
Haha yes! It should be able to help with exactly that! Be sure to claim our free course if you use our affiliate link to sign up though! efficient.link/r/motion
Full deal details here: efficient.deals/motion
I'm looking for a CRM. I tested Notion, but when the volume increased it simply couldn't handle it, it freezes too much
Definitely don't recommend using Notion as a CRM. In fact, we have an entire video about why not + what our CRM recommendations are. Watch here & let us know what you think after watching: efficient.link/yt/crm
what video filter are you using? it looks so good! share please : )
Awe, appreciate that! It was actually custom, our video editor did it-wish we could help more, sorry 😥
Great vid. Would be interested to see your thoughts on ClickUp now they’ve launched their 3.0 version. The UI looks 1000x better than before!
Appreciate that! And this is an interesting one... While they are promoting 3.0 like it's a huge release, and we'll admit it does look better, it still suffers from the same point as the video mentioned.
They aren't just focused on project management, but rather they are more of an all-in-one tool, which leaves it feeling overwhelming as everything is vying for your attention.
If there's one area that we wish they improved with v3, it would be their daily planner/calendar functionality. We believe this to be so core to actually improving the end-user experience of task management and getting work done, when managing large projects.
That said, we were just visiting family and friends over the holidays, and one of my closest friends has been using ClickUp at his startup (30 employees or so) for the past 2.5 years. We asked what he genuinely thought about it and we were told he really disliked it as it's just trying to be too much with too many features and not enough focus or TLC in the areas that are important.
We're updating our ClickUp review on the website for 2024: efficient.app/apps/clickup but I will say that it's software that we have higher expectations of because of their size, scale, resources, and time in the market, and it feels like they are lacking focus and true innovation in the space. v3 just feels like a face lift of the main dashboard, without focusing much on the core functionality/stability.
@@efficientapp wow, thank you for the thorough and thoughtful response, really appreciated!
Of course! Appreciate you being here and leaving a comment, it genuinely does mean a lot to us and is what keeps us going 🙏
You mention a Setup Integration Video, where is it? This looks like great software. Absolutely great video, very informative.
Appreciate your comment! Are you referring to the Motion + Slack integration video? We have it linked in the description, although it's not a setup guide, it's just showing off what we've built with it (we're an integration company).
Depending on how comfortable you are with integration tools like Zapier though, you could build it.
You can try giving Motion a shot with a free trial here:
efficient.link/r/motion
And experiment with their Zapier integration to connect it with your other tools.
Thanks for your comment!
thanks for the video.
Of course! Thanks for your comment! Curious what you decided on and what your use-case is? 👀
This is the best review I've seen on these enterprise applications.
So happy to hear! Our background is actually in software implementing, integration, and automation, so we've been consulting companies of all sizes on exactly this type of thing for over a decade now. There's so much we still want to share with people that we've learned!
Appreciate the comment! Did you end up going with any of the tools mentioned in the video?
Jira?
So we probably won't do a video on Jira, although we've explained in other comments here. Jira is essentially the leader in the project management space when it comes to sprints and large engineering teams. It's almost like the Salesforce of the project management world. It works well, integrates with a lot, but it's not all that modern or enjoyable to use.
We recommend using something like Linear over that of Jira if you're an engineering team less than say 200 people (efficient.app/apps/linear).
If you're deep in the Atlassian suite (e.g. Confluence + Bitbucket + Trello), then maybe consider Jira. Otherwise we'd honestly recommend giving Linear or Motion a shot as you'll have a much more enjoyable experience with it.
Was just catched by your title - and hooked.
I agree, Notion is one tool for everything - except for something special. I did the mistake and bought a complex project management notion template and tried to figure out how to put my daily project work into it. No chance. I use it now as knowledge base. For that use, I guess it's cool.
I will give Motion a try, your hint that tasks could fit into my schedule automatically is mind blowing - and exact what I was wondering why other tools don't have it (my todo-list was done with ToDo from M$, really a super stupid tool).
Thank you very much for that video!
Amazing the title caught you? Or the thumbnail? 👀
So glad you commented, yeah, that's the exact situation you described is what we see so many people fall into. Totally understand the temptation of complex templates. We call out this a bit in our recent to-do list video actually: efficient.link/yt/todo
Be sure to claim the Motion deal by using our link to sign up if you do give it a shot: efficient.deals/motion
Thanks for your awesome comment and excited to have you here in the community our new friend!
We already have a CRM we use for ticketing, creation of projects and we track time, progress, start/end dates, budgets, etc. within the CRM. So I've found it difficult to find a PM tool that is really good at everything else. No sense in creating extra / duplicate work for people.
I want to use templates for simple project task plans based on project type (for consistency), a good visual representation of milestones and progress, a simplified customer/client view of their tasks and minimal view of our internal tasks, while having a very detailed tasklist, checklists for our internal views. Basically, I want to hide all the minutia for the clients and keep it simple for them. Also important is document sharing, notes, and chat.
What tool do you think I should take a hard look at?
Love the way that you're getting the most out of your CRM 🙌 Which CRM are you using btw?
So sharing projects with external members is not something that Motion has (at the moment anyway), so we'd recommend Asana. With Asana you can share entire projects or specific tasks with someone external: blog.asana.com/2012/03/guest-accounts-asana-for-clients-contractors-and-consultants/
All that being said, it sounds like your CRM is doing most of the heavy lifting internally, does your team mainly want a project management tool to share the progress with clients? Or is the CRM busting as the seams in terms of tracking projects internally also?
Asking because setting up a PM tool just to share progress with clients is a pretty big lift. Obviously we have no idea of your industry or business or how critical sharing the process is, but as an overall thought we've seen that most customers won't even log into third party tools to view progress, and they'll just ask you for updates on email anyway. We tried going down this path (sharing larger projects in Asana with our clients and adoption didn't last very long).
Another idea if you wanted to go down this path is that you could integrate your CRM in with Asana so that templated tasks are created upon deal/opportunity stage change for example, and this can be how you share the progress with your customers, but again, a huge lift and I'd be 100000% percent sure they want it/will use it if you go through the trouble of setting this up.
For collaborating on actual work fore example, we typically recommend a shared workspace. For example, we have a shared workspace which each of our customers for collaboration on a software called Slite: efficient.app/apps/slite.
In general, tough to say without speaking further, but from what you shared it seems like you're using your CRM better than most folks so first I'd be wondering where the PM tool will help the most internally, and then thinking about the external collaboration aspect secondly.
Hope this gives some food for thought!
@@efficientapp well, we have been using Microsoft Sharepoint to create sites for project collaboration with documentation. We can freeze changes and not allow customer to make any changes after a certain date, and have notes automatically stored in OneNote. The CRM is Connectwise - commonly used with IT VARs and MSPs like us....but we do sort of use it for a lot, and it seems to restrict how we want to work based on it's constraints and limitations. We use smartsheet for actual project / task plans, but it's kludgy, and I dislike how everything is just a spreadsheet.
The more I look around, I am concerned that a single PM tool won't do everything well. I worry about buy in and duplicating efforts, and working in a platform the rest of the company doesn't have visibility to.
Ahhhh this all makes sense, had me at Connectwise. Yeah we actually used to be an MSP, I was using IT Glue religiously and saw deeply how critical every tool needed to integrate with an IT CRM like Connectwise. They feel like the Salesforce of CRM. Not super intuitive, but integrated with most IT tools.
We were never more than just a couple/few people using it, so I had gotten away with NinjaRMM (I think now goes by NinjaOne now), Copper CRM (not using ConnectWise), and IT Glue.
Now that we're no longer an IT company though, dropped IT Glue because it was insanely expensive, picked up Dashlane in its place which covered most of our use-cases in the new integration business, and kept using Copper as our CRM.
Duplicate work is a huge thing in the IT/MSP/VAR industry, so yeah this is a totally different scenario than I had thought initially. Completely empathize with trying to modernize the IT services stack, it just feels impossible and why I ultimately left MSP, in many parts because of the software stack just feeling old/not modern.
But yeah, using Smartsheets sounds like a bummer, another older software that was built for enterprise companies and just isn't very innovative anymore. Hope you can figure out something that works for you and is also more enjoyable to use!
Wondering what you think of Basecamp... but great review on these!
Thanks! Copy/pasting from a different comment that we answered because we haven't added it to our site efficient.app yet:
Basecamp is an odd one. They're probably the most outdated and stagnated of all the ones listed in the video.
They actually totally stopped building the product a few years back, and prevented new customers from even buying it. It wasn't until recently that they realized maybe they should start allowing new customers onboard, but the product hasn't changed much (aside from 3-4xing the price).
Their userbase is primarily legacy customers that used it as an all-in-one project manager and communication tool, but just using it, you quickly see how old and outdated it feels, and the methodology they used to build it.
Not a tool we're excited about because of that, I'd genuinely be wary considering them when the competitors in this video haven't stopped putting their foot on the gas.
Hope this helps!
ty for the video
Course! What Project Management tool are you leaning toward?
thank you, what about Jira?
Of course, thanks for commenting! Jira is very much more built for enterprise teams, unless you're an engineering team of 500+ people, there's just better options available.
We actually go more into it in the overview section of the best project management software page on our site: efficient.link/pm#overview
It's more that it serves its purpose for some enterprise teams (it's like the Salesforce of the Project Management world, which isn't really a good thing 😅), like Salesforce it has been replaced by more modern players in the space. While Jira is still most popular in large engineering teams, even in the engineering world it has been replaced by tools like Linear and Motion: efficient.app/compare/motion-vs-linear
Hope this helps clear things up a bit!
Just did a full write-up on Jira here:
efficient.app/apps/jira
@@efficientapp thank you!
what would you recommend for a small project management team, like under 50 people, usually about 20?
Ah, that's actually the sweet spot for Motion: efficient.link/r/motion and similar to the team size we're building for.
Once you get closer to 50-100 you're probably going to want more deep reporting capabilities for managers, which is probably coming more later this year from what the team has said.
We have a full video on it that you can check out to see if it'll work for you, Flows and Gantt is in the product (releasing to everyone in a week or two), we've been using it in beta for 2 months now and it has been great.
Here's a free setup course that's coming too if you use this page to sign up for a free trial: efficient.deals/motion
Happy to answer any specific questions you might have if you want to describe more your needs, industry, internal or external, and any specific use-cases/processes you'll be using the PM tool for?
Here's the video: efficient.yt/motion
And here's a deal
@@efficientapp thanks for the quick response. Should I be using these kinds of tools if the other project members don't? (I was just assigned to be leader) Do you have any recommendations for an app that is free? I suspect that there aren't really any good program management tool that is free, as all the ones that have a free version, are extremely limited until you purchase it.
It's totally up to you, you can use a tool like Motion solo just to get your own work done if you'd like, team adoption can come in time as you see a benefit of inviting others in, and they see a benefit of being added in.
Regarding a free Project Management tool, especially for that of a team of 20+ people is going to be a bit short-sighted, as the actual cost of a project management tool is the time that goes into setting it up and training the team on it, not the actual cost of the software, so if you can't even justify the cost of the software, the chance at team adoption and the team sticking with it more than even just a few months isn't very likely.
We're trying to help teams and companies find and use the best software on the market that will save their team time and help them become more efficient, if your criteria is "free", then you're not really going to find a tool that we would recommend for such a critical role in the business, if that makes sense?
@@efficientapp thanks, ill check out motion solo. btw have you ever tried MS Planner?
Do let us know what you think, and be sure to sign up with this link so you can tie in the Motion deal: efficient.link/r/motion (you can claim the deal on our site here after signing up: efficient.deals/motion - apologies on the delay here as you probably already signed up).
MS Planner is a very simplified task management tool-in general, we work with Google Workspace most often, so we don't get too excited about diving into the built-by Microsoft task solution. Those solutions are never as good as standalone companies building them. In-fact, Microsoft acquired Sunrise Calendar back in the day, rolled it into Outlook (in an awful way), and then shut down Sunrise. So if anything, Microsoft is doing the reverse of things that we like and would recommend when it comes to task and calendar management haha.
Great video! What would you recommend though for a small team of 2-3 people?
Definitely Motion! It’s just two of us on our team and we use Motion (efficient.link/r/motion) 👌👌
Have you considered trello?
We have a full Trello write-up on the website. Trello is the OG, but has stagnated massively over the past 5+ years. We go deeper on it all here: efficient.app/apps/trello
What about Trello? Thank you.
We actually have a full write-up of our thoughts on Trello on our site: efficient.app/apps/trello
has Asana implemented unique human friendly numbering for tasks? It's feature number one, without it nothing exists, I cannot say to colleague "have you done that thing about that stuff that yesterday I created", I need to say "completed no. 86"
So, sorta... In settings they have the option to "show row numbers", but they are only visible in ListView, and if a task above it is completed, it'll shift up, so it's not tied to the task itself. But yeah, fair point-I actually don't know many project management tools that do that naturally. Linear sorta does with issue numbers: efficient.link/r/linear - that said, it's more common in product/engineering, so it makes sense that Linear has it.
My guess is it's not likely to come to Asana given it hasn't come yet, and they even have a row number setting that has existed for as long as I can remember, so yeah, I'd say outlook is not bright there haha
hey, thanks for the comparison! what about Google Workspace?
Course! Not exactly sure what you mean? We use and love Google Workspace (and tools like Motion require Google Workspace/Google Account or Microsoft 365 at the core), so in general we recommend it especially if you're a business. That said Google Workspace isn't a project management tool, so not exactly sure how that fits here or what exactly you're asking, care to clarify a bit more?
This was a proper unbias well explained video
Glad to hear! Thanks for the comment 🙌
Been messing around with Walling lately. Kinda like it. Seems simple and allows me to keep up with any large undertakings. I may be using it as a lone wolf, but my projects are imprtant to me. Used to use a paper and pencil planner and Kanban board but Walling allows the same without all of the home office clutter.
My brother is similar, he does the walling approach but on a literal whiteboard for personal tasks, although for work he uses a proper project management tool. Trying to get him to try out Motion for personal usage as I think he'd quite like it since he does also rely on his calendar as well as it feels like a good mix of walling and software. Walling seems like a good first app to try in going from actually writing on a whiteboard though, especially if you are image/screenshot heavy in your task management 👌
Simplifying your workflow while still maintaining organization is key, especially for solo endeavors. Embracing digital tools like Walling can help streamline your process and reduce clutter, ultimately enhancing productivity and focus on your important projects.
Wow, really insightful video, great work! I am subscribing right away
Awe, this means a lot 🥲 so glad to hear and thank you for that! Curious if you ended up going with any of the project management software mentioned in the video?
@@efficientapp Actually I did :) I immediatelly installed Asana on my personal laptop because I am working on a personal project as well and would like to test it for personal usage. So far it looks really nice! And btw, I wasn't aware about half the tools you mentioned in the video so big thank you ^_^
Ooh, congrats on taking the leap! Know it's tough to get started with all the options available, and also awesome to hear that you haven't heard of all the tools mentioned in the video! It's really cool to hear that actually because I think we're just so accustomed to thinking most watching have already heard of these tools, so that makes our job more fun actually! Appreciate your comment and wishing you the best with Asana! Hope to catch ya on other videos our new friend!
@@efficientapp Appreciate your awesome content and see you soon :)))
Awe, thanks so much, appreciate you 🙏 see you in future videos!
Super transparent and helpful information, thank you!
So glad to hear! Thanks for your comment 🙏 did you end up deciding on any of our recommendations in the video? 👀 Curious of your use-case/team size and what you ended up going with!
@@efficientapp To be honest, nope. The one that would suit my services the best is Asana, but I am a freelance logo designer, and I don’t think I need that much power yet. So I am sticking to Google Keep (for idea planner) and Microsoft One Note for everything else. 👀
But are there demands in freelancing markets for these tools? I’m starting my freelancing career as a pm and started with click up and next up is notion, now I see your video. What tools do you suggest I should go through with, I have a decade of experience in the field with Jira mostly but happy to learn tools that will help me.
So we actually used Motion solo (as a freelancer essentially) for a while before expanding it to the wider team.
Of all the tools you mentioned, it's definitely the one to consider.
Maybe try checking out our full tutorial here: efficient.link/yt/motion
The easiest way to know is just by signing up for a free trial and giving it a shot: efficient.link/r/motion
You'll even get access to our Motion course for free if you use that link and sign up here: efficient.deals/motion
But yeah, all that said, if you have any specific questions, happy to answer them, but if you're used to Jira and a freelancer, think Motion will be a huge upgrade for you (and more focused on a freelancer/solopreneur).
@@efficientapp thanks. Yes going through the course. Yes one simple question, which tools should be in my toolkit that I might get jobs in platform like up work or fiverr
Ah, depends on the type of work you want to do on there. In general, you might want to check out efficient.app/apps/zapier as integration is a big need of many companies, and it's almost like a toolbelt itself versus it just being a tool on the toolbelt.
Other than that, maybe a CRM would help you manage your relationships (clients, etc.) and the communication with them. We'd recommend watching this video to see which one would be best for you: efficient.link/yt/crm
@@efficientapp thank you so much for the help
Oh wowies! I REALLY appreciate that you discuss the minusses of the softwares, too. This really helps me with my decision on what to use for my personal project organization
Great to hear! Where did you land on after all of that? Be sure to claim the free course if you do go with Motion: efficient.deals/motion
@@efficientapp Will keep that in mind, thank you!
how is motion pm? I can't figure out how to create gnatt in motion for project to assign to people?
Gantt is coming very soon (it's probably even out by now if you're reading this comment), if not, here's a sneak peek of what it'll look like: efficient.yt/motion
Quick update-Gantt is coming very soon 👀 have a video coming out in a few days that shows what it'll look like and featured your comment in the video 🙌
Quick update #2-here's the video we featured your comment on and it also shows a sneak peek of what Gantt will look like in Motion: efficient.yt/motion
really great information and perspective on these tools! Isn't there a no management management app? :)) thanks!
Glad to hear it helps! And the closest app that does this is Motion, in that it will automatically plan and manage your day, you just need to add in the tasks and it does all the work. Is that what you mean or are referring to? It's the most management hands-off tool of all those referenced 👌
@@efficientapp I will look into it right now. I need the simplest way to manage a small team and a few VAs. Thank you for your answer!
Awesome to hear! Keep us posted on how it goes 🙌🙌