Detailed Guide to Gmail Project Management + One Smart Integration

Did you know that there are currently 1.8 billion active Gmail users worldwide? Initially designed solely for email communication, it has now become central to teams’ work management processes. Many businesses rely on Gmail to increase productivity and streamline their workflows daily. 

Some office management teams use Gmail as an improvised project hub, but face challenges without other dedicated tools to manage projects fully and professionally. 

Whilst Gmail is a superb standalone tool, it isn’t a complete project management system. You can apply simple techniques and integrations to manage tasks directly from your inbox, but you’ll often find you need more when it comes to handling complex projects that:

• Cover more than one sector of a business
• Rely on multiple teams
• Involve a large number of staff

So it makes sense to utilize Gmail’s effective communication tool, but pair it with other Project Management tools. You may already be familiar with some of them:

• Asana for Gmail: This tool lets users convert emails into actionable tasks in Asana, with the ability to assign owners, set due dates, and add details to specific projects without leaving the email inbox. 
• Trello for Gmail: Create Trello cards from emails, including their content and attachments, and put them on a single handy Kanban board. 
• Kanbanchi for Gmail: This intuitive email add-on seamlessly converts email messages into Kanban cards within your Kanbanchi project management app. 

As you can see, pairing these tools and combining their powerful capabilities and smart integrations means SMEs gain enhanced task management. This leads us neatly onto our next question. 

Why Teams Use Gmail for Project Management

Why do project teams rely on Gmail project management software? Aside from the simplicity of the email system itself, many small teams use it for:

• Accessibility
• Centralized communication
• Familiarity
• Tracking projects

Gmail’s task management potential is fantastic for smaller businesses and sole traders on a tighter budget. It’s an effective time-saver, allowing teams to see at a glance what needs to be dealt with and when. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s take a moment to look more fully at the pros and cons of Gmail for project management. 

Pros of Using Gmail for Project Management

• Ease of Use: There’s no real learning curve; if teams are familiar with email, they can pick up Gmail in an instant. 
• Task Management: With features such as labels, filters, and Google Tasks, it’s easy to organize work and assign tasks from emails, and to set due dates and reminders. 
• Effective collaboration: If it’s used with the Google Workspace suite, it integrates with Google Drive, Calendar, and Chat/Meet, making sharing work, setting deadlines, and organizing meetings a cinch. 
• Inexpensive: Basic Gmail is free, perfect for SMEs on a tight budget. 

Cons of Using Gmail for Project Management

• No core project management tools: It’s a communication tool first and foremost, so it’s not designed to manage projects; there are no features like Kanban boards or Gantt charts.
• Email chains aren’t easy to follow: Discussions can turn into messy threads where details, decisions, and attachments get lost or become hard to find.
• No professional branding: SMEs who want to use official branding might feel it looks a bit unprofessional to use a standard @gmail.com address. 

As a lightweight tool, it’s superb. It’ll make a huge difference in managing daily communications. But as you can see from our list, it has limitations in scalability and collaboration; this means there’s room for other project management tools to integrate with Gmail. 

Read all articles connected with Google Workspace here

Using Google Tasks and Labels for Task Management Inside Gmail

Using Gmail’s labels and tasks, teams can manage projects directly from their inbox

If you did want to try task management inside Gmail, how would it look? Here’s a bit more of an in-depth dive.  

How to use Gmail task management tools

Below are four of the most common Gmail features, along with how to use them to manage tasks effectively for minimal effort. 

Google Tasks

This can be used to integrate emails that require some level of action from team members into a professional to-do list. To access Google Tasks:

1. Log in to Gmail.
2. In the right-hand side bar, click the Tasks icon (a blue circle with a white line/dot inside).

Create a Task from an Email:

1. Choose the email that needs attention. 
2. Drag it into the Tasks panel. 
3. This creates a task with a link back to the original email.
4. Or, click the three-dots ‘More options’ menu at the top and select ‘Add to Tasks’.

Now to Manage Tasks:

You’ll see a pencil icon next to the task. This is where you can add details, set a due date/time, and even add different subtasks. These tasks can be organized into different lists using the list menu at the top of the Tasks panel. When the work is done, you can mark a task as complete by clicking the circle next to it.

Labels

These are like instantly recognizable folders that let a single email belong to many different categories. It makes them easier to spot and can help make longer email chains with multiple messages less confusing. 

To create a Label:

1. Open Gmail.
2. On the left sidebar, hover over ‘Labels’.
3. Click the + Create new label icon.
4. Enter a name that fits with the scope of your project or fit it under an existing label.
5. Click Create, then apply Labels to Emails.
6. Check the box next to the emails you want to apply the label to. 
7. Click the Labels icon in the top toolbar.
8. Select the desired labels from the dropdown menu.
9. Click Apply.

Filters

Filters can sort incoming emails based on criteria you define, such as sender, subject, and keywords. 

Create a Filter:

1. In the main search bar, click the Show search options icon (a downward arrow with three horizontal lines). 
2. Enter your criteria. 
3. Click Create filter at the bottom of the search window.
4. Choose the actions the filter should take
5. Apply the label
6. Mark as read, for less critical, automatically sorted emails.

Starred emails. 

This is the easiest way to highlight important emails for follow-up. They can be customized with different colors and icons.

To Star an Email:

1. In your inbox, go to the left of a message and click the star icon.
2. To view Starred Emails, click the Starred category in the left sidebar to view all messages you’ve flagged. It’s worth noting that you can also search for a specific star using operators like has:yellow-star in the search bar.

These methods are helpful for small projects or personal task lists and are great for smaller businesses or sole traders handling small projects that don’t require much task management. For many SMEs, this won’t provide enough support, as we’ll see next. 

Core Challenges in Gmail Project Management (and How to Solve Them)

What are the main core challenges when it comes to Gmail project management? 

• Scattered communication: Long email chains can become cumbersome and hard to keep track of, leading to frustration and miscommunication. 
• Lack of progress tracking: It’s difficult to see how a project is developing and whether goals are being achieved and deadlines are being met. 
• No visual project planning tools: With no Kanban or Gantt tools, there are no easy-to-follow graphs, charts, or visuals to monitor progress, and no dashboard.
• Disorganization: Trying to track task management progress via an email program can lead to items being lost and a general feeling of chaos. 
• Inefficiency: Often due to the large volume of emails and lack of a single source of truth.

This means that Gmail alone isn’t enough for complex workflows involving multiple team members. It paves the way for a bridging solution that can work as a solid connection between Gmail and team members.

Meet Kanbanchi — The Integration That Saves Time

Step forward Kanbanchi! The answer to many SME’s prayers when it comes to effective project management. It’s a Google Workspace-native project management tool that’s been built to integrate with Gmail. A uniting platform that brings harmony. 

How does Kanbanchi enhance Gmail workflows? By offering the following amazing features: 

• Simple Email-to-Task conversion: Team members can convert emails into Kanbanchi cards with one click, preserving all context and relevant info. 
• Effective task management: Emails can be added to a project board. It’s then easy to prioritize them, assign them to the right workers, and track them through the various stages of a project. 
• Superior collaboration: Once converted to Kanbanchi, team members can collaborate in real time and attach all relevant files from places like Google Drive and Google Calendar, centralizing everything. 
• Amazing visuals enhance workflow: Kanbanchi boards offer superior visual representation of all tasks, their status, and who is responsible for them. It means teams instantly see what needs to be done and can manage their workloads. 

Step-by-Step: How to Manage Projects in Gmail with Kanbanchi

Kanbanchi integrates with Gmail and converts emails into cards on a Kanban board

If all that’s made you curious to know more, then here’s our simple guide to project management using Gmail in Kanbanchi. 

Step 1: Add Kanbanchi to Gmail via Google Workspace Marketplace

Visit Google Marketplace and install the Kanbanchi for Gmail add-on.  

Step 2: Connect Kanbanchi to your Google Workspace account

All you need to do now is sign in with your Google account to get started with Kanbanchi. The add-on will be viewable from your Google interface. 

Step 3: Create a card from an email

Open any email, and you should see the Kanbanchi icon. You’ll see a panel that lets you turn it into a Kanbanchi card. The email subject will become the card title, while its body will be added as a description. 

Step 4: Track projects using Kanban and Gantt views

View and monitor the progress of all your projects with visual tools like Gantt charts. You can use color coding to easily categorize tasks. Use the simple click-and-drag features to reorganize everything in the order you want. 

Step 5: Share boards and collaborate with teammates in real time

Get started and begin collaborating with your teammates. Assign them to cards, and set dues dates in sync with Google Calendar. Make use of Kanbanchi’s outstanding features, such as reports and time tracking, so you stay ahead of the game. 

If you’re a team managing multiple members with lots of different priorities, it makes sense to link up your existing Gmail accounts with superior software like Kanbanchi. You’ll get the best of both worlds, and it’ll open up a better way to collaborate and stay focused. Get in touch, and let’s get the conversation started today. 

Sign up with Kanbanchi today and try our software

FAQs: Gmail for Project Management

Can Gmail be used for project management?

Yes, but it’s not specifically designed for that process. It works best when it’s combined with other third-party programs such as Kanbanchi. 

The beauty of Gmail is that it’s superb as a standalone email program, but it also has features that meld seamlessly with other professional tools to make it a business workhorse that makes project management easy. 

How do I manage tasks from emails in Gmail? 

You can manage tasks from emails in Gmail by converting an email to a task in Google Tasks and then managing it in the right-hand side panel. 

To do this, open an email and click the ‘Add to Tasks’ button, or drag and drop the email into the Tasks panel. The new task will have a link back to the original email and can be edited to add a due date, details, or to be repeated.

What’s the best Gmail project management tool? 

Gmail, when combined with tools like Kanbanchi, creates the perfect blend of communication tools and project management software that make business processes for SMEs so much easier to complete.