How to Manage Projects with Google Workspace

Google Workspace offers multiple products that teams can use to enhance their productivity. That being said, in Google Workspace, there is no direct way to manage projects with Google Workspace. Many of their apps can support project management, but if you want to track your tasks and progress for any project of significant size, then you might want to take advantage of integrations with Google Workspace. 

Popular project management apps like Asana or Trello make managing your projects a breeze – and often, fun. Did you know these tools play very nicely with Google Workspace, and you can access them without leaving the Google interface? Google is aware that many business customers use Google Workspace to manage multiple large projects or even small tasks requiring some level of coordination. 

With these project management apps, you can use Google’s native tools to move your projects forward. Google Calendar is handy for scheduling meetings, and Docs can help you create documents, such as meeting notes, that you can share with everyone on your team. 

All you’ll need to do is choose a Google Workspace plan for business and then get started with project management immediately. Google Workspace was built with collaboration in mind, making it a good springboard for successfully managing projects.

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With Google behind you, project teams are empowered to do their best work with tools that assist rather than hinder. 

Why use Google Workspace for project management

If you’re already using Google Workspace as a solution for your office productivity suite, you’ll likely want to keep all of your activities within the platform. It wastes time hopping between different tools, and you’ll want to access your data directly within Google for better project management. 

Users love Google project management apps because all of its tools integrate. For example, when you share a file through Google Drive, you can choose from any of your email recipients from Gmail, saving you lots of time and effort in finding the appropriate contact. 

Google Workspace customers naturally want to extend their use of the platform to include project management, but they may need more dedicated Google project management software. This may be something Google might consider introducing in the feature, but for now, you’ll have to use a combination of apps or integrate Google Workspace with one of the solutions on our list. 

Google Workspace can be used as a springboard for project management in conjunction with other tools. 

6 best project management tools and apps for Google Workspace

Here is a list of some of the top project management tools for Google Workspace. Bear in mind you’ll need a subscription to use most of these apps, but they integrate well with Google project management tools which is a massive advantage of using one of the solutions on this list. 

1. Keeping

Our very own Keeping functions as a project management tool for customer service teams. Keeping is an extension for Gmail that allows you to turn every customer email into a trackable ticket, so you’ll be able to treat each customer inquiry as a miniature project. Some of the best features of Keeping is being able to assign an agent to a particular ticket, and track the status of a ticket from open to closed. 

When you use Keeping to track your tickets, you can access advanced analytics that tell you how your customer service team is performing. This will help you plan your staffing as you can identify your busiest periods. It’s also possible to automate specific tasks within Keeping, to save you time and effort. When using Keeping, it works directly within Gmail, so you’ll have the comfort of using a familiar platform with all the functionality of a powerful productivity app. 

Advantages of Keeping

• Simple project management software for teams of users working on customer tickets
• Keeps customer inquiries organized and takes email beyond a typical inbox
• Works seamlessly with Gmail, so users don’t have to learn a new tool

2. Monday.com

Monday.com is one of the most popular project management tools that integrates well with Google Workspace. One of the advantages of Monday.com is that it facilitates chat with other team members, so you can conduct conversations about projects without leaving the platform. Monday.com presents your projects in visual boards so you can always keep track of a project’s status. 

Monday.com integrates with Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, so you can easily use your favorite tools with the platform. This makes communicating, scheduling, and sharing much easier as Monday.com is designed to work effectively with external parties such as clients. 

Advantages of Monday.com

• Manage even very complex projects with boards that break down each task
• Allows clients to work as guests within the platform so you can share your work with them
• Search for any file or project in the platform, so you never lose track of your work

3. Evernote

Any project will likely intensively use email to communicate with its stakeholders, and Evernote offers powerful integration with Google’s Gmail to help you turn your emails into trackable tasks. Evernote allows you to move emails into their platform, so you never lose track of important information again. Without leaving Gmail, you can use Evernote to manage tasks or knowledge you want to remember, which can be an effective way to move projects forward. 

Moving emails out of your inbox is an excellent method of overcoming inbox overload because you can create a sense of organization in your correspondence. Evernote has been specifically designed to work with Gmail so you can manage projects all without leaving Google Workspace. 

Advantages of Evernote

• Simple yet powerful note-taking app that enables you to stay on top of projects from your inbox
• Evernote is free, so anyone can use it to manage their projects
• Offers a more robust alternative to tools like Google Keep to take the organization further

4. Trello

Most people have heard of Trello – Trello is a feature-rich project management tool that allows you to organize your tasks into boards. Trello makes project management fun by adding many power-ups to supercharge your organization and stay on top of all your tasks. To make Trello even better, it integrates with many tools in Google Workspace to help you take your project management to the next level, including Drive, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, and Gmail. 

When managing a project in Trello, you can insert Drive files without leaving the Trello app. You can turn Trello boards into a seamless Slides presentation with a single click, so you can show your work to others without investing too much effort. You can use Calendar to visualize all your tasks with due dates, so you can always keep track of upcoming deadlines. Trello and Google Workspace offer a powerful combination. 

Advantages of Trello

• Integrates with many popular tools in Google Workspace to offer a viable project management solution
• Uses cards to manage a vast range of project assets all in one place
• Makes project management fun by making tasks highly visual and engaging

5. Asana

A tool to rival Trello is the equally popular Asana, which enables teams to manage highly complex projects with a powerful array of task management features. If you want to track your work, then you need look as far as Asana which offers powerful task management. Asana provides users with a comprehensive way to keep track of project priorities and connect different tasks, highlighting bottlenecks and obstacles. 

Asana users can benefit from Asana’s integration with Google Workspace, which allows you to attach Google Drive files to your tasks and turn emails into actionable, trackable tasks without ever leaving your inbox. Asana knows that Google Workspace users are simply looking for the missing link in project management, which is why they have developed this robust integration. 

Advantages of Asana

• You can sync tasks and project deadlines to Google Calendar to stay on track
• Create custom reports in Google Sheets, so you can see how work is progressing
• Organize very complex projects and keep track of every task 

6. Everhour

An essential part of any project management is time-tracking, and Everhour offers just such a tool which enables teams to monitor how much time they are spending on each task. This can be important for client invoicing, or simply enable better productivity when you can gain insight into which activities are taking up the most time. 

Everhour is a Google Chrome extension which you can install and pin to the menu. This is useful when you consider there is no capability for time-tracking in the native Google Workspace suite. You enter your project details and start the work hours tracker to be able to log all time spent on your project. 

Advantages of Everhour

• An easy way to track the time your team is spending on each project
• Works directly within Google Chrome so you have a reminder to track each task
• Offers templates to use in Google Workspace such as the timesheet template for Google Sheets

Does Google Workspace have a project management tool?

If you’re using Google Workspace then you’ll notice that it doesn’t have a dedicated project management tool. Users of Google Workspace usually use a combination of the available apps to track their projects, alongside potential third-party integrations to help them get the most out of their software. 

Many Google apps can be used as project management tools, such as Google Meet which can facilitate video calls for project teams. Google Drive can help you share important files and manage permissions, moving your projects forward. Calendar is useful for scheduling and working out when the best times for meetings might be, enabling coordination across project teams. 

So the short answer is that Google Workspace doesn’t offer a project management tool among its suite of apps that is comparable to a solution like Trello or Asana for task management. The advantage of using Google Workspace is that you can integrate with external tools to complete your project management capabilities, so you have all the advantages of using Google Workspace while being able to track tasks. 

Sometime in the future Google may develop its own Google project management tools as part of Google workspace. 

Using Google Sheets for project management

Many teams are inclined to use Google Sheets for its project management features. Sheets is a great tool, comparable with Microsoft’s Excel, that you can use to keep track of basic projects. You can monitor simple tasks in a list format, and create timelines for projects that you can share with other team members.

One of the biggest advantages of Google Sheets is its real-time collaboration capabilities so more than one person can work on your spreadsheet and make changes. Teams can stay on top of their projects by using the functionality of Google Sheets, and visually represent their projects from start to finish. 

Google Sheets also offers the ability to create Gantt charts so you can see which parts of the project will occur at the same time and will require more time from your team. Portraying your projects in this way means you can adequately allocate staffing and overcome bottlenecks. 

Being able to quickly create a shareable and collaborative spreadsheet in Google Sheets is one of the advantages of using Google Workspace. 

Is it possible to use Google Workspace for project management?

Ultimately, you can use Google Workspace for project management as long as you are willing to accept some limited features. Using a combination of Google’s productivity tools, users will be able to manage basic projects and move work forwards, helping your team to coordinate more effectively. 

If you want to access more in-depth task tracking, prioritization, task assignment, and more, then you’ll need to start thinking about a third-party integration for Google Workspace. You can keep the majority of your work within Google Workspace, but tools like Keeping, Asana and Trello take your project management to the next level. 

Google Workspace offers some important tools for project management that make it possible to communicate, schedule, and share, but currently has some limitations that make it an unsuitable option for advanced users. 

Projects may find life in Google Workspace, but in-depth project management requires looking outside Google’s suite of apps. 

Project management in Google Apps

Users of Google Workspace will want to take advantage of Google Apps to help them manage their projects and stay at maximum productivity. 

Google Drive

Google Drive is a cloud-storage system that enables you to host your files in the cloud and control who has access to them. One of the main advantages of paying for Google Workspace is you start to benefit from increased amounts of storage which includes Google Drive. 

Any project is bound to have multitudes of documents that help you keep track of your work and share ideas. When you upload to Google Drive, you can synchronize across devices and access your files from anywhere. Drive integrates with Docs, Sheets and Slides so you can create documents in different formats to suit the needs of your project. 

Google Calendar

What project would be complete without the ability to schedule meetings and tasks? You can layer Google Calendars on top of one another to check your team’s availability. Google Calendar enables you to keep track of your commitments and easily toggle between different views. 

You can help your team to stay synchronized and easily share calendars that you want to be accessible to more than one person. Google Calendar will tell you when deadlines or appointments are looming, enabling you to plan your time and sort your priorities. 

Google Meet

An essential part of project management is scheduling meetings, and more and more frequently these meetings will be remote. Google Meet has been designed to allow you to schedule video conferencing, with more participants available on the higher-paid plans. When scheduling meetings in Google Calendar, you have the ability to include a Google Meet link for attendees. 

You can share your desktop, video and presentations with attendees of your meetings. It’s comparable to Microsoft’s Teams, so you’ll be familiar with the concept if you’ve used alternative tools. Google Meet simulates face-to-face meetings for today’s remote teams. 

Gmail

Nothing can replace email as the communication-method of choice for intensive project teams. Sometimes there’s just no better way of making a request or sharing information, which is why so many teams turn to Gmail to help them manage their projects. Gmail is the most popular email platform and offers features like the ability to insert a drive file into an email, and AI to predict what you are going to write. 

Since Gmail is equipped with powerful options for organizing your email with labels and icons, you’ll benefit from using Gmail for managing your project email. Specific projects can be labeled clearly and removed from your main email inbox to help you get closer to inbox zero. 

Wrapping up

While Google Workspace offers some robust tools for productivity and collaboration, users may hit a ceiling if they are trying to use Google’s suite for project management. Google Workspace certainly has project management capabilities, but ultimately is not an end-to-end solution for those who want to manage complex tasks and projects. 

A great workaround for Google Workspace is taking advantage of third-party integrations that give you the full suite of capabilities for managing projects. Tried and tested tools like Asana integrate well with Google Workspace so you can stay within the interface you’re comfortable with but still manage tasks down to the granular level. 

Google Workspace offers many features that are essential for projects, and works best in conjunction with third-party tools. 

And for customer service teams, there is no better tool than Keeping for Gmail. As a trusted third-party extension for Gmail, you can manage every customer inquiry like a project and make sure you never miss a ticket again.