Task Management vs. Project Management: What’s the Difference?

Project ManagementTask ManagementBusiness Productivity
Written By Angela Cox

📌 Introduction:

Many teams confuse task management with project management. This blog breaks down the key differences and shows how shifting from tasks to structured projects can boost efficiency.

What is Task Management?

Let’s start with answering this question—because it often looks like project management and is easily confused with it.

Illustration showing task management

Task management involves:

  • Organizing, tracking, and completing individual tasks. This includes:

    • Creating tasks

    • Assigning tasks

    • Prioritizing tasks

    • Setting deadlines

  • Monitoring the tasks that are part of a project or daily workflow.

  • Ensuring tasks are done on time and as expected.

Sounds like project management doesn’t it? That’s because it is a part of what a Project Manager (PM) does—consider it the day-to-day activity of a PM.

So, What Even is Project Management?

Project management operates at a higher level than task management. A Project Manager oversees the entire project lifecycle:

1. Before the Project Starts:

  • Define and approve the project goal (e.g., developing a robust Business Case—Why are we doing this project? What do we want to achieve?)

  • Identify project deliverables—the list of macro-level requirements.

  • Establish what’s in scope and what’s out of scope.

  • Break the project into phases to track progress.

  • Identify the critical path (the sequence of essential tasks).

  • Manage budget, timelines, resources, dependencies, and workloads.

Illustration showing project manager planning a project

2. During the Project:

  • Manage risks and issues to prevent delays or project failure.

  • Provide regular reports and status updates to stakeholders.

  • Oversee task management as part of the broader project.

3. After the Tasks Are Delivered:

  • Assess whether the project delivered the intended goal—as defined in the Business Case.

  • Confirm whether the project met the macro-level requirements.

  • Identify if the project has revealed a need for follow-up projects.

4. The PM’s Role in Team Dynamics:

  • Act as the primary point of contact for stakeholders.

  • Serve as the cheerleader, supporter, and guide for the project team.

🔗Want to Learn More?

Explore the rest of this blog series:

🟡 Task Management vs. Project Management: What’s the Difference? ⬅️
Are you really managing projects—or just tracking tasks? Here’s the key difference and why it matters.

📌 Do All Project Managers Work the Same Way?
Spoiler: No. Waterfall? Agile? A little bit of both? Let’s break it down.

📌 Agile plus Waterfall – The Best of Both Worlds
Why choose when you can blend structure with flexibility? Hybrid project management explained.

📌 How Does a PM Track All of This Work?
Post-its? Spreadsheets? Or… something smarter? Here’s what works (and what really doesn’t).

📌 When Do I Not Need Specialized Software?
Surprising answer: Not always. Here’s when a PM tool is worth it—and when it’s just extra noise.

📌 Will the Software Work?
Not if you don’t use it. Let’s talk about why tools fail and how to make them work for you.

📌 Setting Up Your Software to Optimise Your Business Processes
The right setup = the right results. Why it all starts with your processes (and how to get them right).

👉 You can read these in any order, but they flow best as listed above!

Angela Cox
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Do All Project Managers Work the Same Way?