Evolution of Task Management and the Changing Workplace Environment


Task management has always been a human instinct. From the very beginning of time, our rudimentary task management skills helped us survive the Ice Age and eventually formed the earliest communities. Soon we learned to work with other people where we established civilizations and empires. Taking everything into context, we have to understand that our society has always been shaped by how we work and the continuous urge to find solutions to problems and get things done.

The modern workplace environment may look similar to 50 years ago. Our boss may still have that spacious office space and leather couches. Most of us may still post sticky notes on our cubicle walls. The secretary may still have to make the appointments manually. We may have adapted to change but some of us are still stuck in time. Many managers are still committed to the traditional way of managing work and assigning tasks. It takes so much time to keep up with what to do and what needs to be done that even if you work hard, you are still working inefficiently.

The advent of computer and Internet technology in the past few years has changed the way we see work. The world is now globalized - a typical meeting can be done without having to meet people face to face in an actual office environment. As work management has shifted virtually, more and more people are connected to each other than ever before.


In this day and age, we are no longer tied up with the uncertainties of everyday life as technology has helped simplify every single thing that we do. With a task management system, a business owner may no longer have to check every employee working for him because he can now keep track, measure, and evaluate every facet of the work process. Employees are more motivated to work harder knowing that everything that they do is now measured and evaluated.

Gamification technology is the emerging trend that is gaining ground in the development of new task management and productivity tools. The addition of game theory principles in the way we manage tasks and organize our work environment seems to fit well in this modern work setting. More people are now exposed to video game technologies and incorporating reward, scoring, and rating systems in task management may have a profound effect on the way we do work. In fact, IT research and advisory firm Gartner said that 50% of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify by 2020. Customer retention will become so important that 70% of the Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application.

We have to understand that task management has to evolve to meet the demands of an ever-changing workplace environment. Gone are the days where traditional work management applies. Everyone now multitasks with ambidextrous skills that fit in a gamified, globalized, and interconnected world of work.

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