What is ClickUp?

Initially, ClickUp was a straightforward tool for project planning and task management, offering a few integrations. However, after several updates, it has significantly broadened its capabilities and enhanced its marketing strategy.

Their homepage boldly claims to be “one app to replace them all,” featuring tasks, documents, communication, goals, and additional functionalities.

As you explore the product, it remains primarily a project management tool, now with a strong emphasis on collaboration, including features like live whiteboarding, documentation, progress tracking, and time management.

Is it Free?

The positive news is that many features are available at no cost. The features that come at a price typically cater to scaling businesses, a common pricing strategy for such applications. Premium plans provide options like multiple team setups, guest accounts, enhanced time tracking, and more sophisticated dashboards.

One peculiar aspect is the concept of “uses” tied to certain features. As someone who has a genuine interest in Gantt charts, I often look for them first. ClickUp offers Gantt and Timeline views, but these features are limited to 100 “uses” on the free plan.

What does this “use” entail? I'm still uncertain. The FAQ section is somewhat ambiguous; it might imply that you can alter a Gantt chart view 100 times or create a new Gantt chart view that many times. It could mean something entirely different that I haven’t deciphered.

Nonetheless, with 100 of these unclear “uses,” you should have ample opportunity to evaluate whether these specialized views will be advantageous to your workflow in the long run. If you find them beneficial and can afford it, you could upgrade to the next tier (currently $5 per month for each team member) for unrestricted access and other premium features.

The free version allows unlimited usage of simpler yet effective views: tables, lists, boards, and calendars. Feel free to use these as much as you like, forever.

Setting Up a New Space in ClickUp

Having created my ClickUp account a while back, I’m unsure of how they currently guide new users. However, the first step is to establish a Space for your work. After logging in, look for the New Space button on the left sidebar.

As a solo worker, I don’t require multiple Spaces, but I see their value for teams handling various projects or disciplines.

Creating a new space is a guided process in ClickUp. You can use a template or start from scratch, assigning a name, color, and icon for easy identification in the sidebar. Determine if the Space should be part of your company workspace or kept private.

Next, you’ll select status options. Don't worry if your initial choices are not ideal; you can modify them later. This step allows you to tailor ClickUp to suit your personal or company workflow.

If you’re working solo, the “Normal” statuses might suffice. Some statuses are crafted for marketing, enabling you to categorize tasks as “Running” like a campaign. The Scrum template is comprehensive, encompassing all Scrum-related statuses. You can adjust these templates to reflect the workflow for your tasks from start to finish.

Next, you’ll select which ClickApps will be active in your Space, which you can also modify later. These represent the features you want to utilize. Keep it simple by removing unnecessary options. Personally, I find tags less useful but am interested in time estimates.

Finally, choose your default and required views. The List view is the foundational one, so it cannot be disabled, but you can customize other views to your liking.

Planning a Project

Once you’ve established a Space, it will appear in the sidebar with your chosen color and icon. You will likely land in the List view first, but you can navigate through different views using the tabs at the top.

Now you can start using ClickUp! Simply type a task name into the list, press enter, and you’ve created a task. The list view is efficient for entering multiple tasks at once, as you can keep typing.

To modify a task’s details, like adding a due date or description, click on the task to open the detail view. Here, you can include a more extensive description, attachments, checklists, comments, and possibly additional elements if you’ve activated specific ClickApps. For instance, I have a section for time estimates within my tasks.

In the list view, you can change how information is shown by clicking on the small plus icon in the upper right corner. This allows you to add new columns or remove ones you don’t need.

Switching to the Board view via the tabs at the top reveals the same tasks, presented in a typical kanban-style format categorized by Status.

Clicking on a card opens the same detail view, and you can change a card’s status by dragging it to a different column.

At the top, you can click “+ view” to create a new type of view, resembling a Notion database. The same underlying data can be displayed in various formats.

Each view serves a unique purpose. The List is optimal for entering data quickly and reviewing task details, while the Board offers a clear overview of the status of each task. The Timeline or Gantt chart is particularly useful for predicting deadlines or spotting bottlenecks, especially in team settings.

Advanced Project Planning

You can also create additional Lists within a Space. I prefer using Lists to categorize different versions of an app project, but they can be utilized in any way that suits your needs. You can see your Space in the sidebar, with Lists organized beneath it. Select the entire Space to view all Lists or focus on an individual List.

Once you’re set to begin tackling your tasks, it’s beneficial to assign a Due Date and a person to each task (even if it’s just you). ClickUp can then display your tasks on the Home page. Assigned tasks with due dates will show up in your daily agenda, which is quite handy.

You can elevate project management by utilizing Goals. Here, you can set goals for your tasks and establish Targets underneath those goals.

A target could be the number of tasks completed, a monetary amount (like income), or any numerical value that represents something you track in your business. You can assign multiple targets to a goal and monitor the progress of each under that goal.

While I appreciate the concept of goals, I have yet to integrate this into my workflow. I believe it could be beneficial for individuals with external deadlines or those needing to monitor overall progress.

Finally, let’s touch upon Dashboards, another feature I want to highlight in this review. Dashboards allow you to customize pages with various metrics. This is where significant business value emerges, although many Dashboard widgets are exclusive to paid plans.

Some items you can include in a dashboard are: - A list of tasks filtered in a useful manner - The status of tasks in a specific list or space, depicted as pie or bar charts - A simple text block (perhaps for a goal or mission statement) - Tasks assigned to each team member (as pie or bar charts) - Task prioritization - Progress towards goals

These widgets are free. As you move to paid tiers, additional widgets that calculate metrics, billable time reports, sprint reports for Scrum teams, and more become available.

Each widget can be repositioned and resized in Editing mode, or viewed in a simpler layout in Viewing mode at the top center of the screen.

Would I Recommend ClickUp?

I genuinely appreciate ClickUp! I primarily use it as a task management tool for my solo software development efforts. Although I haven’t explored the Whiteboard feature or saved any documents, I’m open to providing a review on those if there’s interest!

The main attraction of ClickUp for me is its visually appealing interface and user-friendly nature. Everything is well-organized, the color scheme is pleasant, and locating what I need is quick and easy. After working with more complex applications like Jira in my full-time role, ClickUp feels refreshing and straightforward.

I do encounter some annoyance with certain limitations, particularly the obscure “uses” on the free plan, but I understand that ClickUp is a business and this is their strategy to encourage users to upgrade while still offering substantial value at no cost.

Overall, I enjoy using ClickUp and have previously recommended it for small teams. The app has seen numerous improvements over the years, and it continues to expand its feature set and integrations. With a free tier available, there’s no reason not to try it and see if it meets your needs!

Originally published at https://www.lysscreative.com on May 30, 2022.