The Best Project Management Tools for Solo Entrepreneurs

Here's a trap I fell into early: I adopted project management tools designed for teams of 10–50 people to manage a business I was running alone.

I had Asana boards set up like a miniature tech startup. Sprints, epics, priority labels, assignees (all set to me). I was spending more time maintaining the system than doing the work.

Project management for solo entrepreneurs is fundamentally different from team project management. You don't need workflows for handing off tasks. You don't need visibility dashboards for 8 people. You need to know what you're doing today, this week, and this month — and you need to not lose important things.

Here's what actually works.

Notion: My Primary Setup

Notion is where I run most of my work. I keep it simple on purpose.

My setup has three main spaces:

1. Weekly Priorities — a simple list of 3–5 things that must happen this week
2. Content Calendar — a table with post titles, status, and publish dates
3. Swipe File / Reference — a place to save things I'll need later

That's it. I deliberately don't have a complex database of "projects" with nested subtasks and kanban views for every workflow. The more elaborate the system, the more time I spend on the system.

Notion is free for individuals, which removes the cost barrier entirely. The learning curve is real — it's a flexible tool that can be confusing to set up — but once you have a basic structure, it's sticky.

Best for: Knowledge management, editorial calendars, content drafts, notes and reference material

Todoist: For Task Lists

For pure task management — things I need to actually do on specific days — I use Todoist. It's fast, reliable, and the natural language input (type "call accountant Friday at 2pm" and it parses correctly) makes it frictionless to capture things quickly.

I don't run projects through Todoist. I use it for tasks that have a specific due date or time — calls, deadlines, recurring admin items. It's my daily to-do list, not my project tracker.

The free tier handles everything most solo operators need. The paid tier ($4/month) adds reminders and filters I find useful but isn't essential.

Best for: Daily task lists, deadline tracking, recurring reminders

Trello: For Visual Workflows (Sometimes)

I use Trello for specific workflows that benefit from a visual board — usually when I'm launching something and want to track the stages of production.

A typical launch board might have columns: Ideas → Research → In Progress → Ready to Publish → Live. I move cards across the board as work progresses. This is genuinely useful when you have 10–15 things in flight during a product launch.

Outside of launches, I don't use Trello day-to-day. It's a specialized tool for me, not a general purpose one.

Best for: Launch tracking, content production pipelines, anything where visual stages help

What I Explicitly Don't Use

Monday.com, ClickUp, Asana for complex setups: These are team tools dressed as individual tools. They're excellent for their intended use case. For solo operators, they're overkill that becomes a distraction.

Multiple overlapping systems: At various points I had Notion + Asana + Trello + Todoist all running simultaneously. This is its own kind of chaos. Every system you add creates overhead. Pick the minimum stack that covers your needs.

The Key Insight for Solo Project Management

The goal isn't to manage projects. The goal is to make sure important work gets done and nothing falls through the cracks.

For most solo operators, that means:

1. A clear list of this week's priorities (3–5 items max)
2. A place to capture tasks so they don't live in your head
3. A calendar or content tracker so you don't miss deadlines
4. A reference system so you can find information when you need it

That's achievable with Notion + Todoist, or even just Notion + a simple calendar.

The Business Operations Side

Project management tools handle the doing. But there's also the business side — managing products, customers, and revenue.

For that, MadeThis is where I work. It's the platform my digital products live on, and it handles everything product-related in one place: pages, checkout, delivery, customer management. I don't need a separate tool to "manage" the product business — it's built into the platform.

That separation is useful. Notion and Todoist handle my work tasks. MadeThis handles the business operations. Two systems, clear division of responsibility.

For a broader look at the tools I use to run the whole operation, check out my guide on the best SaaS tools for online business owners — it covers the full stack beyond just project management.

The bottom line: don't overcomplicate your project management system. The best system is the one you actually use consistently, not the most feature-rich one.