Could Tasks by Planner help you this holiday?

On the 14th day of Advent, Planner showed to me…
That planning is very easy!

Want to create an organised plan for the season’s festivities? Juggling plans and tasks that need completing? Microsoft’s Tasks by Planner can help you to stay organised this holiday period!

Microsoft Tasks by Planner

What is ‘Tasks by Planner’?

Tasks by Planner and To Do is part of the suite of applications created by Microsoft and helps to make task management even easier. As a Microsoft product, it is fully is fully integrated with Teams and can connect with other Microsoft products such as Outlook. This is great for ensuring no task is forgotten about, as emails are sent to directly warn you of any impending deadlines!

To use Tasks by Planner, you will need to have made sure it’s been added to your Teams. There are multiple ways to add an app to Teams. Read more about this process here.

Creating a Planner

Creating a Planner to manage all your tasks is simple!

  • Navigate to the channel you would like your Planner to show in.
  • Click the ‘+’ button along the top Ribbon to add a tab.
  • From the page of apps, select ‘Tasks by Planner and To Do’.
Select 'Tasks by Planner and To Do'.
Select ‘Tasks by Planner and To Do’.
Name your Planner.
Name your Planner.
  • This will open a new window for you to input a new Planner (or even use an existing plan from this team).
  • Once you’re happy with your name, hit ‘Save’.
  • This will take you into an empty planner. From here, you can add new buckets, create new tasks, and change your view.
  • To create new buckets, click ‘Add new bucket’. Buckets are a great way of separating the tasks you need to complete so you can remain organised. You can see from the screenshot below that we’ve created different bookings for the different holiday festivities we are planning. This means we can separate (and organise) our tasks.
Create tasks.
Create tasks.

Creating Tasks

In each planner, you have the ability to create individual tasks. These tasks can be scheduled, assigned, and broken up further by adding in attachments and ‘to do’ lists.

  • To create a task, click ‘+ Add Task’.
  • Fill in the fields you need to complete (such as the title and the person it needs assigning to).
  • To add in more details, click into the task you’ve just added. From here you can add a description, a bulleted ‘to-do’ list, add attachments, and even comments.

Staying organised

Planner integrates with other Microsoft applications like Outlook to make it even easier for you to stay on top of your tasks. The ‘comments’ feature on tasks helps to keep information focused. Teamwork is simple with Outlook integration. An email is sent to assigned members of a task every time a new comment is made.

To further organise your tasks, you’re able to add in ‘labels’ that distinguish different topics from one another. To edit and add your labels to tasks:

  • Beneath ‘Assign’, click into the field that says ‘Search for label’.
  • This will reveal a drop-down of the different colours that you can edit with a topic or preferred method of organisation.
  • To edit the name, click the pencil icon. Your entered name will replace the written colour.
  • For your convenience, named labels will move to the top of the list.
Edit your labels.
Edit your labels.

Micro Office Advent

Planner is the perfect tool for organisation and note keeping. For more tips and tricks like this make sure to take a look at our Micro Office Huddle group where we share free bits of information about all-things technology!

This blog is the tenth in our Micro Office Advent! Make sure to check back on the page each day for more fun things just like this!

To read the last post in the series, see here! To read the next post in the series, see here.

When will the Micro Office Huddle run?

The huddles will run on Tuesdays from 08:30 – 10:00. Join our Facebook group and sign up to join the huddle!

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