Chapter 9: Tasks and To-Dos

A task is something that should be done, and completing the task or tasks is one way to show that you have achieved an objective. This could be anything from going to a meeting or preparing a report. Any item that you feel needs to be placed on a list so that you will remember to complete it, by setting a reminder or assigning it to another person, is a task.

Our minds can only remember so much information, and there is nothing wrong with needing a little nudge to remind you to complete something. Outlook is the best tool to help you stay on top of deadlines, not forget an event, or manage your team activities without skipping a beat. It also allows you to create your own tasks and recurring tasks and, better yet, view those tasks within your calendar. This is a hidden secret of Outlook.

In this chapter, we're going to cover the following topics:

• To-do list versus tasks
• Creating new tasks
• Recurring tasks
• Assigning tasks
• Replying to a task assignment
• Task status reports
• Creating task folders
• Viewing tasks in the calendar

Staying on top of your tasks will take a little practice. Once you learn how to put all these techniques together and work hard to complete your to-do lists, you will be surprised by how much you will accomplish.

To-do list versus tasks

There are tasks you can create inside of Outlook and there is a to-do list. What is the difference? This can be very confusing to navigate. It's important that you understand the difference between these two features. Let's dive in and cover them now.

To-do

When a flag, as mentioned in Chapter 4, Organizing Your Outlook Environment, is added to an email, the item is linked to the to-do list that is viewable if the To-Do Bar option is turned on from View | To-Do Bar | Tasks.

Figure 9.1 – Showing to-do bar tasks

The to-do bar will indicate what needs to be done so you can view the items in one location.

Figure 9.2 – To-do bar tasks

This is a convenient list and it is especially helpful to be able to refer to all your items in one place. The items on the to-do bar include the following:

• Entered tasks
• Appointments
• Email messages you have flagged

This can be a little confusing because you are not actually placing these items here. The main purpose of the to-do bar is to help you remember items you have flagged to complete today or on a future date within your emails.

When a flag is created, Outlook also adds the item or email to the to-do list in the task object where it is also saved.

Tasks

To view and manage tasks, click on the task button at the bottom of the navigation pane.

Figure 9.3 – Task object in the navigation pane

Within the tasks workspace, you can create new tasks, manage your tasks, and select a task to assign to others to complete.

You can use the navigation pane to the left of the task workspace to view the to-do list, tasks, and folders you have created to store and organize your tasks. The task workspace will display the flagged emails at the top of the window and any tasks will be displayed below the emails that are marked as flagged.

Figure 9.4 – Task workspace

Note

Tasks and flagged items are not stored in the to-do list. They are added to the default Task folder.

Creating new tasks

To help manage your tasks in Outlook, use the tasks workspace. This workspace allows you to not only create new tasks but also assign tasks to yourself or others for completion.

The task request form is used to create a new task, assign a task to another user, and request updates. To display this form once you have activated the task object, click Home | New Task.

Figure 9.5 – Creating a new task

Use this task request form to not only create a new task but also store information pertaining to the task.

Figure 9.6 – Task request form

Note

Display the task request form from the email workspace or any other workspace by clicking Home | New Item | Task.

Tasks are not linked to an email message through flags and are able to hold details such as Start date, Due date, and Reminder. The following figure shows the task request form that is available to store this information. Some people choose to record all the information you see here, while others choose to record a name in the Subject field and nothing else. It's up to you how detailed you would like to get.

Figure 9.7 – New task

To keep even more information about the task, click the Task | Details button.

Figure 9.8 – Task detail information

In the details section of the task, additional information is stored in the fields, which include Date competed, Total work (hours), Mileage, Actual work, Billing information, Company, Update list, and an area for Create Unassigned Copy.

Note

When you receive a task request, the text boxes with the task data will appear shaded until you accept the task. This gives you control of the tasks you accept.

Recurring tasks

A recurring task in Outlook is a task that you create once and then have that task recreated automatically after a designated time interval. You can set any task that has been created into a recurring task by clicking on the Recurrence button located on the Task tab

Figure 9.9 – Creating a recurrence task

It is important for you to realize that recurring tasks do not work the same as a recurring appointment for your calendar. Recurring tasks are not static tasks like an appointment. Once you set a recurring task, Outlook displays the current or original task. Once you mark the original task as complete, the next-occurring task will appear in your task window.

Click Home | Mark Complete to have the task show as completed, and a strikethrough line will appear on the task, or it will not show on your screen, depending on your settings.

Figure 9.10 – Mark Complete

Outlook has the tasks set up like this because it assumes that you don't want to move on to the next task until the current task is completed. This may not be your intention but that is the logic that Outlook uses.

Assigning tasks

You can also assign tasks to others, which will also add the task to their task list. You will find this a nice feature to assign your work to someone else, as it seems we never have enough time in the day. Use the Manage Task section on the Task ribbon to access these more advanced features.

Figure 9.11 – Assign Task

Status of a task

There are five status levels to choose from when you assign a task to yourself or others. The % Complete field and content of the task can be changed based on the status chosen. The following table lists the status levels and the settings that will be automatically applied:

Table 9.1 – Status options

The following figure indicates the Status drop-down to set the status:

Figure 9.12 – Status field

The % Complete field can be changed as needed to apply to the status of the assigned task. After completing the message and filling in the remainder of the fields as appropriate, click Send and the message will be sent to the recipient of the assignment.

Replying to a task assignment

When a task has been assigned, the recipient of the task will receive a message notifying them that a task has been assigned to them. They can click the buttons on the Task ribbon to Accept or Decline, or they can assign the task to someone else.

Figure 9.13 – Accepting or declining a task

The following table indicates what action will be taken depending on the option you choose: Accept, Decline, or Assign Task:

Table 9.2 – Action for selected task

Upon accepting an assigned task, you will be able to track and complete the task as you would any other tasks that you create in the Task folder. You will also be able to tell that this is an assigned task by the icon that appears in the icon field in the task workspace.

Figure 9.14 – Sort icons in the task workspace

Clicking on the icon shown in the header section of the preceding screenshot will sort your tasks and place all of your assigned tasks at the top of the list for easy accessing or locating the assigned tasks.

A task status report

One advantage of assigning a task to another person is the ease of sending and receiving a status report of the assigned task. When they open the task, they can prepare and send a status report that will be delivered to you, who assigned the task. This report will include all details pertaining to the task, such as the following:

• Start Date
• Due Date
• Status
• % Complete
• Actual work
• Requested by name

To send a status report for a task that was assigned to you, open the task and click Task | Send Status Report. A new email message will be generated with the status information included in the body of the message along with a subject line indicating that it's a task status report. After entering the recipient, click Send and the status report will be sent.

Figure 9.15 – Send Status Report

The status report will look just like an email message and will also include the status information. If you prefer, you can also include a message within the email before clicking on Send.

Task folders

You create task folders to organize your tasks in the same manner as you do with file directories. You can create tasks under each task folder that is showing in the navigation pane. To create a task folder, take the following steps:

1. Create folders in the Tasks navigation pane to organize your tasks.
2. Right-click on a task folder in the navigation pane and enter a name for the folder. The default is to list new tasks under the task folder. You can create several folders to help you organize tasks. This is the same process as creating folders to organize your emails and is specific to the task object.

Figure 9.16 – New task folder

Task folders are containers to store your tasks under for organizational purposes. These folders can be very useful when you create several different tasks and allow you to click on the folder to view all the tasks associated with the selected folder. When you are in the task view, you can use these folders to view the tasks that have been assigned to the folder. If you are in another view, such as the calendar view, you may find it is easier to use that selected view to see your tasks, as will be shown next.

Viewing tasks in the calendar

Displaying your tasks on the calendar is a hidden secret in Outlook in my opinion. This is one of my favorite ways to see my tasks and keep me working in my calendar. This stops me from getting distracted by incoming emails. When you are on the Day or Week view in the calendar, you can view your tasks at the bottom of the calendar:

1. To turn on this feature, click on the calendar object in the navigation pane, then click View | Day or Week, as shown in the following screenshot.
2. Next, click Daily Task List | Arrange By | By Start Date or By Due Date, as shown in the following screenshot. There is also an option to turn on Show Completed Tasks for viewing the tasks you have already completed for that date as well. This helps me feel like I have completed something in the day; they will be displayed in the grid with a strikethrough.

Figure 9.17 – Daily Task List | By Due Date

Your tasks will be displayed in the bottom section below the calendar. As you scroll through the calendar dates and times, the window will display the available tasks for you to always have handy in your view. You can position your mouse pointer on the line between the two windows and click and hold the mouse to make the window larger or smaller for your preferred view.

I like to have it small on the screen, and then I can make this window larger when I am ready to work on my tasks.

You can also double-click on a task in this view to open the Task window for more details. This is a quick way to see any emails or notes that you may have attached to the task.

Figure 9.18 – Daily task list displayed in the calendar

I hope you will try out this handy tip. I have found it to help my productivity increase as I can use this while working in my calendar to quickly look at more details about my tasks without changing views.

Summary

Tasks have so many useful features that can really help to increase productivity. They are a hidden secret in Outlook, and it will benefit you to learn how to manage your tasks and always have them available to track what needs to be done. This could be through flagged emails or tasks that you create, or better yet, create and assign to another person. By tracking your tasks at a high level, as you have learned to do through this chapter, you will find that you are less likely to forget any highly important items that must be completed.

In the next chapter, we will discuss the different ways that you can simplify your Outlook search. Once you learn how to master these search techniques, you will no longer feel like you must create hundreds of folders to organize your emails yourself. Outlook search has gone through a complete overhaul in the past few years and with the many tips and tricks you are about to learn, you will quickly find any item you need.

Questions

1. What are the shortcut keys for creating a task in Outlook?
2. How can you set a reminder on your tasks?
3. Can you rename a task?
4. How do you set tasks to appear at the top and not the bottom of the to-do bar?
5. I would like my task icon to appear at the left of the mail icon on the navigation pane, is this possible?

Answers

1. The shortcut keys for creating a task in Outlook are Ctrl + Shift + K. You can use this shortcut combination within any window inside of Outlook.
2. To add a reminder to a task that is already created, you can either double-click on the task and add a time to the Reminder field or, in the task view, you can right-click on the flag for the task and click Add Reminder..., and then set the time for the reminder in the Custom dialog box in the Reminder section.
3. To rename a task, right-click on the task name and click Rename Task. You can then change the name of the task as desired as the Name field will be in edit mode. Click Enter when done.
4. You can make the to-do bar display a combination of calendar items, people, and tasks. The items that show at the top will be the first items you select and will appear in the order selected. To have your tasks appear at the top, simply unselect all the current options and reselect the items again in the order that you want them to appear.
5. Yes, you can change the settings for how the icons appear in the navigation pane. Click on the … icon, then click Navigation Options.... Select the desired object in the Display in this order box in the Navigation Options dialog box and then click the Move Up button as needed to move the selected object to the top of the list. Click OK and the selected icon will show as specified.