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:
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.
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.
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.
The to-do bar will indicate what needs to be done so you can view the items in one location.
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:
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.
To view and manage tasks, click on the task button at the bottom of 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.
Note
Tasks and flagged items are not stored in the to-do list. They are added to the default Task folder.
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.
Use this task request form to not only create a new task but also store information pertaining to the task.
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.
To keep even more information about the task, click the Task | Details button.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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:
The following figure indicates the Status drop-down to set the status:
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.
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.
The following table indicates what action will be taken depending on the option you choose: Accept, Decline, or Assign 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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.