USING TASKS IN OUTLOOK

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1 USING TASKS IN OUTLOOK WORKING WITH TASKS Although there are many layers of complexity you can add into tasks, at their basic level they are very simple. You create tasks either for yourself or for someone else. <a href=" here to view how-to video</a> Creating a task is easy, but there are key elements that are often ignored that give tasks their flexibility and power. They are highlighted in RED in the screenshot above. 1. Due Date. By default, the due date is prefilled with today s date. Always set a due date it s not a grocery list it s a task. Plus the power of reporting, tracking and assessing is lost without due dates. 2. Status. Choose from In Progress, Completed, Waiting on Someone else (very useful) or Deferred. 3. Reminders. Set a reminder for specific date or time. Note that the reminder is for the person who owns the task. Once you assign a task to someone, the reminder is removed. 4. Owner. Who is actually RESPONSIBLE for completing this task? Getting more out of tasks Tasks are not designed only to give you a to-do list, but to create a dynamic tool to manage, prioritize and track the progress of a single event a task or a group of tasks with a single end goal a project.

2 Using tasks effectively and following SOPs for your organization is the key to making all these capabilities functional for your team. Keeping information in one place Any task whether it s a one-off or a part of a project, accumulates a lot of data a spreadsheet may be created, a contract may need to be signed, a pdf reviewed, bits of information may come in all related to the task you are trying to complete. All of this information, including documents, can be maintained within the task itself. Follow this link to see a video walkthrough of this process. Like most functions in Outlook, there are several ways to do things. You can drag and drop files from directory folders directly into the task.

3 You can copy and paste text or hyperlinks into the task.

4 There s also an extremely full featured insert menu in the task itself that let s you easily add anything from a file to photo, to draw a table or add in an equation. But since many of our information gathering efforts occur via , it s also easy to add items to your task. Click on Outlook Items Choose the Outlook folder (i.e. Inbox) to look in. Click on the you want to attach and then choose to add it as an attachment (this will put a link to the in your task that you can click on to bring up the itself) or as text only (this will put the contents of the in your task). Hyperlinks in the text will be accessible as well. Keeping information in one place in the task itself can be a significant time saver by reducing searching for relevant s or documents. Assigning a task to someone else: You may assign a task to someone else or have a task assigned to you. Once you assign a task to someone else, it will no longer appear on YOUR task list as you are not the owner. However, you can keep a copy of the task on your task list and request updates be sent to you as they are added to the assigned task. This lets you use reporting and managing functions in Outlook to stay on top of the progress of tasks you have assigned. Click on Assign Task.

5 That will bring add elements of to your task a from and to field. Enter the address (or pick from your Global Address List GAL) of the person you are assigning to. You will see two new options appear. Check both for full capabilities for tracking and task management. Note that the copy of the task appears now in your task list although attempts to change it will warn you that you are not the owner of the task. In the status column, you see that this task is Not Started. Once there are updates from the assignee, what you see in the status field will change.

6 Managing Projects There are many ways to manage projects from Outlook. Two specifically are: - Creating specific task folders for each project. Outlook has one big task folder, but you can create as many as you want. From the Task window, right click on Tasks in the folder list, then select New Folder. You can set permissions on the folder and share it with others on your team. - Another way to manage projects is by using Categories. Select from the ribbon at the top and hit the down arrow to bring up a list and options.

7 It is easy to change the color categories to customize for your own projects or team OR to add more color categories. Follow this link to view a screencast on working with categories. Categories can also be assigned to other items in Outlook, like Contacts:

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