Managing tasks with your teams

Context

Task sharing continues to be one of the most desired features when using Task Management applications. In this post, I will show how to share a to-do list with a group of people using Microsoft To-Do. It is recommended that you read my previous post on collaboration to understand some of the different scenarios and which ones can be answered with Microsoft To-Do. I will also mention some features to improve the experience of using Microsoft To-Do on your Windows system.

Creating folders and groups

Let's start with how you can create a folder. I don't know if you remember, but the list of folders is available in the left-side panel of your Microsoft To-Do application. You can check it in my Microsoft To-Do presentation post.

The process of creating a folder is very simple! Just access the lower left side of your Microsoft To-Do (like presented in the image below) and choose "New List". And define a name for your folder.

After this step, you should already have your new folder available on the left panel; and if you click on it, the central panel will present its content. Since it's a new folder, it will be empty. You can create your tasks list right away (in the central panel) and they are automatically associated with the folder. But you can also create them later and simply "drag and drop" them to the desired folder. Remember that, even when a task is "integrated" into a folder and with a due date, these tasks always appear in the listing of "Planned" (since the filter applied for presentation is the due date). I confess it is the filter I use most!

Another interesting feature of Microsoft To-Do is the ability to create groups of folders. This feature is not available for the traditional version of Outlook Tasks! When creating a group (second option of the picture above), you can drag the folders into the group "space" and organize your left side panel much better (by subjects, teams, or areas of activity, for example).

Sharing folders

For accurate expectations management, I would like to inform you that Microsoft To-Do only responds to one of the scenarios in my previous post about collaboration. In other words, it allows you to share a folder with several people (from your team, for example) but everyone has the same privileges "within" the same folder. It also allows you to send an e-mail to someone with the task list (from the selected folder).

Conclusion: We can assume that Microsoft To-Do provides the feature "1. Share Tasks" but not an advanced "2. Folder Management"; both these features were presented in Mrs. Jones's business scenario.        

Now, let's imagine that you want to share this folder with 3 more members of your team. Just right-click on the folder name and select "Sharing options".

You can write your coworkers' emails or simply share the link provided. From that moment on, your folder is shared and you can assign tasks to your team members, as shown in the next image. You can also add, at the summary of the task, the "@" plus the name of the member, for a quick task creation.

On the central panel, you will find the list of tasks and (in each one) the name or photo of the member to which it is associated. As presented in my collaboration post, this feature is very useful for visualizing the execution level of a task list; for example, when organizing an event, a marketing campaign to contact customers... or even sharing, with your wife, a shopping list. :)

I believe that, now, you will understand the filter in the left panel with the name "Assigned to me". This option allows you to display all the tasks assigned to you by someone.

Improving your experience

To improve your experience in Microsoft Windows, you can select an icon to represent your folder. You only need to click near the folder name and select one of the available icons, as presented in the image below.

One amazing feature is the ability to include the task list of a folder on your Windows Start menu. The only thing you need to do is click on the 3 dots (...) and select "Pin to Start" as in the image below.

And you will get this result :)

Final thoughts

In this post, we learn how to create and share a folder in Microsoft To-Do. It does not allow for advanced folder management as Outlook Tasks does, but in many cases, it will be sufficient. Its ease of configuration and use are, in fact, the most attractive factors in this feature. We also explored how to improve our experience in Windows with some additional features!

I challenge you to test these features in both the Desktop and Mobile versions, and you will confirm that both platforms respond identically!

It's time to update our features table:

The next posts will be dedicated to the integration of Microsoft To-Do with other applications.

Stay tuned!