Microsoft To Do is the project management tool in Microsoft 365 geared toward managing individual task lists. Microsoft To Do integrates with the tasks system within Microsoft 365 and allows you to make lists that include tasks assigned to you via a plan in Microsoft Planner, flagged emails from Outlook, and more. This recording will showcase the features of Microsoft To Do that will streamline the way you manage your individual task lists.
About this session
- Instructor: Beth Lynn Nolen
- Duration: 22 minutes 35 seconds
- Audience: IU instructors, staff, and students
Microsoft To Do: Managing Individual Tasks
Description of the video:
[music] In this video, we’ll explore how to use Microsoft To Do to manage your individual tasks. Specifically, we’ll cover the following: I'll show you how to access To Do, how to use My Day to organize your day, how to create tasks, how to create and manage lists, and how To Do integrates with Planner, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. I do want to point out a few things we won’t be covering in this video, including project management techniques, how to manage large work projects, or how to use Microsoft Teams, Planner, or Outlook. We’ll only be focusing on how to use To Do to organize your personal tasks, as well as touching on how it’s integrated into other Microsoft 365 apps. Microsoft To Do is part of the unified task system in Microsoft 365, which includes apps like To Do, Planner, OneNote, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams. To Do helps you manage your individual tasks, work tasks, and even flagged items from Outlook and OneNote. There are many different ways you can access Microsoft To Do – for example, you can access it through the To Do desktop app, through your web browser, and through the mobile apps available for iOS and Android. For today, I’ll demonstrate how to access To Do through the Microsoft 365 at IU page. To start, in a web browser, go to microsoft.iu.edu. Then, near the top of the page under the Microsoft 365 heading, click on the Access Microsoft 365 button. At this point, the Microsoft login screen will load. This looks different than the typical IU Login screen you may be used to. Here, you’ll enter your IU email address to log in – specifically, you’ll log in with your username at iu.edu, instead of at Indiana.edu or another campus-specific email address. Once you’ve typed in your email address, click the Next button, then enter your passphrase and click the Sign in button. At this point, you may be asked to authenticate with Duo – since I did that recently, I’m brought right to the Microsoft 365 landing page. From here, in the navigation on the left side of the page, click on Apps. The Apps page will load – to show all apps, underneath the right side of the icon tiles underneath the Apps heading, click on All apps. All of the Microsoft 365 apps that are available to us will display. To open Microsoft To Do, click the To Do tile and it will load in a new browser tab. Let’s explore the To Do interface before continuing on. On the left side of the screen, we see the lists pane. The top half of the lists pane shows smart lists – in other words, lists that are automatically populated with tasks based on the type of list. For example, Planned shows tasks with a due date, Important shows tasks that have been tagged as important, and Assigned to me shows tasks that have been assigned to you, either through To Do or Planner. The bottom half of the pane shows the lists you’ve created. If desired, you can create groups of lists here as well. In the center of the screen, we see the tasks from whichever list we’ve selected in the lists panel. Clicking on a task will display the Task Details pane on the right side of the screen, which gives you more options for working with a task. The My Day smart list is the core of To Do’s productivity model, and helps you focus on daily tasks or other important things you need to get done. You can add new tasks to the My Day smart list each day, and the list resets every night so you can start fresh the next day with an empty My Day smart list. There are different ways of adding tasks to My Day. When viewing a task’s details, you can click on Add to My Day in the task details pane and it will be added to the My Day smart list. When you’re viewing My Day, click on Suggestions in the upper right corner and a list of suggested tasks will appear. Click on the Add to My Day icon to the right of each task to add it to the list. This icon looks like a plus sign. You can also set My Day to automatically add tasks that are due that day. This is turned on in the settings for To Do. To open the settings, near the upper right side of the screen, click on the Settings icon. It looks like a gear. The Settings pane will open. From here, under the To Do heading, click on To Do Settings. The Settings dialog box will appear. From here, scroll down until you see the Smart Lists heading. At the bottom of the Smart Lists section, under the text Show ‘Due Today’ tasks in My day, click the toggle switch to toggle this setting on. Our changes are saved as we make them. We’re done in the Settings dialog box for now, so I’ll click on the Close button in the upper right corner of the dialog box to close it. Let’s see how to create a task and edit its details. Creating a new task is simple. To get started, we’ll need to be viewing the list we want to add the task to. I want to add this to the Tasks list, so I’ll click on it in the top part of the Lists pane. Next, to add the task, I’ll click on Add a task at the top of the list I’m working with. The Add a task text entry field will appear, and I can type in the text for the task I want to complete. I’ll name my task “Prepare for Microsoft Teams webinar”. If desired, I can set a due date for the task by clicking on the Add due date icon underneath the task’s name, then clicking on an option in the list. I’ll click on Pick a date, then set this task to be due two weeks from now by clicking on the date in the date picker. After selecting a date, I’ll click the Save button. I can also set a reminder for a specific date and time by clicking on the Remind me icon, then choosing a date and time for the reminder from the list. For today, I’ll click on Pick a date and time, then click on the day before my task is due to select the date I want for the reminder. I’ll change the reminder time to 2 pm by clicking on the hour in the time drop down, then typing zero, two, the Tab key, zero zero. When I’m done, I’ll click the Save button. If the task is a recurring task, I can add a recurrence by clicking on the Repeat icon, then choosing an option from the list. I don’t need this task to repeat, so I’ll click away from the drop-down menu to close it. When I’m finished adding information about the task, I’ll click the Add button to the lower right of the task’s name to add the task to the list. If a task has individual steps to complete as part of the task, I can add them in the task’s details. I’ll click on the "Prepare for Microsoft Teams webinar" task I just added. The task details pane will open. To add a step, near the top of the task details pane, I’ll click on Add Step. The text will change into a text entry field – I’ll type in the text for the specific step I need to complete. For this task, I’ll type “outline webinar content” and press the Enter key to start entering the next step. I’ll add “Create PowerPoint” and “Clean out demo account” as additional steps for this task. When I’m ready to mark off a step as done, I can click the radio button to the left of its name and it’ll be marked as completed. If desired, you can also attach a file to a task for easy access. Click on Add file near the bottom of the task details pane to start. The Open dialog box will appear. From here, navigate to the file you want to add to the task. I’ll navigate to the file named Webinar Ideas.docx, then select it by clicking on it. Finally, I'll click the Open button to upload it and add it to the task. The file now shows up in the task details pane, and clicking on it opens up a preview of the file in your browser. One important thing to note about attachments is that you can’t add files from Microsoft storage locations here – this includes Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. If you need to add files located in a Microsoft storage location to a task, you may want to use Microsoft Planner instead, as it allows for linking to files stored in Microsoft Storage. If you need to remove a task from a list in To Do, there are two ways to do this. First, you can mark the task as complete by clicking the checkbox to the left of the task’s name. The task will still be accessible from the Completed section of the list. If you accidentally mark a task as complete, you can undo this by expanding the Completed section of the list, then clicking the checkbox to the left of the task’s name to uncheck it. The task will then be re-added to the list. If you want to remove a task from a list entirely, in the lower right corner of the Task Details pane, click on the Delete task icon. It looks like a trash can. A dialog box will appear, warning you that the task will be permanently deleted, and you won’t be able to undo this action. Click the Delete task button to finish deleting the task. I’ll click on the Cancel button for today, as I’m not ready to delete this task yet. There are many ways we can organize our tasks in To Do. We can mark certain tasks as important, collect similar tasks in a list, and even assign categories and tags to tasks. Let’s start by marking a task as important. I’m still viewing the Tasks list, and I want to mark the task “Prepare for Microsoft Teams webinar” as important. To do this, to the far-right side of the task’s name, I’ll click on the Mark task as important icon – it looks like the outline of a star. When I click on the icon, the star fills in and the task is marked as important. Additionally, if I open the Important smart list, the task now appears here as well. Now, let’s see how we can use lists to help keep our tasks organized. For example, I want to create a list that contains my work tasks. To do this, in the bottom half of the Lists pane, I’ll click on New list. The New list text entry field appears – here, I’ll type the name for my list, which will be Work tasks, then I’ll press the Enter key on my keyboard to finish creating the new list. The new list will load in the main part of the To Do window. I can now add tasks to this list, just like any other. If desired, I can also make a group of lists to collect related lists in one place. For example, I have two lists, Groceries and Weekly chores, that I’d like to add to a group named Personal. To create the group, to the right of where it says New list in the bottom half of the Lists pane, I’ll click on the Create group icon. A text entry field will appear – here, I’ll type the text Personal and press the Enter key to create the new group. Once the group is created, I can press and drag lists into the group to add them to it. I’ll do this with the Groceries and Weekly chores lists. We can also share a list with someone else so we can assign tasks to them. This can be useful in situations like managing a shared grocery shopping list with a partner or a roommate, or for planning a small informal event with someone else. However, you shouldn’t use the list-sharing feature to manage large group projects – instead, you should use Microsoft Planner to manage these types of projects. I’ll demonstrate how sharing a list works by sharing the Surprise Party Planning list with Diane Dell. To make a list shared, first, right-click the list you want to share with someone, and in the menu that appears, click Share List. The Share list dialog box will appear. To make an invitation link that you can share with others at IU, click on Create Invitation Link. The Share list dialog box will change to show the members of the list (currently only the owner displays here), as well as a link you can copy and paste in a message to someone and the option to invite someone to the list via email. Clicking the Invite via email button will open a new email in your email client that includes the link to the list. After you send the link to someone, they can click on it and join the list. Clicking the Copy link button will copy the link to your clipboard so you can paste it into an email or a message to someone else. Once the person (or people) you invite to the list join it, they'll appear in the Share List dialog box. Diane Dell has accepted my invitation to join the list, so she appears in this dialog box now. To close the Share List dialog box, in the upper right corner of the dialog box, click on the close button. To assign a task to someone, first, click on the task to open the task details pane. Then, click on Assign to in the task details. The Assign to dialog box will appear – here, you can click on the name of the person you want to assign the task to. For me, that’s Diane Dell, so I'll click on her name. As soon as I click on Diane’s name, the Assign to dialog box will disappear, and Diane’s name shows up in the task details as the person it’s assigned to. Now the task will show up in Diane’s Assigned to me smart list. We can also use categories and tags to help organize our tasks. While categories and tags can be used separately, they also work together well to provide more detailed categorization of tasks. Categories and tags can be used together to help organize tasks with as much detail as you need. To help illustrate this better, think of categories as larger buckets that can be used for more general categorization, like Work or Personal. Tags are like small items that can go inside the category bucket, but are more specific. For example, with the Work category, I might have tags for conference, webinar, and professional development, while the Personal category might use tags like vacation planning or pet care. Let’s start out with adding a category to a task, then we’ll add tags to it. I’ll work with a task on the Video Development list named Microsoft To Do session recording. To add a category, I’ll need to view the task’s details, so I’ll click on the task to open the Task Detail pane. To add a category to a task, in the task detail pane, click on Pick a category. Then, choose a category from the drop-down list that appears. These categories are pulled from Outlook – to change them or add more categories, you’ll need to make those changes in Outlook. I’ll add the category Content Development to this task by clicking on it in the list. I’ll click away from the list once I’m done to close it. Once a category has been selected, the category’s name appears under the task’s name in the list we’re viewing. Once you’ve assigned categories to tasks, you can search for tasks assigned to a specific category using the Search field at the top of the screen. As a heads-up, you can only add categories to tasks via Outlook or To Do for web, and not the To Do desktop or mobile apps. Now let’s practice adding tags to a task. Tags can be added anywhere inside the text of a task by adding the number sign – which is also called the hash symbol, like in hashtag – before a word. Let’s see how this works. I’m going to add another task to the Video Development list named Microsoft Planner session recording, and I’ll add the tag “webinar recording” at the same time I make the new task. To start, I’ll click on Add a task at the top of the Video Development list, then type the text “Microsoft Planner session recording”. Next, I’ll add the tag. Since tags can’t have spaces in them, I’ll use a dash instead of a space between the words. Once I’m done, I’ll click the Add button, and the text "webinar-recording" will appear in blue, indicating it’s a tag. You can also add a tag to an existing task by editing the task’s name in the Task Detail pane. I’ll demonstrate how to do this by clicking on the task "Microsoft To Do session recording", then I'll type the tag "webinar-recording" at the end of it and click away from the task to accept the changes. Now that we know how to use To Do, let’s learn more about where To Do is integrated into other Microsoft 365 apps. Specifically, we’ll see how To Do is connected to Outlook, Planner, and Microsoft Teams. First, let’s explore the Outlook integration. You can view your tasks from To Do in both the desktop and web version of Outlook. In the Windows, MacOS, and Web versions of Outlook, in the app bar on the left side of the screen, click on To Do. You’ll see your lists and tasks from To Do here. On MacOS, things are slightly different. While you can access To Do from the app bar on the left side of the Outlook window, the To Do icon is hidden under the More (or three dots) icon. Additionally, once you click on To Do, it’ll load in a browser window instead of inside the Outlook app. In the web version of Outlook, we also have the option to have our tasks visible on screen along with our email in the My Day pane. To open the pane, near the top right side of the screen, click on the My Day icon – it looks like a calendar with a checkmark in front of it. When the My Day pane appears, you can view your tasks by clicking on the To Do tab at the top of the pane. By default, the Tasks list is displayed here – you can switch between lists by clicking on the drop-down arrow next to the list’s name, then choosing a list from the menu. If desired, we can have our flagged email items in Outlook show up as tasks in To Do. We’ll need to go to the To Do settings to turn this on. To start, in the upper right corner of the To Do window, click on the Settings icon. Then, click on To Do Settings near the top of the settings pane. In the Settings dialog box, scroll down until you see the Connected Apps heading, then toggle the switch for Flagged email to on. Now whenever you flag an email in Outlook, it will appear in the Flagged email smart list in To Do. You can change the task’s details in To Do just like you’d change any other, and you can view the flagged email by clicking on Open in Outlook in the task details pane. Next, let’s learn more about how Planner and To Do work together. Tasks that are assigned to you in Planner will appear in your Assigned to me smart list. For example, I have the task "Make Excel Video" that’s displaying in the Assigned to me list. This is coming from a plan in Microsoft Planner. In addition to appearing in the Assigned to me smart list, any tasks that are marked as Important or Urgent in Planner will appear in the Important smart list as well. The "Make Excel Video" task shows up in the Important smart list too. Clicking on a task to view the details will give you more information about the plan the task is part of. You’ll notice that there aren’t as many options available to work with in the Task Details pane for tasks that were assigned from Planner. You can make changes to the details for these tasks by viewing them in Planner, or in Microsoft Teams through Tasks by Planner and To Do. Clicking on Open in Teams in the task details will open the plan the task is part of in Microsoft Teams. I’ll choose to open Teams in my web browser here instead of using the desktop app. Once Teams loads, the task I selected opens and we see the task detail view. As a quick heads-up, some tasks may open in Microsoft Planner instead of Microsoft Teams – you’ll still have access to all the same options in the Task Detail view, though. Finally, let’s see how we can find our lists and tasks from To Do in Microsoft Teams. I’m already in Teams, thanks to opening the "Make Excel Video" task previously. All of your tasks from both To Do and Planner are accessible from the app Tasks by Planner and To Do. To add the Tasks by Planner and To Do app to the app bar in Microsoft Teams, near the bottom of the App bar, click on the More added apps or three-dots button. A pop-up will appear – to search for Tasks by Planner and To Do, in the Search field at the top of the pop-up, type in “tasks”. The icon for Tasks by Planner and To Do will appear at the top of this pop-up. To open the app inside Microsoft Teams, click on the app’s icon. Tasks by Planner and To Do will load in the main part of the Teams window. To pin the app to the App bar so you can find it again easily, right-click on the Tasks by Planner and To Do icon, and in the menu that appears, click on Pin. In Tasks by Planner and To Do, we can access our lists from To Do in the top part of the navigation pane on the left side of the Microsoft Teams window. Clicking on a list will show all tasks in the lists in the main part of the window. We can edit some details for a task here by double-clicking on a task. The task’s details will appear, and you can change the priority level, due date, notes, and add steps to a task. However, if you want to add a reminder, change the recurrence, attach a file, or add a category, you’ll want to go back to the To Do app to make those changes. At this point, we now know how to manage and organize our tasks in Microsoft To Do, and we also know about how To Do is integrated into apps like Outlook, Planner, and Microsoft Teams. To learn more about other Microsoft 365 applications, like Microsoft Teams, Planner, and more, visit IT Training’s Microsoft 365 page at ittraining.iu.edu/m365. [music]Introduction
- In this video, we’ll explore how to use Microsoft To Do to manage your individual tasks. Specifically, we’ll cover the following:
- How to access To Do
- How to use My Day to organize your day
- Creating tasks
- Creating and managing lists
- How To Do integrates with Planner, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams
- I do want to point out a few things we won’t be covering in this video, including:
- Project management techniques
- How to manage large work projects
- How to use Microsoft Teams, Planner, or Outlook
- We’ll only be focusing on how to use To Do to organize your personal tasks, as well as touching on how it’s integrated into other Microsoft 365 apps.
About Microsoft To Do
- Microsoft To Do is part of the unified task system in Microsoft 365, which includes apps like To Do, Planner, OneNote, Outlook, and Microsoft Teams.
- To Do helps you manage your individual tasks, work tasks, and even flagged items from Outlook and OneNote.
Accessing To Do
- There are many different ways you can access Microsoft To Do – for example, you can access it through the To Do desktop app, through your web browser, and through the mobile apps available for iOS and Android.
- For today, I’ll demonstrate how to access To Do through the Microsoft 365 at IU page.
- To start, in a web browser, go to microsoft.iu.edu.
- Then, near the top of the page under the Microsoft 365 heading, click on the Access Microsoft 365 button.
- At this point, the Microsoft login screen will load. This looks different than the typical IU Login screen you may be used to.
- Here, you’ll enter your IU email address to log in – specifically, you’ll log in with your username at iu.edu, instead of at Indiana.edu or another campus-specific email address. Once you’ve typed in your email address, click the Next button, then enter your passphrase and click the Sign in button.
- At this point, you may be asked to authenticate with Duo – since I did that recently, I’m brought right to the Microsoft 365 landing page.
- From here, in the navigation on the left side of the page, click on Apps.
- The Apps page will load – to show all apps, underneath the right side of the icon tiles underneath the Apps heading, click on All apps. All the Microsoft 365 apps that are available to us will display.
- To open Microsoft To Do, scroll down through the list of apps until you see the tile for To Do. Then, click the To Do tile and it will load in a new browser tab.
Navigating To Do
- Let’s explore the To Do interface before continuing on.
- On the left side of the screen, we see the lists pane.
- The top half of the lists pane shows smart lists – in other words, lists that are automatically populated with tasks based on the type of list. For example, Planned shows tasks with a due date, Important shows tasks that have been tagged as important and, Assigned to me shows tasks that have been assigned to you, either through To Do or Planner.
- The bottom half of the pane shows the lists you’ve created. If desired, you can create groups of lists here as well.
- In the center of the screen, we see the tasks from whichever list we’ve selected in the lists panel.
- Clicking on a task will display the Task Details pane on the right side of the screen, which gives you more options for working with a task.
- On the left side of the screen, we see the lists pane.
Understanding My Day
- The My Day smart list is the core of To Do’s productivity model, and helps you focus on daily tasks or other important things you need to get done.
- You can add new tasks to the My Day smart list each day, and the list resets every night so you can start fresh the next day with an empty My Day smart list.
- There are different ways of adding tasks to My Day.
- When viewing a task’s details, you can click on Add to My Day in the task details pane and it will be added to the My Day smart list.
- When you’re viewing My Day, click on Suggestions in the upper right corner and a list of suggested tasks will appear. Click on the Add to My Day icon to the right of each task to add it to the list. (This icon looks like a plus sign.)
- You can also set My Day to automatically add tasks that are due that day.
- This is turned on in the settings for To Do. To open the settings, near the upper right side of the screen, click on the Settings icon. It looks like a gear.
- The Settings pane will open. From here, under the To Do heading, click on To Do Settings.
- The Settings dialog box will appear. From here, scroll down until you see the Smart Lists heading. At the bottom of the Smart Lists section, under the text Show ‘Due Today’ tasks in My day, click the toggle switch to toggle this setting on.
- Our changes are saved as we make them. We’re done in the Settings dialog box for now, so I’ll click on the Close button in the upper right corner of the dialog box to close it.
Creating a task
- Let’s see how to create a task and edit its details.
- Creating a new task is simple. To get started, we’ll need to be viewing the list we want to add the task to. I want to add this to the Tasks list, so I’ll click on it in the top part of the Lists pane.
- Next, to add the task, I’ll click on Add a task at the top of the list I’m working with.
- The Add a task text entry field will appear, and I can type in the task I want to complete. I’ll name my task “Prepare for Microsoft Teams webinar”.
- If desired, I can set a due date for the task by clicking on the Add due date icon underneath the task’s name, then clicking on an option in the list. I’ll click on Pick a date, then set this task to be due two weeks from now by clicking on the date in the date picker. After selecting a date, I’ll click the Save button.
- I can also set a reminder for a specific date and time by clicking on the Remind me icon, then choosing a date and time for the reminder from the list. For me, I’ll click on Pick a date and time, then click on the day before my task is due to select the date I want for the reminder. I’ll change the reminder time to 2 pm by clicking on the hour in the time drop down, then typing zero, two, Tab key, zero zero. (If necessary: I’ll also change the AM/PM indicator to PM.) When I’m done, I’ll click the Save button.
- If the task is a recurring task, I can add a recurrence by clicking on the Repeat icon, then choosing an option from the list. I don’t want this task to repeat, so I’ll click away from the drop-down menu to close it.
- When I’m finished adding information about the task, I’ll click the Add button to the lower right of the task’s name to add the task to the list.
Adding steps to a task
- If a task has individual steps to complete as part of the task, I can add them in the task’s details. I’ll click on the task I want to add steps to in the task list – for me, I’ll click on the Prepare for webinar task I just added. The task details pane will open.
- To add a step, near the top of the task details pane, I’ll click on Add Step. The text will change into a text entry field – I’ll type in the text for the specific step I need to complete. For this task, I’ll type “outline webinar content” and press the Enter key to start entering the next step.
- I’ll add “Create PowerPoint” and “Clean out demo account” as additional steps for this task.
- When I’m ready to mark off a step as done, I can click the radio button to the left of its name and it’ll be marked as completed.
Attaching a file to a task
- If desired, you can also attach a file to a task for easy access.
- Click on Add file near the bottom of the task details pane to start, and the Open dialog box will appear.
- From here, navigate to the file you want to add to the task. I’ll navigate to the file named Webinar Ideas.docx, then click the Open button to upload it and add it to the task.
- The file now shows up in the task details pane, and clicking on it opens up a preview of the file in your browser.
- One important thing to note about attachments is that you can’t add files from Microsoft storage locations here – this includes Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. If you need to add files located in a Microsoft storage location to a task, you may want to use Microsoft Planner instead, as it allows for linking to files stored in Microsoft Storage.
Removing a task
- If you need to remove a task from a list in To Do, there are two ways to do this.
- First, you can mark the task as complete by clicking the checkbox to the left of the task’s name.
- If you accidentally mark a task as complete, you can undo this by expanding the Completed section of the list, then clicking the checkbox to the left of the task’s name to uncheck it. The task will then be re-added to the list.
- If you want to remove a task from a list entirely, in the lower right corner of the Task Details pane, click on the Delete task icon, which looks like a trash can. A dialog box will appear, warning you that the task will be permanently deleted, and you won’t be able to undo this action. Click the Delete task button to finish deleting the task. I’ll click on the Cancel button for today, as I’m not ready to delete this task.
Organizing tasks
- There are many ways we can organize our tasks in To Do. We can mark certain tasks as important, collect similar tasks in a list, and even assign categories and tags to tasks.
Marking tasks as important
- Let’s start by marking a task as important.
- I’m still viewing the Tasks list, and I want to mark the task “Prepare for Microsoft Teams webinar” as important. To do this, to the far-right side of the task’s name, I’ll click on the Mark task as important icon – it looks like the outline of a star.
- When I click on the icon, the star fills in and the task is marked as important. Additionally, if I open the Important smart list, the task now appears here as well.
Creating and using lists
- Now, let’s see how we can use lists to help keep our tasks organized.
- For example, I want to create a list that contains my work tasks. To do this, in the bottom half of the Lists pane, I’ll click on New list.
- The New list text entry field appears – here, I’ll type the name for my list, which will be Work tasks, and I’ll press the Enter key on my keyboard to finish creating the new list.
- The new list will load in the main part of the To Do window. I can now add tasks to this list, just like any other.
Grouping lists
- If desired, I can also make a group of lists to collect related lists in one place. For example, I have two lists, Groceries and Weekly chores, that I’d like to add to a group named Personal.
- To create the group, to the right of where it says New list in the bottom half of the Lists pane, I’ll click on the Create group icon.
- A text entry field will appear – here, I’ll type the text Personal and press the Enter key to create the new group.
- Once the group is created, I can press and drag lists into the group to add them to it. I’ll do this with the Groceries and Weekly chores lists.
Sharing lists
- We can also share a list with someone else so we can assign tasks to them. This can be useful in situations like managing a shared grocery shopping list with a partner or roommate, or for planning a small informal event with someone else.
- However, you shouldn’t use the list-sharing feature to manage large group projects – instead, you should use Microsoft Planner to manage these types of projects.
- I’ll demonstrate how sharing a list works by sharing the Surprise Party Planning list with Diane Dell.
- To make a list shared, first, right-click the list you want to share with someone, and in the menu that appears, click Share List.
- The Share list dialog box will appear. To make an invitation link that you can share with others at IU, click Create Invitation Link.
- The Share list dialog box will change to show the members of the list (currently only the owner displays), as well as a link you can copy and paste in a message to someone and the option to invite someone to the list via email.
- Clicking the Invite via email button will open a new email in your email client that includes the link to the list. After you send the link to someone, they can click on it and join the list.
- Clicking the Copy link button will copy the link to your clipboard so you can paste it into an email or a message to someone else.
- Diane Dell has accepted my invitation to join the list, so she appears in this dialog box now.
- To close the Share List dialog box, in the upper right corner of the dialog box, click on the close button.
- To assign a task to someone, first, click on the task to open the task details pane. Then, click on Assign to in the task details. The Assign to dialog box will appear – here, you can click on the name of the person you want to assign the task to. For me, that’s Diane Dell.
- As soon as I click on Diane’s name, the Assign to dialog box will disappear, and Diane’s name shows up in the task details as the person it’s assigned to. Now the task will show up in Diane’s Assigned to me smart list.
Organizing tasks using categories and tags
- We can also use categories and tags to help organize our tasks. While categories and tags can be used separately, they also work together well to provide more detailed categorization of tasks.
- Categories and tags can be used together to help organize tasks with as much detail as you need.
- To help illustrate this better, think of categories as larger buckets that can be used for more general categorization, like Work or Personal.
- Tags are like small items that can go inside the category bucket, but are more specific. For example, with the Work category, I might have tags for conference, webinar, and professional development, while the Personal category might use tags like vacation planning or pet care.
Adding a category to a task
- Let’s start out with adding a category to a task, then we’ll add tags to it. I’ll work with a task on the Video Development list named Microsoft To Do session recording. To add a category, I’ll need to view the task’s details, so I’ll click on the task to open the Task Detail pane.
- To add a category to a task, in the task detail pane, click on Pick a category, then choose a category from the drop-down list that appears. Again, these categories are pulled from Outlook – to change them or add more categories, you’ll need to make those changes in Outlook. I’ll add the category Content Development to this task by clicking on it in the list. I’ll click away from the list once I’m done to close it.
- Once a category has been selected, the category’s name appears under the task’s name in the list we’re viewing.
- Once you’ve assigned categories to tasks, you can search for tasks assigned to a specific category using the Search field at the top of the screen.
- As a heads-up, you can only add categories to tasks via Outlook or To Do for web, and not the To Do desktop or mobile apps.
Adding a tag to a task
- Now let’s practice adding tags to a task.
- Tags can be added anywhere inside the text of a task by adding the number sign (also called the hash symbol, like in hashtag) before a word. Let’s see how this works.
- I’m going to add another task to the Video Development list named Microsoft Planner session recording, and I’ll add the tag “webinar recording” at the same time I make the new task.
- To start, I’ll click on Add a task at the top of the Video Development list, then type the text “Microsoft Planner session recording”.
- Next, I’ll add the tag. Since tags can’t have spaces in them, I’ll use a dash instead of a space between the words in my tag.
- I’ll type in the hash symbol, then the words webinar and recording with a dash separating the two words.
- Once I’m done, I’ll click the Add button, and the text webinar-recording will appear in blue, indicating it’s a tag. I can click on the tag to see other tasks that have been given the same tag.
- You can also add a tag to an existing task by editing the task’s name in the Detail pane. I’ll demonstrate how to do this by clicking on the task Microsoft To Do session recording, then typing the tag webinar-recording at the end of it and clicking away from the task to accept the changes.
Integrations
- Now that we know how to use To Do, let’s learn more about where To Do is integrated into other Microsoft 365 apps. Specifically, we’ll see how To Do is connected to Outlook, Planner, and Microsoft Teams.
Outlook and To Do
- First, let’s explore the Outlook integration.
- You can view your tasks from To Do in both the desktop and web version of Outlook.
- In the Windows, MacOS, and Web versions of Outlook, in the app bar on the left side of the screen, click on To Do. You’ll see your lists and tasks from To Do here.
- On MacOS, things are slightly different. While you can access To Do from the app bar on the left side of the Outlook window, the To Do icon is hidden under the More (or three dots) icon. Additionally, once you click on To Do, it’ll load in a browser window instead of inside the Outlook app.
- In the web version of Outlook, we also have the option to have our tasks visible on screen along with our email in the My Day pane. To open the pane, near the top right side of the screen, click on the My Day icon – it looks like a calendar with a checkmark in front of it. When the My Day pane appears, you can view your tasks by clicking on the To Do tab at the top of the pane.
- By default, the Tasks list is displayed – you can switch between lists by clicking on the drop-down arrow next to the list’s name, then choosing a list from the menu.
- If desired, we can have our flagged email items in Outlook show up as tasks in To Do. We’ll need to go to the To Do settings to turn this on.
- To start, in the upper right corner of the To Do window, click on the Settings icon, then click on To Do Settings near the top of the settings pane.
- In the Settings dialog box, scroll down until you see the Connected Apps heading, then toggle the switch for Flagged email to on.
- Now whenever you flag an email in Outlook, it will appear in the Flagged email smart list in To Do. You can change the task’s details in To Do just like you’d change any other, and you can view the flagged email by clicking on Open in Outlook in the task details pane.
Planner and To Do
- Next, let’s learn more about how Planner and To Do work together.
- Tasks that are assigned to you in Planner will appear in your Assigned to me smart list. For example, I have the task Make Excel Video that’s displaying in the Assigned to me list – this is coming from a plan in Microsoft Planner.
- In addition to appearing in the Assigned to me smart list, any tasks that are marked as Important or Urgent in Planner will appear in the Important smart list as well – the Make Excel Video task shows up in the Important smart list too.
- Clicking on a task to view the details will give you more information about the plan the task is part of.
- You’ll notice that there aren’t as many options available to work with in the Task Details pane for tasks that were assigned from Planner – you can make changes to the details for these tasks by viewing them in Planner, or in Microsoft Teams through Tasks by Planner and To Do.
- Clicking on Open in Teams in the task details will open the plan the task is part of in Microsoft Teams. I’ll choose to open Teams in my web browser here.
- Once Teams loads, the task I selected opens and we see the task detail view.
- As a quick heads-up, some tasks may open in Microsoft Planner instead of Microsoft Teams – you’ll still have access to all the same options in the Task Detail view, though.
Microsoft Teams and To Do
- Finally, let’s see how we can find our lists and tasks from To Do in Microsoft Teams. I’m already in Teams, thanks to opening the Make Excel Video task previously.
- All of your tasks from both To Do and Planner are accessible from the app Tasks by Planner and To Do.
- To add the Tasks by Planner and To Do app to the app bar in Microsoft Teams, near the bottom of the App bar, click on the More added apps or three-dots button. A pop-up will appear – to search for Tasks by Planner and To Do, in the Search field at the top of the pop-up, type in “tasks”.
- The icon for Tasks by Planner and To Do will appear. To open the app inside Microsoft Teams, click on the app’s icon.
- Tasks by Planner and To Do will load in the main part of the Teams window. To pin the app to the App bar so you can find it again easily, right-click on the Tasks by Planner and To Do icon, and in the menu that appears, click on Pin.
- In Tasks by Planner and To Do, we can access our lists from To Do in the top part of the navigation pane on the left side of the Microsoft Teams window. Clicking on a list will show all tasks in the lists in the main part of the window.
- We can edit some details for a task here by double-clicking on a task. The task’s details will appear, and you can change the priority level, due date, notes, and add steps to a task. However, if you want to add a reminder, change the recurrence, attach a file, or add a category, you’ll want to go back to the To Do app to make those changes.
At this point, we now know how to manage and organize our tasks in Microsoft To Do, and we also know about how To Do is integrated into apps like Outlook, Planner, and Microsoft Teams. To learn more about other Microsoft 365 applications, like Microsoft Teams, Planner, and more, visit IT Training’s Microsoft 365 page at ittraining.iu.edu/m365.