The Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Microsoft Teams from Microsoft 365 brings together your individual and personal tasks from To Do and Outlook with your team tasks from Microsoft Planner. Project management will be easier when you can see your work in one place. Ultimately this helps to make task management of your tasks list more manageable. In this article we explain how to use the Tasks by Planner and To Do app in MS Teams.
Add planner as a tab in MS Teams
Navigate to the Team in which you want to use Planner. At the top you will see some tabs. By clicking on the plus icon, the screen in which you can add applications opens. Search here for Planner and select Tasks by Planner and To Do. Now a screen opens where you can create a new plan or use an existing plan. If you have not used Planner before, you will need to create a new plan. You can give this a name here. Do you already have a very nicely organised plan that you want to reuse? Then click on Use an existing plan from this team. The name of the plan will be added as a tab within your Team.
Create buckets in Planner
The first list/row that becomes visible is called Tasks. We also call this row a Bucket. You can change the name of the bucket to, for example, To Do. You can then create additional buckets and start categorising tasks. You also have the option to create a task card. You do this under Add task. Here you enter the task that still needs to be performed, such as preparing a quote. You can then assign this task to the person who will perform the task. You can then determine the progress, assign priorities and indicate a start and end date. You can also add notes, such as Project Quote for customer X. In the checklist you indicate which services the potential client is interested in. If you or your colleague would like to add something, you can add some comments at the bottom of the comments section.
Even more useful functions in planner
If you click on Show on card within the specific task, you will see the added control points at a glance in the central overview. Do you want to drag tasks to another bucket, because the quotation has been issued? Then you can do that by hovering your mouse over the task and clicking on it. You hold down your mouse button and simply drag the task to another bucket. You can also choose in the map itself to add the task to another bucket. Has the task been completed? Then you check off the task. The completed actions are grouped by bucket.
Make Segments
Tasks can also be segmented by bucket. This can be by assignee, progress, due date, labels or priority. You can also filter them to, for example, only get an overview of your tasks for this project.
Try out Planner with your team, but before you start, think carefully about which categories or buckets you want to use. Also get started with a project-based way of working. You will then automatically find out what works for you.
Tech-Wales – Implementing MS Teams
At Tech-Wales we are experts in MS Office 365 consultancy. We can provide you with you with essential support and advice when you want to set up MS Teams for your business or want to streamline MS Teams. Combined with our excellent business IT support and Business IT Consultancy Services we can provide your organisation with the complete package. Feel free to contact us to discuss.