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Learn how to create and manage tasks using Microsoft Planner.

Quick reference

Manage Tasks with Planner

Use Microsoft Planner to manage a list of projects and tasks.

Instructions

  • Click on the Launcher
  • Click on Planner

Hub - the hub is we can view and access our plans

Assigned to me - shows all tasks that have been assigned to you

Create a New Plan

  • Click on New plan

From here we can choose to create a blank plan from scratch or we can choose a template. 

  • Click Simple plan
  • Give the plan a name
  • Select a group from the drop-down menu to add the plan to an existing Microsoft 365 group or Team
  • Set the Privacy

Note: If you choose a group to assign the plan to, the settings of the group are copied to the plan so the Privacy and Settings option will be deactivated. 

  • Click Create

Buckets

Tasks in a plan are organized into buckets. We can rename the existing buckets, create our own bucks and organize tasks into groups. 

Rename a bucket
  • Click the three dots next to the bucket name
  • Click Rename
  • Type a new name for the bucket
Delete a bucket
  • Click the three dots next to the bucket name
  • Click Delete
Add a new bucket
  • Click the Add new bucket link
  • Type a name for the bucket
Add tasks to a bucket
  • Click the Add task button underneath the bucket
  • Type the task details
  • Give the task a name
  • Add a due date
  • Assign it to another team member (optional)
  • Click Add task

Move tasks to buckets
  • Click on a task to open it
  • Click the drop-down next to Bucket and select the bucket to move the task to, OR,
  • Drag and drop the task to the correct bucket

Edit Task Details

  • Click on a task to open it
Labels

We can assign labels to tasks to categorize them and make them easier to find.

  • Click the drop-down next to Labels
  • A list of default labels will show
  • We can rename these labels to make them more meaningful by clicking the pencil icon to edit

Update Progress

We can update the progress of a task. 

  • Click the drop-down next to Progress
  • Change the status
Change the Task Priority

We can change the task priority. Urgent tasks will be flagged with a red symbol. 

  • Click the drop-down next to Priority
  • Choose a priority from the list
Other Settings

We can also set a start date, a due date, define if the task repeats, and add notes and attachments to tasks. 

Checklist Items

Checklist items are mini-tasks within a task. Sometimes, a task might have constituent parts that need to be completed before the task is considered complete. We can check these off using checklist items.

  • Click Add an item
  • Type the name of the checklist item

Selecting the Show on card checkbox will add the checklist items to the card so they are visible when looking at the task without going into task details. 

Views

We have 4 views when working with tasks: Grid, Board, Chart, and Schedule. 

Grid View: displays tasks in a grid layout

Board View: shows tasks as cards

Chart: shows visual statistics of the overall progress of the project

Schedule: shows the tasks in a calendar format

Hints & tips

  • Use the Group by option in the top right-hand corner to group tasks as required
  • Use the Filters option in the top right-hand corner to filter tasks by criteria
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  • 00:04 Microsoft Planner is an application that allows us to manage projects by
  • 00:08 creating a list of tasks.
  • 00:10 We can assign those tasks to ourselves or to other team members and
  • 00:15 we can also monitor and track the progress of tasks and plans.
  • 00:19 So let's dive in and take a look at Planner.
  • 00:22 I'm going to click on the app launcher again.
  • 00:24 And there it is listed at the bottom.
  • 00:26 Remember, if you can't see it, just click on All Apps.
  • 00:29 Now, when you log into Planner, it has a very simple interface.
  • 00:33 We have a few options on the left-hand side, and
  • 00:35 then currently I don't really have anything in the middle here.
  • 00:39 Now I'm clicked on the Hub.
  • 00:41 And the Hub is really your centralized place where you can view all of the plans
  • 00:45 that you've created.
  • 00:47 Now because I haven't created any as yet, I don't have anything in here.
  • 00:51 We also have an area where you can see all of the tasks that have been
  • 00:55 specifically assigned to you.
  • 00:57 And we'll dive into here in a moment once we've created a plan.
  • 01:00 So let's go up to the new plan link.
  • 01:02 This is going to open up the new plan window and
  • 01:05 we have a couple of different choices in here.
  • 01:07 If we want to create a plan from scratch and build out our own task list,
  • 01:12 we can choose to create a new blank plan.
  • 01:15 Alternatively, if we want a bit of a head start,
  • 01:18 we could choose to utilize one of these templates.
  • 01:21 And which one you choose is going to be based on the kind of plan that you want
  • 01:24 to create.
  • 01:25 So I'm going to go with the template.
  • 01:27 Let's just select a Simple Plan to give ourselves a head start.
  • 01:31 We can see what that's going to look like.
  • 01:33 We now need to give our plan a title.
  • 01:35 So let's be consistent and stick with Project Alpha.
  • 01:39 Now it's at this point that I can choose to add this plan to an existing group.
  • 01:44 And notice when I click the drop-down, the groups that I have access to.
  • 01:48 So this is showing me Teams from Microsoft Teams.
  • 01:52 It's also showing me Microsoft 365 groups as well.
  • 01:58 So I can basically use any of these as a starting point for my plan.
  • 02:03 So I'm going to use Project Alpha.
  • 02:07 Now notice I don't get the opportunity to adjust the privacy and sensitivity here.
  • 02:12 And that is because it's going to take on the settings of the group that I've
  • 02:16 selected.
  • 02:17 So let's click on Create.
  • 02:19 And it's going to go away and create this plan based off of my selections.
  • 02:24 Now because I selected a template, it gives me a head start.
  • 02:28 It's already added some template tasks into the plan for me.
  • 02:32 If I had chosen to create a blank plan or one from scratch,
  • 02:35 I wouldn't have anything in here.
  • 02:37 Now if this is the first time that you're utilizing Planner,
  • 02:40 let's just run through what we're looking at.
  • 02:42 The first thing that's most noticeable is that we have these different sections or
  • 02:46 buckets at the top.
  • 02:47 So that's where we have Backlog, Up next, In progress, Blocked, so on and so forth.
  • 02:53 Now, of course, we can change these.
  • 02:54 We are using a template.
  • 02:56 So maybe I want to rename this to,
  • 03:00 let's go for All Tasks.
  • 03:04 Maybe I want this one to be renamed to Work in Progress.
  • 03:09 This one's going to be Completed.
  • 03:14 And then maybe I don't actually want these last ones.
  • 03:17 So again, I can click three dots and
  • 03:20 delete any of the buckets that I feel is necessary.
  • 03:23 So let's delete these two.
  • 03:26 Now, if I wanted to add more buckets, I have an Add new bucket link here.
  • 03:30 Now, these buckets are purely there to organize our tasks into different
  • 03:35 groups and categories.
  • 03:36 And we can see the tasks that we have underneath each of these buckets listed
  • 03:41 below.
  • 03:42 And if you want to add your own new tasks to a bucket,
  • 03:44 we have an Add task link just here.
  • 03:46 I can type in a name for my task, Review Documentation.
  • 03:50 I can set a due date, let's say the 11th of June, and if I want to,
  • 03:55 I can choose to assign it to another team member.
  • 03:59 Now, in this case,
  • 04:00 I'm just going to assign it to myself and I can choose Add task.
  • 04:05 Now, if I click on the task that I've just added, it's going to open up a window
  • 04:09 that allows me to add a little bit more detail about this task.
  • 04:12 So once again, I can choose to assign it to people.
  • 04:15 I can add different labels.
  • 04:17 So we can rename any of these labels.
  • 04:19 They work a little bit like categories in Outlook.
  • 04:22 So if I click on the pencil icon instead of pink maybe I want this to say
  • 04:27 Project Alpha, and then I can then categorize based off of that label.
  • 04:32 So it's a really nice visual indicator for categorizing tasks.
  • 04:37 I can change the bucket that this particular task is assigned to,
  • 04:41 I can update the progress.
  • 04:42 So maybe this is started, I'm going to change it to In progress.
  • 04:47 I can assign a priority, so maybe this is Important.
  • 04:51 A start date, a due date, and whether it repeats or not.
  • 04:55 I can add notes to my tasks.
  • 04:58 And I can also add checklist items.
  • 05:00 So checklist items are really mini tasks within the task.
  • 05:05 Sometimes, you might have an overarching task that has lots of different
  • 05:09 constituent parts.
  • 05:10 So you could add all of these as separate checklist items.
  • 05:14 We can add attachments, we can add comments.
  • 05:17 And if we click the three dots at the top, we could move the task, or
  • 05:21 we could even copy the link to a task and send it to somebody else in an email or
  • 05:26 another messaging channel.
  • 05:28 Once we're happy, we can close it down and there is our updated task.
  • 05:32 So now because this task is in progress,
  • 05:35 I want to move it from all tasks to the WIP bucket.
  • 05:38 And this is a simple case of dragging and dropping it over here.
  • 05:43 Also note that because I assign this task to myself, if I now click on the assigned
  • 05:48 to me link on the left-hand side, there is the task that's been assigned to me.
  • 05:52 And once you start to get a lot of tasks built up in here, this is where you might
  • 05:57 want to start applying filters and grouping in different ways.
  • 06:01 So currently I'm looking at all tasks that are assigned to me grouped by progress.
  • 06:06 If I want to group them in a different way,
  • 06:08 I might want to group them by priority, for example, I can switch that.
  • 06:13 I can now see all of the urgent, all of the important, medium, and low.
  • 06:17 And then next to that, I have a filter to filter my tasks even further.
  • 06:21 Now so far, we've been working in board view but
  • 06:25 we do have three other views up here as well.
  • 06:28 We can view our tasks in Grid view where we can see them in more of a list style.
  • 06:33 We can take a look at Charts.
  • 06:35 So this gives some visual indications as to what's going on within this project.
  • 06:41 Or we can look at them in Schedule view.
  • 06:43 So this will show your tasks displayed on a calendar based on their start date,
  • 06:49 due date, and end date.
  • 06:50 So lots of different ways that you can view your projects.
  • 06:54 The final thing to note here is that if we click back on the hub,
  • 06:58 notice that now I have something here, we have the Project Alpha plan.
  • 07:02 Just above that,
  • 07:03 it's encouraging me to get the Planner app which can be really helpful.
  • 07:07 For the time being, I'm just going to close down that banner.
  • 07:10 Now notice here that when I hover over the project, if this is a project that I
  • 07:14 access frequently, I can choose to pin it to move it up to this section just here.
  • 07:18 And it also moves it to the pinned category in
  • 07:21 the menu on the left-hand side.
  • 07:23 Now if you recall when we were looking at Teams in the previous lesson,
  • 07:27 I showed you that I had already installed the Planner app within Teams.
  • 07:32 And if we jump across to Teams and click on Task by Planner in the left-hand menu,
  • 07:38 check out Assign to me, Project Alpha Plan.
  • 07:41 So the project I've created in Planner has fed through to the Planner app within
  • 07:46 Teams.
  • 07:47 And if I double click on that, I jump into the task and
  • 07:50 I can do things like update the status.
  • 07:53 Now if you don't see Tasks by Planner in that left-hand menu,
  • 07:57 it's very simple to add by clicking the three dots.
  • 08:00 And you can search for the app.
  • 08:01 So let's go for Planner.
  • 08:03 There it is, Tasks by Planner, and that will add the app to your Teams interface.

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