Tasks: Keeping Work Moving
Tasks are for the commitments that would otherwise live in someone's head or an email thread - the deliverables you have asked a startup for, and the internal jobs your own team owes each other. Everything has an owner and a date.
What you will learn
- What tasks are for and what they are not for
- How to create one and who to assign it to
- What the six status counters tell you
- How to break a big task into subtasks
- How to find what is overdue before someone else does
What belongs here#
A task is a specific piece of work with one owner and a due date. If you find yourself writing 'someone should probably look at this', that is not a task yet. Tasks work for deliverables you have asked a startup for, internal jobs your team owes each other, and follow-ups from meetings that would otherwise be forgotten.
Good to know
Tasks are not announcements. If you want to tell a group of people something, use Announcements. If you want one named person to do one specific thing by a date, use a task.
The task list#
Six counters across the top and four filter tabs beneath. The list shows the task, who owns it, when it is due, its status, priority and how far through its subtasks it is.
| Counter | What it means | Why you care |
|---|---|---|
| Total Tasks | Everything currently tracked. | Scale of what is in flight. |
| Pending | Not started. | Your backlog. |
| In Review | Done by the owner, waiting on someone to check. | Waiting on you, usually. |
| Completed | Finished and accepted. | What you can report. |
| Blocked | Cannot proceed because something else is in the way. | The most important number on the screen. |
| Overdue | Past its due date and not done. | What to deal with today. |
Tip
Blocked is the counter worth checking daily. A blocked task is someone who has stopped working and may not have told you why. Overdue tells you what slipped; blocked tells you what is stuck.
The four views#
The tabs are filters on the same list, and each answers a different question.
All Tasks
Everything you have permission to see. The overview.
My Tasks
Assigned to you. This is your own to-do list - start your day here.
Created by Me
Things you asked other people to do. Where you chase, rather than work.
Overdue
Past due and unfinished, regardless of owner. Check this before any team meeting.
Creating a task#
Create Task opens a short form. Only the title is required, but a task without an owner and a date rarely gets done.
- 1
Write a title that names the outcome
'Submit Q2 progress report' is a task. 'Progress report' is a topic. The difference decides whether anyone knows they are done.
- 2
Add a description if the title is not enough
Say what good looks like and where to send it. A task that generates three clarifying messages was under-specified.
- 3
Set priority, assignee and dates
Priority defaults to Medium. Assignee defaults to Unassigned - always change this. Start Date and Due Date bracket the work.
- An unassigned task is a task nobody is doing.
- A task with no due date will not appear in Overdue, so it can drift indefinitely.
- 4
Add labels to group related work
Labels let you tag tasks by theme - 'compliance', 'demo day', 'cohort 3' - so related work can be found together later.
Careful
The two defaults to always override: Unassigned, and no due date. A task with both is invisible to every counter and every filter on this page.
Subtasks, comments and files#
Open a task with View and you get the detail screen, where longer pieces of work get broken down and discussed.
- Subtasks split a large task into steps. The Progress column on the list shows how many are done - a task with no subtasks reads 'No subtasks'.
- Comments keep the conversation attached to the work rather than in someone's inbox.
- Attachments hold the deliverable itself, so the finished thing and the request for it live together.
Tip
Use subtasks when a task will take more than a few days. It turns 'not done yet' into '3 of 5 done', which is a far more useful thing to see in a review meeting.
Getting a team to actually use it#
Task systems fail the same way everywhere: people create tasks and then work somewhere else. Three habits make the difference.
One place, not two
If tasks also live in a spreadsheet, people will use the spreadsheet. Pick this and close the other one.
Assign at the meeting
Create the task while everyone is still in the room, with a name and a date attached. Tasks written up afterwards get written up vaguely.
Review Overdue weekly
A standing five-minute look at the Overdue tab, as a team. It is the cheapest accountability mechanism you have.
Common questions#
In Review means the owner considers it done and someone else needs to check. Completed means that check happened and it was accepted. If nobody reviews, tasks pile up in In Review - that queue is usually yours.
Find out what is blocking it, which is usually a decision or another person. Blocked is not a parking space - a task that has been blocked for two weeks needs either unblocking or closing.
Tasks are assigned to people in the portal. For deliverables you want from a startup, a task creates the internal record of what was asked and when; use Data Collection on the program when you need the same thing from a whole cohort.
The summary counters do not always match the list underneath. Trust the list and the filter tabs - All Tasks, My Tasks, Created by Me and Overdue are reliable. This is worth reporting.
Search by title or description, or filter by status and priority. Labels are the better long-term answer if you tag consistently.
No. Anything finished within the hour is faster done than recorded. Tasks earn their place when work spans days, crosses people, or needs to be evidenced later.
