How do we work with tasks in Microsoft Outlook?

Most of you already know how important it is to manage your time and tasks efficiently. Microsoft Outlook enables you to use Tasks as your on-line 'To-do-list'. Outlook 2007 has an option of viewing all your tasks categorized in different folders. This is to help you organize them and display only certain types of tasks at once. For example, you may want to see a list consisting of high priority or overdue tasks only.

To change a task view (Fig.1.), go to top menu and choose View > Current View, and then choose the one you prefer. Another way to do this is just to click on the Tasks section in the bottom area of Navigation Pane on your left-hand side.

 

Fig.1. Tasks Current View

The list of possible views is as follows:

- Simple List: you see names of your tasks and due dates (if assigned) and which ones are marked as completed;

- Detailed List: apart from the above-mentioned information, you can also see a progress status of each task (% completed) and to which category it is assigned to;

- Active Tasks: the list shows you only tasks remaining to be done;

- Next Seven Days: the list presents uncompleted tasks scheduled to be done within the next seven days; it's good for people, who want to stay focused on the most urgent deadlines;

- Overdue Tasks: it's a view of tasks that already should be done, but for some reason they haven't been completed in due time;

- By Category: Outlook enables you to assign a category to each task, e.g. you may want to have a 'Personal Issues' category and separately tasks related to your work or studies; this list is great if you want to quickly see your tasks from a particular category;

- Assignment: the list includes a name of a person to whom a given task was delegated;

- By Person Responsible: it looks like the Assignment view, but you see only one person at a time as the list is grouped;

- Completed Tasks: a list of tasks marked as completed (everyone's favorite one!);

- Task Timeline: your tasks are illustrated on the time axis, so it's easier to get an idea of how to fit work into your schedule reasonably (Fig.2.);

Fig.2. Task Timeline view

- Server Tasks: list shows to whom the task is assigned as well as the custom status and custom priority of this task;

- Outlook Data Files: you can see in the list, e.g., if the task belongs to your Personal Folders;

- To-Do List: this view includes all the tasks, as well as any flagged e-mails that show up in the To-Do Bar.

As we can see, there are many options to enhance management of your daily tasks. The thing complicates if we are managing a company or even just a small group of people and want to control their tasks, see their progress status, add comments etc. In this case, the default Microsoft Outlook options are not enough. CodeTwo Public Folders is a third-party solution that may turn your Outlook into a real workgroup tool. This application is designed for business environment where managers want to have a quick access to employees' tasks, supervise them, see their progress and update them with comments on regular basis. All the tasks can be easily shared with other co-workers, so communicating within departments is also more efficient.

Read more about CodeTwo Public Folders and see how to share tasks, calendars and even documents with others without using Google docs or Exchange Server.