Simplifying individual task management in Microsoft Planner

Summary

Anmol Varma introduces the Planner tool, emphasizing its dual functionality for team and individual task management. The 'My Tasks' feature offers four views: 'All', 'Private Tasks', 'Assigned to me', and 'Flagged Emails'. 'Private Tasks' allows quick task entry, while 'Assigned to me' consolidates tasks from various sources within Microsoft 365 Plan, ensuring no important task is overlooked. 'Flagged Emails' integrates with Outlook for direct email access from tasks. 'All' provides a comprehensive view of tasks, and 'My Day' offers a clutter-free space for daily focus. Planner empowers users to manage tasks efficiently and redefine productivity.

Takeaways

• 📝 Anmol Varma introduces himself as a product manager on the Planner team and is excited to showcase Planner’s capabilities for task management.
• 🌟 Planner is designed for both team tasks and individual productivity needs, offering a personal space for task management.
• 🔍 Planner provides a 'My Tasks' view with four distinct views: All, Private Tasks, Assigned to me, and Flagged Emails, each serving a unique purpose.
• 📝 Private Tasks is a space for quickly jotting down tasks before organizing them further.
• 🔄 The 'Move' functionality allows tasks to be easily transferred to different plans, such as a 'product launch event plan'.
• 💼 Personal plans can be created and shared with team members, and tasks within them can be organized in a Board view.
• 🔑 The 'Assigned to me' section consolidates tasks from various sources within Microsoft 365, ensuring no important tasks are missed.
• 🔄 Tasks in the 'Assigned to me' view are always in sync across different endpoints, allowing for efficient task management.
• 📧 Flagged Emails from Outlook are integrated into Planner, allowing users to navigate to the email directly from the task.
• 📊 The 'All' view aggregates all individual tasks, providing a comprehensive overview that can be filtered and sorted as needed.
• 📅 'My Day' is a clutter-free space that highlights tasks due today and allows users to prioritize tasks for the day.

Q & A

Who is Anmol Varma and what role does he play in the video?

Anmol Varma is a product manager on the Planner team. He introduces and demonstrates how to use Planner for efficient task management.

What is the purpose of Planner as described by Anmol?

Planner is designed not only for team tasks but also for individual productivity needs, providing a personal space for task management.

What are the four distinct views in Planner's My Tasks feature?

The four views are All, Private Tasks, Assigned to me, and Flagged Emails, each serving a unique purpose in task management.

What is the purpose of the Private Tasks view in Planner?

Private Tasks is a space for quickly jotting down tasks at the speed of thought before organizing them further.

How can tasks be moved from Private Tasks to a specific plan in Planner?

Tasks can be moved to any plans using the Move functionality after they have been captured in Private Tasks.

What does the Assigned to me section in Planner consolidate?

The Assigned to me section consolidates tasks assigned to you from different sources within Microsoft 365 Plan, ensuring you don't miss out on important tasks.

How does Planner keep tasks in sync across different views?

Planner ensures that all tasks are always in sync, so acting upon a task in one view will update it in all other places.

What is the Flagged Emails section in Planner and how does it work?

The Flagged Emails section shows all flagged emails from Outlook, and tasks can be navigated to the emails directly by selecting the attachment.

What does the All view in Planner provide and how can it be used?

The All view provides an aggregation of all individual tasks from Private Tasks, Assigned to me view, Flagged Emails, and personal plans. Users can filter and sort these tasks to meet their needs.

What is My Day in Planner and how can it help with daily task management?

My Day is a clutter-free focus space that shows tasks due today and allows users to create tasks that require attention for the day, helping to stay on top of daily responsibilities.

How does Planner empower users to manage their tasks from everywhere?

Planner's individual task management features allow users to take charge of their unique responsibilities and manage tasks from any location, enhancing personal productivity.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Introduction to Planner and Personal Task Management

Anmol Varma, a product manager on the Planner team, introduces Planner as a tool for efficient task management, emphasizing its dual functionality for both team and individual productivity. He highlights the 'My Tasks' feature, which includes four distinct views: All, Private Tasks, Assigned to me, and Flagged Emails. The purpose of Planner is to serve as a personal compass in a collaborative environment, centralizing tasks relevant to the individual.

📋 Exploring Private Tasks and Task Organization

The 'Private Tasks' view is a personal space for quickly jotting down tasks before organizing them further. Anmol demonstrates how to create tasks and transition them to plans using the 'Move' functionality. He shows how tasks can be moved to a 'Personal' plan, which initially are not shared with anyone. Personal plans can later be shared with selected team members, and tasks within them can be organized using a Board view.

🔍 The Centralized Power of 'Assigned to Me' Section

The 'Assigned to me' section consolidates tasks assigned from various sources within Microsoft 365 Plan, including tasks from low component, action items from meeting notes, or tasks from shared and premium plans. Anmol explains the advantage of this feature, which is to alleviate the worry of missing out on important tasks by centralizing everything assigned to the user, making it easy to manage workload and prioritize tasks efficiently.

📧 Flagged Emails Integration with Task Management

Anmol discusses the integration of flagged emails from Outlook into the 'Flagged Emails' section of Planner. This feature allows users to view flagged emails directly from the task and act upon them by opening the email through the task attachment. This integration streamlines the process of managing tasks that originate from emails.

🗂 Overview of the 'All' View and 'My Day' Feature

The 'All' view in Planner aggregates all individual tasks from the different views, allowing users to filter and sort tasks according to their needs. Additionally, 'My Day' is introduced as a clutter-free focus space that displays tasks due for the day or tasks the user deems important for that day. This feature helps users stay on top of their immediate responsibilities and manage their tasks effectively.

Keywords

💡Product Manager

A product manager is a professional responsible for the vision, strategy, planning, and marketing of a product. In the context of the video, Anmol Varma, as a product manager on the Planner team, is in charge of guiding the development and success of the Planner tool. The role is crucial as it ensures that the product meets the needs of its users and aligns with the company's goals.

💡Planner

Planner is a tool designed for task management and collaboration. It is central to the video's theme, showcasing how individuals can use it to manage their tasks efficiently. The script explains that Planner is not only for team tasks but also caters to individual productivity needs, highlighting its dual functionality for both personal and collaborative work.

💡My Task View

My Task View is a feature within Planner that serves as a personal dashboard for task management. It is designed to centralize all tasks relevant to the user. In the video, Anmol demonstrates how this view can be organized into different sections, making it easier for users to manage their individual tasks and stay organized.

💡Private Tasks

Private Tasks is a section within the My Task View where users can quickly jot down tasks as they think of them. It acts as a preliminary space for capturing ideas before they are organized into more detailed plans. The script illustrates this by showing how tasks can be created and then moved to specific plans using the 'Move' functionality.

💡Personal Plan

A personal plan in Planner is a space where users can create and manage tasks that are not initially shared with others. It allows for individual organization and planning before deciding to share with team members. In the script, Anmol moves a task to a personal plan and explains how users can later choose to share these plans with others.

💡Assigned to Me

The 'Assigned to Me' section in Planner consolidates all tasks that have been assigned to the user from various sources within Microsoft 365. This feature is highlighted in the video as a way to centralize and manage workload, ensuring that no important tasks are overlooked. It helps in prioritizing and executing tasks efficiently.

💡Flagged Emails

Flagged Emails is a feature that allows users to see all their important emails that have been flagged in Outlook directly within the Planner tool. This integration helps in keeping track of tasks related to emails and ensures that no action items from correspondence are missed. The script demonstrates how users can navigate to the flagged emails from the task view.

💡All View

The All view in Planner is an aggregated overview of all individual tasks, including those from Private Tasks, Assigned to Me, Flagged Emails, and personal plans. It provides a comprehensive look at all tasks, allowing users to filter and sort them according to their needs. This view is essential for users who need a holistic view of their task landscape.

💡My Day

My Day is a feature within Planner that offers a clutter-free focus space for tasks that need to be addressed on a given day. It automatically displays tasks that are due for that day and allows users to add tasks that they consider important for the day. This feature is designed to help users stay focused and prioritize their daily work effectively.

💡Efficiency

Efficiency in the context of the video refers to the ability to manage and complete tasks in the most effective and least time-consuming way. The theme of the video revolves around how Planner's features can empower users to take charge of their responsibilities and improve their efficiency in task management. Anmol encourages viewers to 'dive in and redefine efficiency with Planner,' emphasizing the tool's potential to transform how individuals approach their work.

Highlights

Anmol Varma introduces himself as a product manager on the Planner team.

Planner is designed for both team tasks and individual productivity needs.

My task view centralizes all tasks relevant to the user.

My task is organized into four distinct views: All, Private Tasks, Assigned to me, and Flagged Emails.

Private Tasks is a space for quickly jotting down tasks.

Tasks can be moved to any plans using the Move functionality.

Personal plans can be created and shared with selected team members.

Tasks can be organized in a Board view on personal plans.

Assigned to me section consolidates tasks from various sources within Microsoft 365 Plan.

Centralized tasks in Assigned to me help alleviate worries about missing important tasks.

Tasks assigned to the user are always in sync across different endpoints.

Flagged Emails from Outlook appear in the Flagged Emails section and can be acted upon directly.

The All view aggregates tasks from all individual task sections.

Tasks can be filtered and sorted in the All view to meet the user's needs.

My Day is a focus space for tasks that are due today or need attention.

Planner's features empower users to manage their unique responsibilities efficiently.

Transcripts

- [Anmol] Hi, my name is Anmol Varma,

and I'm a product manager on the Planner team.

Today, I'm super excited to show you how you can use Planner

to manage your tasks efficiently.

In the collaborative world of projects and teams,

sometimes what you truly need is a personal compass,

a space just for you,

and the Planner,

uniquely designed not just for the team tasks,

but also for your individual productivity needs.

In managing individual tasks,

Planner offers a purpose-built my task view,

designed to centralize all the tasks that are relevant.

My task is organized into four distinct views,

each serving a unique purpose.

These views are All, Private Tasks,

Assigned to me and Flagged Emails.

Let's now look at all the four views.

We'll start with Private Tasks.

Private Tasks is a place for you

to quickly short down tasks at the speed of thought.

This is the first stop to add tasks

before organizing them further.

Let's create a couple of tasks.

Once you have the task captured,

you can easily transition them to any plans

using the Move functionality.

Let's move the task for our demo, product launch event plan.

Let's now check where this task moved.

We'll select My Plans, and then select Personal.

And here is the plan we moved the task.

You can see the task that we just moved to the plan.

The task and personal plans aren't shared with anybody yet.

You can create a bunch of such tasks in a personal plan,

and then share the plan with the members that you wish to.

You can also organize the task

in a Board view on such plans.

Let's now focus on the powerhouse of My Tasks,

which is the Assigned to me section.

This is where task assigned to you from different sources

within Microsoft 365 Plan.

Whether it's our task from low component,

an action item from meeting notes,

or task from personal plans, shared plans or premium plans,

Assigned to me consolidates them all.

The beauty of Assigned to me is that it alleviates

the worry of missing out on important tasks.

With everything assigned to you centralized,

it's easy to stay on top of your workload,

prioritize and execute tasks diligently.

Let's see it in action now.

Here, I'm in the team chat,

and I can see the tasks that are assigned to me.

Next, let's go to the Loop company

and check the tasks that are assigned to me

in the Task Loop component in Loop.

Similarly, I can go to my plans

and see the tasks that are assigned to me,

but with Assigned to me work,

we don't need to hop from one view to another.

As I mentioned, Assigned to me view

consolidates all your tasks so you can notice

few tasks that we just observed appear here.

Again, one of the most important factors

is all these tasks are always in sync,

so you can act upon the task in one of the endpoints

and it will get updated in all the other places.

Let's now check Flagged Emails.

All your flagged emails from Outlook

appear in the Flagged Emails section.

You can also navigate to the emails directly from the task

by selecting the attachment.

It'll open the email and you can act upon it.

Finally, the All view provides an aggregation

of all your individual tasks, from Private Tasks,

Assigned to me view, Flagged Emails,

and even the tasks from the personal plan.

You can filter these tasks and sort to meet your needs.

My Day.

My Day is a clutter-free focus space

that tells you stay on top of task

that you want to work on today.

Tasks that are due today will automatically show

in your My Day.

You can also create tasks that you feel are important

and may need your attention today.

So Planner's individual task management features

can empower you to take charge

of your unique responsibilities

and manage your tasks from everywhere.

Dive in and redefine efficiency with Planner.