Creating and Editing Tasks
There are four ways you can create tasks in Toggl Plan.
- • In timeline view, click on the highlighted timeline area or click + drag if you want to add a multi-day task.
- • In board view, click on the '+' sign next to the status name to add a task at the top of the list or '+Add Task' at the bottom of the column to add a task to the end.
- • Click on the '+Add Task' button at the top-right corner of the screen.
- • Use the shortcut 'N' to create a new task.
Task Card
Task card is where you can collect and present all the relevant information about the task at hand. This way you make sure everyone on your team has a clear overview of all the information.
Task Properties and Sections
Task properties define the key details of the task. In addition to a task's name and color, there are four key properties that are always visible on the task card - status, dates, assignee and project. These properties impact where in Team and Project views your task shows.
Task sections enable you to add additional information to a task as notes, checklists, comments or attachments. By default, all tasks have a description and comments section.
- • You can add properties and sections from the menu which you can open/close from the top-right corner of the task.
- • You can also customize which properties and sections you want to appear on the task card by default under your profile settings.
Overview of task properties:
- Task color - color coding is essential for getting a clear overview of every planned task on your timeline. You can use colors to color coordinate projects, clients, priorities etc.
- Name - alongside with color, task name is the most visible part of any task. Choose a name that will be clear to everyone involved with the task.
- Status - this indicates the progress of your task: is it being worked on or is it already done? Tasks that have been marked as done appear faded on the timeline though you can turn this off in your settings.
- From - To - set the dates to indicate when the task should be worked on and see it mapped out on timelines. You can also make the task repeat at daily, weekly, monthly or yearly intervals.
- Assignee - assign the task to yourself or a colleague to get an overview of who is doing what on Team Timelines. If you already invited users to your Toggl Plan workspace, you can simply choose the appropriate assignee from the dropdown list. However, should you not find the person from that list, you can add them to your workspace here directly. You can also assign the task to multiple users if you want to.
- Project - Projects can be used to group and view separately tasks from a single project, client, initiative or anything else really. Each project comes with a colour attached to it, which also helps with fast colour coding to further improve the visual overview.
- Project Segments - Segments can be used to break down your Projects into stages, departmental work etc. It'll organize your tasks on Project timelines to different swimlanes.
- Project Tags - Tags are another way to add extra information to tasks within a Project. Tags will appear inside task cards on Project views and you can also filter the views by tags. Tags could be used to mark the department responsible, task priority etc.
- Time Estimate - Estimate how much time the task will take each day or in total.
- Start / End Time - Start and end times are meant for tasks that need to get done during certain parts of the day.
Overview of task sections:
- • Description - record all relevant information needed to complete the task. For the purpose of providing an overview, you can also format your notes by adding headlines, bulleted or numbered lists, links and even snippets of code or quotes.
- • Comments - add comments and use @ to mention another user and notify them via email (assuming they have their notifications on) or with in-app notifications. Once comments have been added to a task, a yellow comments counter will appear next to the section header. The easiest way to navigate to the latest comments is by clicking that counter.
- • Checklists - break the task down into smaller chunks. Creating checklists also creates a small progress bar under the tasks in timeline view – and checking off each item will move the bar further along so you can easily track your progress.
- • Attachments - upload files to keep all relevant information and deliverables in one place. The limit for the file size is 10MB for free and 100MB for paid users. You don't need to actually add the attachments section to the task card, you can also just drag and drop a file over the task and the section will be added automatically.
Other tips
- • The upper left corner of the task popup will let you know who created the task and when was it last edited.
- • In the upper right corner you can either follow or unfollow the task from the small bell icon. Following a task means you'll be notified when there are any changes made to the tasks so you'll always stay in the loop.
- • The arrows in the upper right hand side enable you to expand the task popup into a full page view.
• To quickly close the task popup, click on an empty space outside of it, click on "X" in the upper right corner or hit Esc.
All changes you made are saved automatically, so everything will be there whenever you open the task card again.
- • When you have a task card open, you can scroll the timeline/board view in the background and switch tasks in one click. To quickly create a new task:
- use the '+Add Task' button.
- hold Option and click on the timeline to create a one-day task.
- click and drag on the timeline to create a multi-day task.