You get a copy of the task in your own task list and when the assigned person marks the task as “Complete” on their computer, you will get an email notifying you that the task has been completed and the task will be marked as complete in your Outlook task list. The person will be sent the task via email and can choose to “Accept” or “Decline” the task. You create the task, and if you click “Assign Task” an address field will appear where you can enter the name of a person you want to assign the task. You can assign tasks to other people using Microsoft Outlook. If you need help tracking multiple tasks, or if you are working on a project where it’s beneficial for everyone on the team to see the status of the tasks, you can assign tasks in a system. If it’s not time sensitive you might agree to report task status on your weekly one on one meetings. There are multiple ways in which you can ask for this, you can ask to be sent an email or a text message when it’s done, or ask the person to call you when it’s done or if he or she runs into any problems that might cause a delay. It’s important that you agree on how you should be informed about the status of the task. If that is the case you need to explore other options for getting the task done on time – ask someone else, or see if there is a way you can re-arrange tasks of lower priority. In the example above, Jane might be busy with another task and reply that she will be happy to publish the blog, but that she won’t be able to do it until 3 pm. An example could be: “Jane, would you please publish the blog on Monday before noon, and send me an email when it has been posted?” Respect the responseĪssigning a task by first asking the person if he or she would do it means that you need to listen to the response you are given and respect that response. They recommend that you start with “Would you please”, then state the task, the deadline, and what kind of status reporting you expect (in other words how you would like to be informed about the completion of the task).
#COMPLETE A SELECTED TASK IN OUTLOOK HOW TO#
In Manager Tools, they have a great podcast on how to assign work tasks. Ask the person if he or she can do the taskīefore you assign a task to someone, and before you enter it into any system, make sure that you ask the person if he or she can do the task. In this article, I will share with you an effective way to assign tasks to others by asking politely and I’ll tell you about different ways of how you can track task progress. It’s important that you find a way that works for you and your employees. The culture of assigning tasks to others varies drastically across companies and countries.
As some of you might know, you have the ability to assign tasks to other people in Microsoft Outlook. During these sessions, there are always questions about assigning tasks to others. In my productivity workshops, I often talk about task management and I show the attendees how they can effectively use Microsoft Outlook to keep track of their tasks. Business Productivity > Blog > How to effectively assign tasks? How to effectively assign tasks?