Make your tasks repeat
- [Scott] Whether you're brand new to Google Tasks or you've been crossing things off for years, I can guarantee in this video, I'm going to show you something new because we're looking at seven must know tips and tricks that every Google Tasks user needs to know.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. Number one on our list has to do with using recurring tasks, probably one of the most powerful yet simple features of any task manager.
You probably have a number of tasks that you need to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, or some other interval. And rather than clicking on that task
and updating the due date manually, it is so much easier if we make it a repeating or recurring task. So here I have something called "Send out a weekly newsletter", and if I come over here and select Repeat, I can choose how often I want to repeat this task.
Well, it is a weekly newsletter, so yes, I'm going to send it out once a week and maybe Tuesday is the day that I've set aside for it. I can change that here within my screen,
and if I want, I can give it a specific time. Now this can be very valuable because if I leave this alone, it will appear up here within my Google Calendar as an all day task,
but if I choose a specific time, it will place it here within the calendar itself. In this case, I'm going to say it ends never and I'm going to select OK.
And so, now, every Tuesday, and I can see if I go ahead here on my Google Calendar, it is always going to show up. Now, one important note, when it comes to repeating tasks within Google Tasks, is that we can always come here and change the repeating interval if we need to.
If I select on this, I can come in here and change whatever I like.
However, if I want to stop repeating this task, I will not be able to add a repeat in the future. You can see here, if I click this X, it's actually going to give me a warning, do I want to remove all future occurrences?
Yes, but I won't be able to make this task repeating again. So if I hit stop repeating, it will cross it out but I don't have the option to add it again.
Add sub-tasks to your tasks
Tip number two is all about creating subtasks for existing tasks. So here, for example, you can see I have a task called "Write copy for my website homepage," and down below, I have two indented tasks.
These are subtasks which are related to this task above. And even if we change our view, in this case, I'm viewing all of my tasks in my preferred order. But if I come up here to the list options and select by date, it will mix it in depending on the due date of that task, but you can see if I come over and hover over the check mark, it will show me what other tasks will be completed at the same time.
So I can easily see what will be changed if I choose to select this one. So how can you add your own subtasks? Well, this task called "Review Q4 marketing report", I'm going to select it, and then here on the More Options, I'm going to select Add a Subtask. And here I can say this is going to be Task 1, if I hit Enter on my keyboard,
I can continue to add as many subtasks as I like, so I've added three subtasks in this case and some may have due dates, some may not, that's completely up to you.
Now in this view, by due date, you can see that the tasks are nested nice and cleanly,
they are indented below the master task. However, if you change your view to the date view, that will not necessarily be the case, here you can see we have Task 1 and Task 2 under the no date section, Task 3 is under Wednesday, June 28th, and then the master task itself is down here at July 12th. Now, once again, we could hover over
to see which tasks are related to this task. So as I hover over the master task, it's going to show me what else is related, but make note of the different ways in which subtasks are displayed, depending on which sort order you choose.
Using multiple task lists
Now speaking of grouping our tasks together, tip number three is all about using and adding new lists. Far too often, I see people use just the first My Tasks or default list
for all of the work that they want to accomplish. But remember, you have the option
to add as many additional lists as you like. In this case, maybe I want to create a list called Work so I can separate things from my personal life and my professional life.
So here, within this list, I can keep things separate and add things related to my work.
Moving tasks between lists
But that also leads us to tip number four, where we can move tasks in between our lists. So for example, here I am within my task list and I notice that this Email Tom
is actually a work-related activity. All I need to do is select the task options, and then I can choose down below which of my three lists I would like to put it in. I'm going to select Work, and now it will move over to my Work task.
And you can change things and move things back and forth as often as you like. This can also be a great way if you want to move things through different phases or stages.
Any of you who may be familiar with the Kanban method of working could set up multiple lists as you move things through different stages or different phases.
Converting email to a task
Now, of course, we can access Google Tasks from a variety of different Google products, including Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Gmail. And this last one makes it very easy for us to follow up on particular messages. Not only can we access our task list here on the right hand side, but if I open up this email
and determine that I need to follow up on this, rather than adding a note manually,
I can add a connection to this note in just a single click. Here at the top of the message, you will notice this Google Tasks icon, and if I hover over it, it tells me it will immediately add it to My Tasks.
So here on the right hand side, it will use the email subject line as the name of the task. Now, I don't need to keep it at that, maybe I want to rename this "Review RoboForm email", something along those lines.
And of course, I can add further details and add a due date. But what's most important is that you can see it has added a direct link down below. So whenever I need to go back to this email, I can do so in one click.
Let me go back to my inbox, and let's say I notice that I need to review this email. All I need to do is click on this special link and it will bring me back directly to this email. And I don't have to be within Gmail in order to do this.
Wherever I have access to Google Tasks, I can immediately open up that email in a single click.
Link tasks to Google Drive
Next, let's take a look at a special feature within Google Drive, which brings our task list together but also makes it that much easier for us to collaborate with others.
Here I am within a Google document and I have started to write out a few ideas here
but maybe I want to remind myself of what else I need to do with this document. I could start adding those tasks here within my task list but it might be more helpful
to add the list itself right here. So here within my document, I'm going to leave my cursor here at the bottom, and I'm going to come up here and add a checklist.
So here you might think that this is just a standard checklist, I'm going to say "Review the intro" for example, and maybe I'm going to add another task such as "Send to Karen for review".
But you'll note that there is a Google Tasks icon here to the left of each checkbox. If I select that here, I can assign it to someone else within my organization or I can select myself, and I can add a date at the same time if I want to, and select assign the task.
Now on the right hand side of the screen, within my standard tasks view, you can see that that task has been added to my task list. And down below, it has given me a direct link to that document as well.
Let's go ahead and assign the second task to myself as well, and I'm going to say assign. In just a second,it also will be added here to my task list. Now the great thing is, is that I can either check these off or access the document directly from my task list but either way, it will remain perfectly synced.
For example, if I've already reviewed the intro, I can check off this task here and you will notice that it has been completed here and removed from my task list.
Keep in mind you are not limited to just assigning tasks to yourself, and anyone else within your Google Workspace, you can assign them tasks directly from within Docs, Sheets, and Google Slides.
And if you want to separate out between your task list and what is only kept within the document, all you need to do is come up to Tools, and then select Tasks. This will give you a different viewshowing you only the completed or remaining tasks
Mobile widgets
for this specific document. Last but not least, let's end with a mobile tip for Tasks. Here within your mobile device, we have an option to add widgets for our tasks.
So if I click and hold on the Tasks icon, I can come up and select widgets. And Tasks gives us two very helpful options. Let's start with the one below called New Task.
Again, if we click and hold, we can put it anywhere on our home screen, and now we are just one click away from adding a new task. So when I have that new idea, I can select it and immediately start to enter in that new task.
But the second widget may be even more valuable to us and make sure that we don't let anything slip through the cracks. Here, if I select this three by three list, again, I can put it anywhere within my home screen
and we can change the size at any time. So if I want to drag these out to the right
so I can see a little more, I can do so. Now I can scroll and see all of my tasks, I can easily go through the different lists and I'm still just one click away from adding a new task from my home screen.
Checking things off and managing all of my tasks couldn't be easier with the Google Tasks widget.
Now, I would love to hear from you next, what questions do you have about Google Tasks or what are some of your favorite features? Be sure to let me know in the comments down below. And if you enjoyed this Simpletivity video, you're going to love this video next.
Thank you so much for watching, and remember, being productive doesn't need to be difficult,
in fact, it's very simple.
