If you’re using Microsoft Teams, you can organize your tasks by adding one or more Planner tabs to a team channel. You can then work on your plan from within Teams or in Planner for web, remove or delete your plan, and get notified in Teams when a task is assigned to you in Planner.

Add Microsoft Planner as a Tab on Microsoft Teams Channel

1. In your team channel, select [Add a tab +].

*You are not able to add a planner tab on private channels.

2. In the Add a tab dialog box, choose the [Planner] icon. If you are unable to find the Planner icon, simply insert “Planner” on the search bar.

3. In the Tasks by Planner and To Do dialog box, choose [Create a new plan] to make a new Planner plan and add it as a tab to this channel.

4. Choose whether to post to the channel about the tab, and then select Save.

The tab will be added alongside your other team channel tabs, and you’ll be able to start adding tasks to your board.

Manage Tasks on Microsoft Planner

(1) Create and Manage your Buckets

You can sort your tasks into buckets to help break things up into phases, types of work, departments, or whatever makes the most sense for your plan.

To set up buckets for your plan’s tasks, on the Board, select [Add new bucket], and then enter a name for the bucket.

To Rename your bucket, simply click on the bucket name and rename it.

(2) Add New Tasks

1. Select [+ Add task] below the heading of the bucket to which you want to add a task.

2. Select Enter a task name and enter your task name.

3. You can also set a due date and assign users to co-own the task. After you have assigned users to co-own the task, they will be notified via Microsoft Teams Activities or via email.

4. To further enter details to your task, click on the task to open a new window.

Here you are able to enter further details to your task, such as  progress, priority, start date, and due date.

You may also add notes and descriptions under the [Notes] section to update your teammates with your progress.

5. If you have any subtasks, you may enter them as a checklist item from the [Checklist] section. You may later check the items individually before completing the main task. 

To add a checklist, click [Add an item] under [Checklist], and then start typing your list. Press [Enter] to add another item to the list.

6. You can also upload a file as an attachment to your task card for your teammate’s reference. Select [File] to attach a locally stored file, select [Link] to include a link, or select [SharePoint] to attach a file from a SharePoint site. 

(3) Grouping Options

1. You can set grouping options by clicking the [Group by…] dropdown menu.

Group by Bucket: Group your tasks by phases, types of work, departments, or other buckets that works best for your project.

Group by Assigned to: View all tasks assigned to different team members on your channel

Group by Progress: Manage your tasks based on stages of your progress: Not Started, In-Progress, or Completed.

Group by Due Date: View your task by past or future dates.

Group by Labels: Labels can help you quickly see certain things that several tasks have in common, like requirements, locations, dependencies, or important time constraints. 

2. Group by Progress

Under all pages of grouping options, you are able to drag and drop your task cards to different sections.

For example, after you have started your task, you may move it from [Not Started] to [In-Progress].