Work Together More Efficiently with Microsoft Planner
Since the digital age emerged and handheld devices become more and more advanced with its features, the need for a pen and paper have declined. I remember when I was in college, I used to carry around a leather-bound planner where I jot down the exams and project deadlines for my courses. Nowadays, I only have to have my smartphone where I enter my tasks and set reminders for them.
Planners are even more important for people like me who are now in the “real world” since deadlines are now much more important to meet. And if you belong to a team, having a common planner where you can all share and collaborate with tasks, and track your progress is going to help a lot in making sure your team is working efficiently and that we are on top of everything.
Microsoft Planner is an app that will help your team be more organized and work more efficiently. There is no more need to download and install any software to use Microsoft Planner since it can be accessed through your chosen web browser. You can sign in using your Office 365 work or school account to access Planner.
The first thing that you need to do upon logging in to the Planner is to, of course, create a plan. This is where it all starts. Type in the name of your plan, for example ‘Go Live With Website.’ You have the option to provide an e-mail address for your plan, or Planner will also create one for you. The Plan e-mail is an awesome feature since you and your teammates can discuss your plan using this dedicated e-mail address. After creating the Plan, a new Office 365 group will also be set up for you and your team so you can collaborate outside of Planner using other Office 365 apps such as SharePoint and Outlook.
Adding members to your plan is also easy: just type in either their name or e-mail address, and if they are members of your organization, the person’s card will appear. For now, you can only add people who are in your organization, but the people behind Planner are currently working on making it possible to include members outside of the organization.
Once the plan is created, you can also start adding tasks and have the option to group them into buckets. In the tasks, you can add as many details as you want, and even attach files. You can also assign the tasks to specific members for easier tracking of progress.
Reading about this is probably boring, so make sure to experience it yourself especially if you have an Office 365 subscriber, just go to tasks.office.com. Feel free to share with us your Microsoft Planner experience.
Send us your questions on Office 365