Tasks & Issues

Manage the entire team's projects and issues from task creation to completion.

A no-frills task board where each team member can easily create new tasks, see which tasks they're assigned to, and monitor how things are progressing.

And best of all - there's no need to duct tape different tools together in case you want to add subtasks or more detailed notes on to any of the tasks.

Give our task board template a try when creating a new page or keep scrolling to learn how to make one from scratch!

Step 1: Create a database to get started

Let's get started by adding a database by clicking the [+] button on a new line in the editor and selecting 'Board.'

Step 2: Tailor the board to reflect the task completion process

Let's highlight the different statuses that each of the tasks will flow through.

Just click the status and rename it - it's as easy as that. For some styling, you can also change the color of the milestones as well.

If you want to have an inbox of sorts for new tasks, you can keep the 'No Status' column. Otherwise, you can hide it by clicking on the '...' button.

Step 3: Add in the team's tasks

Now let's see the project and issue tracker start to take shape by adding in tasks underneath each of the statuses.

When a task moves from one status to another, just drag-and-drop its card to the appropriate status.

Step 4: Introduce task assignment, due dates, and others

Next up - let's add in important details for each task that we want to track.

We'll make it happen with the help of properties, which are pretty much like the different tools you can add to individual cards in Trello.

Open up any of the tasks by clicking on its card, and click '+ Add a Property.'

Give these essential properties a go:

Multi-Select: highlight key tags related to a task (e.g. bug, iOS, performance)

Date: define a due date

Once you've added in a few properties, go ahead and fill out the details for each of the tasks (e.g. assignee, tags, due date).

Step 5: Add a new view to filter out your tasks

We'll add in a few board views - but let's start with the one that'll break down your own individual tasks by status type.

Click '+ Add a View,' name the board 'Board - Assigned to Me,' and click 'Create.'

Click 'Group By' and choose the name you gave for the 'Select' property. For this guide, we've named our 'Select' property 'Status.'

Re-order the statuses of the tasks to fit the appropriate order (e.g. backlog, next up, in progress, completed) - you can make that happen with a drag-and-drop.

Add a filter by clicking 'Filter.' Select the person property from the first dropdown and adjust the logic by indicating that the person property only 'contains' tasks assigned to 'Me.' It's important that you select 'Me' here instead of your name so that each of your team members can benefit from this filtered view!

Clean up which properties are visible on the cards by clicking 'Properties' and toggling which properties you'd like to have visible.

Step 6: Add subtasks and notes on each of your tasks

Each task has its own unique page that can house anything you want related to that particular task - subtasks, notes, you name it.

Just click on a task's card to open one up.

Here are some popular use cases for these task related pages:

To-do lists to keep track of sub-tasks related to the primary task

Prototype embeds or images of latest designs that give the feature a bit more color

Bullet list of ideas and general notes

Links to any other important resources that'll help you complete the task

Click the [+] button on a new line in the editor to pull up a list of all the possibilities.

Step 7: Discuss tasks and collaborate with others

Have discussions around tasks right in the context of a task's specific page. Your team can make comments inline or create a longer form discussion thread on the page.

For moments you need quick feedback, @ mention one of your colleagues to trigger a push or in-app notification on their end.

If a team member isn't in your space yet, share the page with them via the 'Share' dropdown in the top-right to get started!

Step 8: Keep track of changes with page updates

Click 'Updates' in the top-right of the task board page or any of the individual tasks to see a feed of all the latest changes.

If you'd like to receive notifications of changes, you can toggle on that you'd like to follow updates on the page.

Once you're subscribed, 'All Updates' in the left-sidebar will be bolded whenever a change has been made to one of the pages you follow. The 'Followed' tab will contain all the latest changes on pages you follow.

Step 9: Add additional views to better manage tasks

There are a ton of other views you can layer on top of your task database.

Let's set up another board view to highlight what everyone is working on this week.

Click '+ Add a View,' name the board 'This Week,' and hit 'Create.'

Click 'Group By' and select the property you've created that indicates who the task was assigned to. We've named it 'Assign' in this particular guide.

Add in a filter for the 'Select' property we've named 'Status' and manipulate the logic so that the 'Status' is 'Next Up,' 'In Progress,' or 'Completed.'

Now that we've added a few different views, here are a couple of other popular ones you can consider adding down the line:

Bugs table that shows all the bugs that the team is aware of

In-progress board that shows all the tasks that are being worked on at the moment

Since databases can come in two visual flavors, try adding in table views as well.

Step 10: Reference your roadmap in your task table

Let's say you have a database for your roadmap as well - it'd be great to reference that in your tasks table. In other words - to be able to link up tasks associated with different items on the roadmap (and vice versa).

Add a 'Relation' property in your task table and you'll then be able to reference the different items that make up your roadmap for each specific task.

Once you've started linking tasks to items in the roadmap, you'll see that relation automatically reflected in the roadmap database as well.

In this particular example, you'll see that the 'Blue button hover color' and 'Desktop push notifications' tasks in the Tasks & Issues database relate to 'Analytics 1.0' in the Roadmap database.

Rinse and repeat and you'll see which tasks are associated with the different elements that make up your roadmap in both databases.

Something we didn't cover? Message us in the app by clicking ? at the bottom right on desktop (or in your sidebar on mobile). Or email us at team@makenotion.com ✌️