Tasks and activities

Tasks and activities at a glance

A task is a piece of follow-up work with an owner, dates, a status, and an importance value. An activity is a Visit, Meeting, Call, or Mail record used to keep follow-up work visible. .

Use the lists after the main work that creates the follow-up: use Tasks for work that needs an owner and a due date, and use Activities for contact or communication work that needs to remain visible. .

Before opening a list, check the conditions in Before you start.

Before you start

Prerequisites

List filters and actions in a row menu appear only when the applicable list, layout, branch, and ownership conditions are met. Activity deletion also requires a non-Mail activity. .

With those conditions in place, continue to Find the task or activity list.

Find the task or activity list

Tasks and Activities are lists of follow-up records. Open the list that matches the work you need to review. .

Open and filter a list

Open the appropriate list to locate existing follow-up work.

Prerequisites

• Know whether you are looking for a task or an activity.

Steps

1. Open the Tasks list when you need task follow-up work.

2. Select one task-list option from the table.

   If you need to…	Select
   Review every task in the list	All
   Review tasks assigned to you	My Tasks
   Review completed task work	View completed tasks

3. Open the Activities list when you need activity follow-up work.

4. Select one activity-list option from the table.

   If you need to…	Select
   Review every activity type	All
   Review visits	Visits
   Review email activities	Email
   Review meetings	Meetings
   Review calls	Call
   Include archived activities	Show archived activities

Result: The selected list displays the follow-up records for the option you chose.

Read the headers and row values next in Understand the lists.

Understand the lists

The Tasks list shows task work in rows. The Activities list groups activity work by type and status. The headers tell you which part of a follow-up record each value represents. .

Tasks list

The Tasks list currently shows these headers:

The list also shows the buttons Refresh, Table Layout, and Settings. .

The completed-task view can contain rows with Completed status. .

Activities list

Activity status values are Planned, Overdue, Done, Due, and Cancelled. Use the status value in a row to understand whether the activity is upcoming, due, late, finished, or cancelled. .

Activity types include All, Visits, Email, Meetings, and Call. .

The list layout can determine which activity columns appear. Work from the headers visible in your list rather than expecting a fixed set of activity columns. .

The list screens do not present a form for entering task or activity details. Use Create a task or Create an activity when you need to enter a new record. .

Work with tasks

For task work, choose a filter before opening an action in a task row. .

Filter tasks and review completed work

Prerequisites

• Open the Tasks list.
• Open a task list with its columns visible.

Steps

1. Select one task filter.

   If you need to…	Select
   Review all task rows available to the list	All
   Review task rows assigned to you	My Tasks
   Review completed task work	View completed tasks

2. Read Status and Importance in the row before choosing an action.

   

Result: The Tasks list shows the task set selected by the filter, with Status and Importance available in the row.

When you are ready to act, continue with Use an action in a task row.

Use an action in a task row

Prerequisites

• Open the action menu in a task row.
• Belong to the same branch as the task when the action requires it.
• Be the task owner when the action requires ownership.

Steps

1. Select one action in the task row menu.

   If the task is…	Select
   Not complete	Complete
   Complete	Un complete
   Owned by you and in your branch	Delete
   Ready for list export and the action is displayed	Export

Result: The selected task-list action is applied when its row and workspace conditions allow it. .

For contact follow-up, continue with Work with activities.

Work with activities

For activity work, filter by type before reviewing status or taking an action in a row. .

Filter activities and include archived work

Prerequisites

• Open the Activities list.

Steps

1. Select one activity type from the table.

   If you need to…	Select
   Review every activity type	All
   Review visits	Visits
   Review email activities	Email
   Review meetings	Meetings
   Review calls	Call

2. Select Show archived activities when archived activity records belong in the list.

3. Read the activity's Status value after the list refreshes.

Result: The Activities list shows the chosen activity type and includes archived records when Show archived activities is selected. .

To remove an eligible activity, continue with Delete an activity.

Delete an activity

Prerequisites

• Open the action menu in an activity row.
• Belong to the same branch as the activity.
• Own the activity.
• Confirm that the activity is not a Mail activity.

Steps

1. Select Delete for an activity in your branch that you own and that is not a Mail activity.

Result: The activity deletion action starts when the row satisfies the branch, type, and ownership conditions. .

If the action is unavailable, use When list work goes wrong.

When list work goes wrong

Use the message text below to identify the condition that stopped an action. The task list can also fail silently when its action path does not provide a success or error message. .

The following messages belong to the linked creation and mail procedures:

What to do next

When you need a new follow-up record, use Create a task or Create an activity. When you need to interpret an activity's lifecycle value, use Activity status. .

For the wider work area, continue to My Desk tasks or My Desk activities. .