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Microsoft To Do vs Outlook Tasks
Is Microsoft To Do replacing Outlook Tasks? Or how do they work together? Is Outlook Tasks being retired? I'm a Technology Adoption Analyst who co-leads our Champions program and we want to make sure we're recommending the right tools for task management 🙂
WillDeHaan hey, good questions
Why are there 2 places for To Do tasks?
Outlook tasks have been around for a long time and there would be users who still use it and the features are slightly different.
Is there a best practice or best overall tool to use for this? Is To Do a better tool to push to our end users since it integrates with Planner and Teams and Outlook?
I'd be promoting To Do for individuals.
- It has its own handy features (lists, grouped lists, smart lists, list sharing, tags, recognised dates, My Day etc)
- It's integrated with Microsoft Teams
- It surfaces your Planner items
- It surfaces flagged emails
- It has a dedicated app with mobile widgets
- The "My Day" feature is inferior to Tasks in every single way. Absolutely a regression. One, when I flag emails now, I no longer have the opton to set a custom date. I can only choose from the options given. So if I email someone about a matter, and they say they are going to be away for one month, or can't get back to it for three months, I can't add it to my to-do list for a specific date.
Also, "My Day" is sorted by the date that it was added to the to-do list, not the day you want to deal with it. Plus, you're only seeing the titles of the emails. In the old "To-Do List" I could go through the taks and immediately read the emails. That is how I managed my ENTIRE workflow. It's just worse.
And don't even get me started on the tasks that opens into a webpage. Just, enraging. Hi WillDeHaan - they work together. To Do tasks will show up in Outlook and Outlook tasks will show up in To Do. You can also configure To Do to bring in your flagged emails and Planner tasks. The idea is to bring all of your follow up items into a single place to manage. Using Microsoft To Do with Outlook Tasks - Microsoft Support
How to use To Do in Outlook with Microsoft 365 for your productivity advantage - OnMSFT.com
Hope that helps.
- Thanks for your response! Why are there 2 places for To Do tasks? I'm finding this can be confusing to know which tool to use. Is there a best practice or best overall tool to use for this? Is To Do a better tool to push to our end users since it integrates with Planner and Teams and Outlook? Will To Do eventually catch up with the capabilities Outlook Tasks has?
I'm enjoying the different takes on this. Great conversation starter, WillDeHaan!
