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How to achieve 25% more efficiency with Microsoft Planner

An average employee receives 124 emails per day (that’s about 620 emails per week) but only 40 of those are for business communication that need an urgent response. It means at least 2.5 hours is spent sorting through email – adding up to a 25% loss in productivity.

Now, here comes Microsoft Planner from Microsoft Teams. Working as an add-on or a standalone app, it is a simple yet powerful project management tool that features a Kanban-style, card-based interface.  When used as a centralized hub, it can eliminate company emails by converting them to tasks for you and your team.  Project management and team collaboration have never been this easy! 

Let’s take a closer look at how your organization can benefit from this handy, lightweight Microsoft 365 application. 

What MS Planner Can Do for You

  • Manage your teams  from anywhere on any device including iOS and Android systems 
  • Personalize your projects by campaign type, department, team, priority level, etc. 
  • Customize your user interface experience with the ability to customize your tasks, change your labels, drag and drop updates, add picture view/calendar view, pin  favorites, etc. 
  • Keep track of your tasks and/ or your group progress easily with progress report charts. 
  • Share files with your team for easy collaboration with options for guest access  
  • Add and store in one place your meeting notes, images, links, attached files, comments, flags, etc. 
  • Use with other Microsoft Teams apps and most Microsoft solutions to fully empower you and your teams. 

How to Use MS Planner

  1. Log in to your Microsoft 365 through your device or directly on the browser at office.com.
  2. Open Microsoft Planner through the app launcher   on the top left corner.  
  3. Start planning by clicking on the New Plan button.  
  4. Create a title and choose a privacy setting (public or private).   
  5. Click on Planner Hub to create tasks for your plans. You may opt to assign the task later.  
  6. Click on your tasks to assign team members, select priority level, add project status, attachments and checklists, write comments or label the tasks.  
  7. Create Buckets to organize your tasks.  
  8. The ‘Add Task’ window will remain active on your screen unless you close it. This makes it easy to add various tasks in quick succession. If you click “X” at the top-right corner, it will instantly disappear and automatically saves all changes. 

Buckets: An Organized To-Do List

Buckets allow you to sort tasks in an organized manner. This lets you create cards assigned to specific users that can be grabbed at will by any team member. Customize buckets to suit project or team requirements and arrange them in columns so it is easier to view them and manage tasks all at once.

Labels: Visual Cue for Task Cards

 

This color-coding system is a neat little trick to group each task depending on your preferred category system. There are six colored labels you can use to indicate priority level, project theme, assigned user, deadlines, etc.

A Checklist within a Checklist