Understanding Tasks

Tasks can assist you in identifying, organizing, planning, and prioritizing your day-to-day activities. Outlook provides you with the ability to manage your own tasks as well as track the tasks you need to assign to other people. There've been very few changes in tasks in Outlook 2003, but if you have never used tasks before, you might be surprised how they can help you.

Tasks are different from appointments. Going to the doctor is an appointment. You schedule the visit for a specific date and time and showing up at a different time isn't usually acceptable. Renewing a library book is not an appointment. You don't call the library staff and tell them you'll be there at 2:30 p.m. on Friday to renew your book. You simply know that you need to renew the book by Saturday morning or you'll incur a fine. You can accomplish this task at any time within the library's normal business hours. Hiring a new employee is also a task. This task, however, includes many related tasks. You need to write a job description, post an advertisement, schedule interviews, conduct interviews, check references, and finally, extend an offer. All of these items make excellent Outlook tasks.

Tasks can be as simple as a one-time occurrence (such as renewing that library book) or as complicated as designing a corporate network infrastructure a task with numerous components.

There are three main locations where you view and manipulate tasks: Outlook Today, the Tasks folder, and the TaskPad in specific Calendar views.