Boost Your Productivity: How to Create a Personal Task Board in Teams

Boosting Personal Productivity with Microsoft Planner

If you’re using Microsoft 365, you already have access to Microsoft Planner—a fantastic tool for task management. Many people know Planner as a team collaboration tool within Microsoft Teams, where tasks can be assigned, tracked, and managed in a shared workspace.

But did you know that Microsoft Planner is just as powerful for managing your personal tasks?

That’s right—you can create your own private task boards in Planner to track and organize your to-dos, action items, and ongoing commitments. This allows you to stay on top of everything in a structured, visual way.

What Is a Task Board?

If you’re already familiar with task boards, you know how useful they can be. But here’s a quick refresher:

A task board is a visual tool that helps you organize and track work by breaking it down into tasks. It typically consists of columns that represent different stages of progress, such as:

• 📌 To Do – Tasks that need to be started
• 🚀 In Progress – Tasks currently being worked on
• ✅ Completed – Finished tasks

Tasks are represented as cards that you can move between columns as work progresses. This structure makes it easy to see what needs to be done, what’s in progress, and what’s already completed at a glance.

By setting up your own personal Planner board, you can streamline your workflow and keep everything in one place—whether it’s work tasks, personal projects, or everyday responsibilities.

How to Set Up a Personal Task Board in Microsoft Planner

Step 1: Add Planner to Your App Rail

To make Planner easily accessible, you’ll want to pin it to your App Rail in Microsoft 365:

1. Click on "View more apps" in the App Rail.
2. Search for Microsoft Planner and select it.
3. Once added, right-click on the Planner icon and select "Pin" to keep it in your App Rail permanently.

📌 Tip: Pinning Planner makes it quick and easy to access your tasks without searching for it each time.

Step 2: Create a New Personal Plan

Now, let’s set up your task board:

1. In Planner, click on the "+ New Plan" button at the bottom of the screen.
2. You’ll see two options: Start from a template or Start from scratch. Choose "+ Basic" to start fresh.
3. Give your plan a name and check "Add to my pinned plans" for quick access.
4. Important: Leave "Add to a group (optional)" blank. This ensures that your board remains private, meaning only you can add, view, and update tasks.

Once your board is set up, you can start adding tasks, creating categories, and moving items between columns as you complete them.

With Microsoft Planner, you can bring structure to your personal tasks, stay organized, and manage your workload more effectively. Whether it’s tracking work assignments, personal projects, or daily to-dos, having a dedicated Planner board makes all the difference.

Oh, and did you know you can automatically move emails to Planner? 📩 If you’d like to learn how, just hit reply and let me know!

Stay tuned for more Microsoft 365 tips in the next edition! 🚀

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