Sharing Outlook with Assistant !

persistence

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Hi...is there a way that my assistant can view certain sections of my outlook 2016 online in order to help me.If so how would this be set up.

Thks
 

John Ismyname

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Hi Persistence; I think you mentioned you use Outlook with Outlook365. I think you can have a shared calendar in this. That is your assistant could use shared calendaring to manage your schedule. Also a shared contacts directory. Your assistant and all reports should use Outlook's task system. The robust functionality of Outlook tasks is great for GTD for yourself and task delegation and monitoring of others.
 

John Ismyname

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Outlook task lists should not be shared. First a quick lesson in the Outlook-Tasks module. You can have multiple task lists. The ToDo list is a unified view of all of them for the individual user only. That is you, persistence, have tasks that you are going to get done yourself and you have tasks that you are going to delegate to your assistant (but are still ultimately responsible for). Outlook lets you differentiate these to two types of tasks and manage through delegation and monitoring.

Try this yourself with your assistant today. In Outlook, create a task by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+K - a new Task window opens. Click the "Assign Task" button, enter the email for your assistant, create the task.Your To-Do list can be grouped by what you are going to do and what your assistant is going to do. A task you delegated to your assistant can, in turn, be delegated to yet another delegatee and Outlook keeps track of it.

P.S., I'm going by memory on this - If I recall, the delegation management feature in Outlook only works on tasks in your default tasks folder. While I have a work-around for this, it's not worth getting into.
 
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persistence

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Hi...when i assign a task to my assistant,and she finishes the task by marking it complete.
We noticed that it removes that task on my computor also.
How can assistant advise me that task is completed but not erase that assigned task on my computor until i decide to remove myself!

Thks
 

kelstarrising

Kelly | GTD expert
Hi...when i assign a task to my assistant,and she finishes the task by marking it complete.
We noticed that it removes that task on my computor also.
How can assistant advise me that task is completed but not erase that assigned task on my computor until i decide to remove myself!

Thks
As far as I know, you can't control this. That's why our Outlook Setup Guides don't recommend using the Assign Tasks feature in Outlook. Instead, we suggest people track these in their own system through their Next Actions and Waiting For lists.
 

ssksogaard

Registered
Hi, questions is why this is a problem?
If you put it on your @Waiting For list and during your Weekly Review that task is no longer there you don't need to reminded its done, you only needs to be reminded as lang as the task isn't done.?

I cases where you assign a limited no. of tasks it might be a "nice-to-have" but try to think when you have assigned +100 task a week then during the weekly review you need to manually mark as complete all the tasks you previously assigned.

If its not on your list you don't need to think about it, get to the next task.. :)
 

John Ismyname

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I never realized that delegated tasks were 'disposable'. My aversion to using delegated tasks is that they only update if they are in your default task directory. Also, if you are delegating a task to someone who doesn't use Ms-Tasks or Outlook, it's not going to work

1. Assign the task ideally via e-mail (tip: In Options>More Options you can assign the email itself an Outlook-Category - I create a project category here. (i.e. PROJ-002 UCU, PROJ-001 FUNERAL) You can also assign a contact. This is useful if your are composing an email ABOUT someone who is not a recipient.))

2. Go to your Outlook email sent box, open this email, click "forward", select the body text (CTRL +A), copy it (CTRL+C).

3. Start a new Outlook-Task (CTRL+ALT+K) and paste (CTRL+P) the above email into the task's body.

4. In the Contacts... field on this Outlook-Task, enter the contact(s) whom you are delegating the task to

5. For the Outlook-Task's finish date, enter the date you are going to follow-up this task with the delegatee. (This could be before your due date for the task.)

6. Click the Outlook-Task's Categorize, and categorize the task under the "@Waiting For" category.

Whew, what a mouthful!

-You can drag-and-drop Outlook-Tasks to move them into a different folder - they all come up on the unified "ToDo" list
-You can create specific views in Outlook so you filter out Outlook-Tasks that have a start date before today (i.e. so your "Waiting For" tasks are invisible to you until this date as part of your GTD "trusted system"
- Also in views, you can sort by the "Contacts.." field so you can see what you have delegated to whom
- #2 and #3 are so useful, that I crated a VBS script to do this. After I send every email, I get a reminder asking me if I want to create an appointment or task from every just-sent email. This not only saves me the key strokes, it forces me to use GTD instead of making a dreaded "mental note" to follow-up the email.
 
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John Ismyname

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As far as I know, you can't control this. That's why our Outlook Setup Guides don't recommend using the Assign Tasks feature in Outlook. Instead, we suggest people track these in their own system through their Next Actions and Waiting For lists.


I will explain below how to control delegated tasks if you are so inclined. That said, KelStarRising's advice is good. Microsoft Outlook (MSO)-Tasks are an ideal a way for one to manage one’s own workflow. If you use Outlook’s “Assign Task” function, things can go bad quickly!


Conceptually, the ‘mechanics’ of a delegated task is twofold;

1. The delegator conveys the task information to the recipient who will be doing the work

2. The delegator is still responsible and therefore must maintain knowledge of the recipient’s progress


For #1 You delegate by giving the recipient a communication – a fax, a text, a phone call, an email, an MSO meeting invitation. For #2, you make yourself an MSO-Task to follow-up on a predetermined date - the MSO-Task’s “Start date” and “Due date”. On the date you want to follow-up this task with the recipient, you have your own MSO-Task in the “@Waiting For” category in MSO-Task’s Categorize. If you delegate by email, paste a copy of the email into the body of this MSO-Task. This is such a simple and effective method that it’s hard to top!


When you are assigned a MS-Outlook task, it behaves just like a task you create and finish. The biggest problem I encountered with being on the receiving end of an MSO-Task is that if somone delegates me a task and leaves the "Start Date" and "Finish Date" blank, my MSO-Task filter hides tasks that do not have a start date (so that I do not see the MSO-Task until I need to).

If you are going to work on a task "someday", it belongs in your GTD @Someday-Maybe task folder in MSO.


When you delegate an MSO-Task, it stays on your ToDo list with a special icon indicating its been delegated but the recipient has not accepted the task. When the recipient competes the task, you get a system generated email stating the task has been completed. Here is where things starting getting weird; the system generated email that you just received disappears. (It’s like the “Mission – Impossible” intro. –“this message will self-destruct in five seconds.”) Furthermore, these tasks disappear from your MSO-Tasks and seems disappear from Outlook completely.


This begs the question; how do we actually use this in an effective way?


If there is an interest, I’ll write a second part to this for any insuring minds who want to know. Realistically, listen to Kel – stay away from “Assign Task” in Outlook.


A special thank you to GTD discussion group member (and fellow Canadian) “persistence”. The two of us experimented with MSO-Tasking.
 

persistence

Registered
Hi....yes this is exactly what seems to be going on!
What i had found frustating is even if i delegate a task to my assistant ,i would like to decide when i delete that task once completed by assistant. But what is happening is once marked completed by assiatant it atomaticly desapeers in my outlook.

John i have found some of the completed assigned taks ....if you go in "Change View" ,then choose ... "Completed View By Action"
Also found some when in Task----"Category None "at top of headings..

Thks John for trying to figure this one out....
 

John Ismyname

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Hi Persistence; Thank you as I could not have done this without your help!
I will write a sequel on how to actually use this function. I'm looking at this "functionality" and trying to step back and understand Micrpspft's intent behind the design and I am not seeing it.
 
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