Do you automate recurring tasks with Microsoft Planner and Power Automate?

Managing recurring tasks effectively can be a major challenge, especially when you don’t have visibility into whether tasks are completed on time or not.

Previously, we relied on manual methods like recurring calendar appointments or reminders. However, these approaches made it difficult to track the status of tasks and understand each team member's workload. Microsoft Planner and Power Automate offer a better solution, allowing you to manage, automate, and gain insight into recurring tasks for your team.

Why use Microsoft Planner and Power Automate?

By using Microsoft Planner and Power Automate, you can streamline recurring task management:

• Microsoft Planner organizes and assigns tasks to team members, showing progress and status.
• Power Automate adds automation, creating tasks at the right time, notifying team members, and syncing with other platforms like Outlook and Teams.

How to set it up in 3 steps

1. Select or create a Team in Microsoft Teams

   • Ideally it has all the people you want to manage these recurring tasks for.

2. Create a Plan in Microsoft Planner

   • Use Microsoft Planner’s built-in recurrence feature to create tasks that repeat daily, weekly, or at any specified interval.
   • Example: Assign a task for team members to complete every Monday, such as sending a status update.

3. Automate with Power Automate (Optional)

   • Go beyond Planner’s capabilities by using Power Automate to generate tasks dynamically.

Benefits of using Microsoft Planner

• Centralized Management: Track and monitor the workload of your team from one place.
• Visibility for Managers: Managers can easily see overdue tasks and assess team performance.

Additional benefits of using Power Automate as well

• Timely Notifications: Ensure team members get timely reminders where they usually work, like in their Outlook inbox or Teams notifications.
• Reduce noise: Tasks are only visibile in your Planner when they're supposed to be worked on, or if they're overdue.

By centralising and automating task management, you improve accountability and can quickly identify if any tasks are slipping through the cracks. Adopt this method to keep your team organized and efficient.