Manage tasks

You accomplish work through tasks in Optimizely's Content Marketing Platform (CMP). Each task moves through a workflow from creation to completion.

Create a task

Select Add (+) > Task from the drop-down list.

The Create New Task window displays. Add a Title for the task and other supporting details. Select a Campaign from the existing drop-down list or click + Add Campaign. You can specify a Start Date and Due Date and select a Workflow from the drop-down list. If you selected a campaign with a budget, set the Budget for the task.  Click Create to create the task.

The task page displays with the following tabs:

• Brief – Add a creative brief to describe your task strategy.
• Content – Create, revise, and optimize marketing content to make progress with your task.
• Fields – Update or add fields.
• Publishing – Click Add Channel to select distribution channels and schedule publication for an article or social content.
• Related – Add tasks that support this task or link any related activities.
• Financials – Add an invoice and payment for the task. See Budgeting for information.
• History – See an audit trail of interactions within the task over time. People, their actions, and time are displayed in an easy-to-read timeline format corresponding to changes made in the task over time.

Create a task in a campaign

You can create tasks from each campaign, and CMP reduces the time it takes to set up tasks and ensure they are consistently tagged. In a Campaign, click Activities and select Add > Task. You can also click + next to Title and add a Task.

Enter the task title, and define the task's start and due date. You can also change the parent campaign and the task owner.

The most recently created tasks display at the top of the Activities in List. From here, you can view and manage content and non-content tasks on which your campaign depends. You can use Timeline and Calendar to see the reflections on the due date of campaign activity in Plan.

Create a task from list and calendar

Plan, List, and Calendar let you create tasks and events to display upcoming activity dates.

To create a task in List, click Add new (+) and select Task.

You can also add a task by clicking on a date in Calendar.

Create a task from Marketplace

Click on a piece of content and click Create Task on the preview window. The Create New Task window displays. Enter details and click Create.

Create a task from the library

Select a library asset that opens a panel at the right of your page. Click Create Task, and the Create New Task page will display the selected content. Enter details and click Create.

Edit a task

You can edit tasks later, including adding or changing the task template.

Click More (...) beside a task or on the task page and select Edit. This brings up a modal similar to task creation and lets you select a task template to apply. Click Save Changes.

All changes are reflected in the History tab.

Add a task brief

On the Brief tab, upload files or enter a task description. You can add a brief in several ways.

• Brief Template – Click Brief Template to select from several saved Task Brief templates.

  

• Upload file – Select Upload. You can connect to your Microsoft 365 OneDrive Account to upload a brief. You can upload files in the following formats:
  • Word
  • PowerPoint
  • Excel
  • PDF
  • Video (MOV, MP4)
  • Image Files (JPEG, GIF, SVG and BMP)

  Unsupported files display a no preview message but remain available to download.

• Library – Select an asset from the Library as your task brief.
• Add URL – Enter the URL to a file on Google, Figma, Milanote, or a non-gated website.

  

• Write Brief – Click Write Brief and type a brief in the online text editor. You can select text and click AI to receive refinement suggestions. While you write a brief, the text editor autosaves the draft. However, if you try to go to any other module while writing the brief, an alert warns that you have unsaved changes and asks if you want to discard the changes. Click Save when you are done.

Add fields to the task

Fields and field values can automatically populate from the campaign or brief. If your task has a workflow, only the fields from that workflow display. Go to Fields and add select Add Field. You can select from a multi-select list of fields or click Create New, select a Field type, and enter a Field Name. You can also enter a Helper Text for the field and click Create to add the field.

For single-select fields, the page lets users keep the values they inherit through the selected workflow or opt for the ones they inherit with the chosen campaign. For multi-select fields, the values merge.

Add content to the task

See Content Workspace for more details on creating content for your task.

In Content, click + Add Content and select the option you want.

Manage workflow dates

Workflows have forward and backward scheduling logic so that when a Task Start Date, Task Due Date, or Step Due Date changes, you can update only that date or all subsequent dates by the same number of business days. See Manage workflows for more information.

Update task start date and due date

Forward and backward scheduling applies to Task Start and Task Due Date. You can set the task start date or task due date from the task window.

1. Click the dates to change them.
2. After you set the date, click Save.

Smart durations

If you activate Smart Durations for the workflow, the due dates of the task and subsequent steps move backward or forward by the number of business days that the previous step was delayed or completed. See Apply Smart durations in Manage workflows.

If a task has other dependent tasks, then smart durations display a prompt to select the date changes for the dependent tasks.

Task status

Each task has a status based on the workflow:

• Not Started – Default status when you create a task.
• In Progress – Automatically changes to In Progress if you complete a step in the workflow by clicking the checkmark.
  
• Completed – Automatically changes to Completed after you complete the steps in the workflow. You also can click Mark Complete to change the task status to Completed.
• Overdue – Automatically changes to Overdue when the task's due date has passed, regardless of the previous status of the task. 
• On Hold – Click On Hold to pause the task.
• Archived – Click Archived if you do not need regular access to the information.

Place task on hold 

You can place the task On Hold if any dependencies or constraints prevent the task from continuing. If you leave the task on Not Started or In Progress, it continues to trigger notifications that may be irrelevant. Instead, place the task On Hold to turn off activities except for the Comments section. You cannot make changes to the task during this time. Anyone with edit access can change the task status. 

1. Select More (...) > Place On Hold. A confirmation dialog box displays.
2. Click Yes, Place On Hold.
   

Resume from on hold

Select More (...) > Resume From On Hold from the top notification bar or the task action menu. Resuming the task reverts the status to the action's status before placing it on hold.

View task status in Plan:

• List – Put tasks on hold, resume them from on hold, and archive them.
• Timeline –  Filter tasks based on their statuses.
• Calendar – Filter tasks based on their statuses.
• Board – Drag and drop tasks across Not Started, In Progress, Completed, and On Hold statuses. 

Pin task content

You can pin a piece of content to flag it for review or to add clarity. 

In the content tab of a task, click More (...) on any piece of content and select Pin Content. 

This option pins the content to the top or first of the content order list. This displays in all three views: single, grid, and list.

To unpin content, click More (...) and select Unpin Content. The content returns to its original position in the list.

Comment on a task

Click Comments on the task page to post comments.

Click Add Comment on a step and enter a comment in the comment box.

Click More (...) to Edit and Delete your comments on the task.

Click the Show Resolved checkbox to display the Resolved comments.

Watch or unwatch the task

You can add relevant users to the task as a watcher or watch the task yourself. Click Manage Watchers.

A drop-down list displays. Click Start Watching, Stop Watching, or search and select another watcher. Start typing for suggested watchers.

When you add users who do not have access to the task, you can provide them with Edit, View, or Comment access to that task. 

When you are a task watcher, you receive the following notifications if they are turned on. If you do not want to receive email notifications about a particular task, click Unwatch this task in the email.

Select publishing destination

After adding the content to the task, select the destination where you want the task published, if applicable.

For example, if you have a website configured to CMP, select your website from the Add Channel drop-down list. You can select more publish destinations such as Feeds, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. To learn more about publishing, see Publishing. 

You can schedule the publishing time.

After you select the publishing destination, click Complete to publish the task.

View task history

Each task has a History that provides a detailed activity log of work. You can see who made changes, what the changes were, and why they were made.

History includes:

• Changes to task title and brief.
• Changes to workflows (such as step owner, step status, due dates, and so on).
• Added or resolved comments (within a task or individual content).
• Changes to task Labels and Custom Fields.
• Uploads, downloads, and added attachments.

Delete a task

When you delete a task, assets previously pushed to the library still exist. The deleted task also deletes task content not pushed to the library. See Content workspace for details on how to save content in the library.

To delete a task, select More (...) > Delete. Confirm your deletion.

Restore deleted tasks and task content from the recycle bin

Admins can restore task or task content such as an article, image, raw file, URL, or Microsoft asset. You cannot restore structured content and brand templates.

To restore a task or task content from the Recycle Bin:

1. Go to your avatar > Recycle Bin.
2. You can search for your task or task content by its title. 
3. Click Restore. 

When you restore task content, it displays the original task with an update to the task's History.