On Monday, Marta hands Kasia the task of preparing an offer for client Nord. She runs an eight-person B2B services office, but that same day she still asks three times: “Where are we with this?”. Delegating tasks only makes sense once you know where to check progress, instead of interrupting someone's work.
Why do you still ask about everything after handing over a task?
You keep asking because you don't have an agreed way to check progress. Even a good employee won't guess whether you expect a message after the data's been gathered, after a draft is ready, or only once the offer has been sent.
Marta tells Kasia: “Prepare the offer for Nord.” Kasia starts by talking to the client, but isn't sure whether to show Marta the scope of work before the quote. Marta sees no signal at all and drops by between meetings. Each of them is waiting for information from the other.
Simply assigning work doesn't replace writing a proper task description for an employee. If it's not yet clear who should be responsible for a matter, start by dividing tasks within the team. Here the problem comes later: the responsible person has already been chosen, but the business owner is still trying to keep the whole process in their head.
Start delegating tasks with three checkpoints
Set checkpoints when you hand over the work, not after the first worrying day of silence. You need a starting signal, a visible intermediate step, and a moment to review the matter before the deadline.
The first signal is just a simple message: “Starting now, I've got the data from the client” or “I'm missing the price list.” It's not about reporting for the sake of it. Kasia can flag an obstacle straight away, and Marta knows whether the work has actually started.
Choose the second checkpoint so it's clear whether it's actually happened. “Working on the offer” doesn't say much. “Draft quote ready” already lets you decide whether something needs reading or clarifying. The third checkpoint is a reminder before the deadline, set by the person doing the task. If the offer is due on Thursday, it's Kasia - not Marta - who should get a prompt to check it beforehand.
This method also works without any software. You can agree on it using a shared document. In Task Manager, Kasia writes the description and steps against the task, then adds progress updates in its thread. Marta checks the arrangements there; she can also see the due date in the Calendar. What matters more than the number of fields is the principle: the person doing the work reports progress, instead of waiting for the manager to ask.
A step list shows progress, but doesn't replace a conversation
A To-do list in a task description shows which steps have been completed, but it doesn't say whether the quote is actually good. When Marta has comments about it, she has to talk to Kasia in the task thread. Participants can tick off items without opening edit mode, and the shared progress bar shows how much has been completed.
On Tuesday, Kasia creates a task called “Offer for client Nord” in the Sales Workspace and assigns it to herself. She sets the due date for Thursday at 12:00 and adds four items: gather data from the client, calculate the quote, prepare a draft version, send the offer. She describes the offer preparation in more detail within the task itself; the list doesn't need to carry the whole brief.
Once Kasia ticks off two steps, the card will show “2 of 4 done”. When an item is ticked off, a small avatar of the person who checked it appears; hovering over it shows their first name, surname, and the date. This is a clue to where the work stands, not proof that the result is already good. If Marta has comments about the quote, she writes them in the task thread rather than pulling the discussion into a separate conversation.
The thread also keeps system messages about changes to status, assignees, priority, and due date. When the due date changes, it shows the previous value, so if the offer suddenly moves from Thursday to Friday, both sides can check who changed it and when. Editing the description alone doesn't create such a message; instead, an “(edited)” label appears next to the name. You can read more about structuring stages in our article on the checklist in a task.
An Observer sees the matter, but doesn't take it on to do it
Turn on the Observer role if you want to follow delegated work without assigning it to yourself as the one doing it. An Observer sees the task and the whole thread, and can write messages, but can't edit the task or change its status.
You can't set the Observer role for the task's author or the Workspace administrator. In our example, Kasia is the task's author, and Marta isn't an administrator of this Workspace. Kasia selects “Selected people” in the form, picks Marta, and turns on the “Observer” toggle. The “Administrator” and “Change status” toggles for Marta go grey. This is a deliberate division of roles: Marta can read the arrangements and comment in the thread, but she won't close the task on Kasia's behalf.
The role also affects what distracts you during the day. A watcher gets notifications about @ mentions, but not about every new message or status change. The unread message counter on the task still works. Watched tasks appear on the list with an eye icon, but they don't show up in the tiles and filters "Overdue", "Today" and "On time", or in your morning task summary.
There's one limit worth knowing before you create a task: its author and the Workspace administrator can't become watchers. If you usually create all the tasks yourself, or administer a given workspace, you won't be able to get this role for yourself. You can still read the thread within your own permissions, and for future matters agree that the task is created by the person responsible for it.
The reminder should go to the person doing the work, not to the manager
Pin the reminder to the task's due date on the account of the person who is meant to do the work. The AI Assistant will move that reminder along with the due date if the date for submitting the offer changes.
Kasia writes to the AI Assistant in the task thread: "Remind me about this task a day before the deadline." The reminder is only saved once she clicks "Yes, do it" in the confirmation window. On the day in question, she'll get a notification in the app. Marta can separately write in the thread: "The Nord quote is missing the implementation cost. Add it before sending." That's a note about the content of the offer, not another check on progress.
A due date with a time makes it easier to agree on the exact moment the work is due. Task Manager also lets you enter just a date, but then it assumes 9:00 when calculating the reminder. Without a due date, the AI Assistant won't pin a reminder to the task: it will instead suggest a regular reminder for the date and time you specify.
Don't confuse an in-app notification with a guarantee that an email will be delivered while the app is closed. That kind of delivery needs a recurring CRON task - a task run by the server on a schedule. Without it, the email only goes out when someone is actively using the app; the program warns you about this when you set a reminder. The details on keeping track of task deadlines can help you match the reminder method to how your team works.
If you need a rule that reacts to an approaching deadline or to silence in a task, the Pro plan has Automations. You can check how a rule behaves with the "Test before enabling" button, which shows the expected result without carrying out the action. You don't need to turn on Automations, though, to use the step list, the thread and reminders through the AI Assistant.
How do you keep this rhythm going all week?
Check in on the task at agreed moments, not every time the offer crosses your mind. The person doing the work should flag obstacles in the thread, because the progress bar alone won't explain why the work has stalled.
On Monday, Marta and Kasia agree on the scope of the offer. On Tuesday, Kasia creates the task and confirms in the thread that she has the data from the client. On Wednesday, Marta sees two steps ticked off, but there's no draft. So she asks one question under the task: "Are you missing any data for the quote?" Kasia replies in the same place, instead of recalling what was agreed from memory. On Wednesday at 12:00 she also gets the reminder set for one day before Thursday's deadline.
On Thursday morning, Kasia comes back to the offer and finishes it before the deadline. Once the work is ready, an authorised person changes the status to "Done"; a system message about the change is left in the thread. Marta can go back over how things unfolded without having to ask several people what actually happened.
That doesn't mean you should stop talking to the team. If someone ends up with too many things due on the same date, colour markers will show you the overdue tasks, but they won't decide for you what to reschedule. What's needed here is a conversation about task priorities in the team, not another item on the list.
Task Manager keeps the task and the conversation about it together, on your company's own server; the licence is perpetual, with a one-off fee per seat instead of a per-person subscription. The AI Assistant runs on your own key with the provider, with no middleman's margin, but the program itself also works without AI.
Tomorrow, pick one task where you usually end up asking about progress: decide who's responsible, write three checkable steps in the description, and set a due date with a time. If you can be added as a Watcher, ask the person doing the work to create the task and assign you that role. See what a thread like this looks like in the Demo.
Frequently asked questions
How do you organise task delegation so you don't have to check everything?
When handing over the task, agree who's accountable for the result, which steps will show progress, and when the person doing the work should flag an obstacle. Write this down against the task, add a due date with a time, and ask the person doing the work to set a reminder before the deadline.
What's the difference between an Observer and the person doing the task?
An Observer can see the task and its thread and can write messages, but can't edit the task or change its status. They get notifications for @ mentions, and the observed task doesn't count towards their due-date tiles.
Will I see who ticked off a step on the list?
Yes, when a To-do list item in the task description is ticked off, a small avatar of the person who checked it appears. Hover over it to see their first name, surname, and the date.
What will I see if someone moves a task's due date?
A system message about the change will appear in the thread, together with the previous value. You can check who made the change and when.
Will a due-date reminder move together with the task?
Yes, a personal reminder pinned to a task's due date will move when you change that due date. It's set by the AI Assistant once you confirm it; if the task has no due date, it will suggest a regular reminder for a specific date and time instead.
Sources
- Task Manager, Tasks - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/zadania (accessed: 13 November 2026).
- Task Manager, To-do list - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/lista-to-do (accessed: 13 November 2026).
- Task Manager, Users and Roles - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/uzytkownicy-i-role (accessed: 13 November 2026).
- Task Manager, AI Assistant - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/asystent-ai (accessed: 13 November 2026).
- Task Manager, Reminders - https://taskmanager.pl/ai/przypomnienia (accessed: 13 November 2026).
- Task Manager, Automations - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/automatyzacje (accessed: 13 November 2026).
- Task Manager, Perpetual licence - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/licencja-bezterminowa (accessed: 13 November 2026).
The Task Manager Team - we write about teamwork, AI in business and keeping tasks organised, using examples from Task Manager, software installed on your own server. Task Manager has been developed by Blue Creation Group (Piotr Łącz) since 2013 and is used by organisations including Neonet, the Military University of Technology and Polpharma - read customer reviews. We check our articles against the user guide and the latest version of the software.
