At 9:15 on Monday, Marta’s five-person agency ends its meeting with “we’ll sort out the website copy”. On Thursday, Magda says she was waiting for Kasia, while Kasia says she was waiting for Marek; the copy is still missing. If you’re wondering how to divide tasks in a team without surprises like this, start with four things: a name, a due date, a status and a record of changes.
How to divide tasks in a team? Start with one name
Give each item a subject and choose one person to ask for the result. Task Manager lets you assign several people to a task, but it doesn’t choose a single owner from among them - that’s for your team to agree on.
At Marta’s agency, the task is “Website copy”. Magda is responsible for the finished copy, and Kasia is added to the task because she provides the images. When Marta asks for an update on Thursday, she goes to Magda first; if images are missing, Magda can message Kasia in the same thread. It’s a small difference from “Magda and Kasia will take care of the website”, but now everyone knows who to ask for the finished copy.
After selecting a Workspace in the left-hand column, create a task using the “+ Add task” button. Enter a subject, a short brief in the description, a due date and people in the Assignees field; you can also set a normal or high priority. For a detailed walkthrough, see task fields in Task Manager. Simply adding several names, however, won’t replace a conversation about responsibility.
A Workspace is a dedicated space for tasks and chats about a project, team or topic. Marta keeps website work in “New website” and campaign work in “Marketing”. For more on how agreements get lost across scattered conversations, read why teams lose track of agreements.
The due time determines whether a task is overdue
If you need the result by a specific time, add that time to the due date. A task with no time set is treated as “due today” by Task Manager for the entire day shown; it only turns red the following day.
On Tuesday, Marta agrees with Marek that the homepage mock-ups will be ready by Thursday at 12:00, as she wants to present them to the client at 14:00. Setting the due date to “Thursday” alone would leave the whole day to complete the task.
On the list, a red due date means a task is overdue, and blue means it’s due today. Green means the task is on time, while grey means it has no due date or is closed. The same colour rules apply on the Board, in the calendar and in the meta bar of an open task. On a task card in the list, you’ll also see a circle showing the number of days until or since the due date; hover over it to see the exact date. Completed and cancelled tasks aren’t marked as overdue, even if their due date has passed.
Not every piece of work needs a time. If Magda needs to gather some initial ideas by Friday, a date may be enough. If Marek needs to hand over a mock-up before Marta’s presentation, a time helps keep the next stage of work on track. Set a time when someone is genuinely waiting for the result.
Status answers some questions about progress
Agree that the person leading a task will change its status when they start and finish the work. In Task Manager, you can change the status with one click on the icon next to the task in the list, or from the ⋮ menu, without opening the task, if you have permission.
A new task that hasn’t been started doesn’t have a status yet; it can later be “in progress”, “completed” or “cancelled”. On the list, you can identify it by the ring next to its title: empty, half-filled, ticked or crossed. An orange dot before the ring means high priority. This helps Marta distinguish an urgent item from one that’s already underway before she joins the conversation.
On Wednesday morning, Marta clicks the “Overdue” tile above the list. If she sees two tasks there, she opens their threads and asks what’s blocking them instead of calling a meeting with all five people. The “On time”, “Due today”, “Overdue” and “Chat” tiles work as both counters and filters: clicking one narrows the list, and clicking it again restores it. This review doesn’t replace a conversation about the problem, but it suggests which conversation to start with.
A status doesn’t mean the work is going to plan. Marek’s task may be “in progress” while he’s still waiting for materials from the client. In that case, you don’t need another colour - you need a message from him in the thread. Status answers “has it started?”, while the conversation answers “what’s getting in the way?”.
A due date change should leave a trace, not a mystery
The task thread records a due date change along with the previous value, so you can check what was moved. It also records status changes, people being added or removed, and changes to the priority and name; system messages appear as centred pills with a time.
Imagine it's Friday: Marta remembers that “Website copy” was due on Wednesday, but the card shows Friday. Instead of scrolling through the team chat history, she opens the thread and checks the due date change. She can see who made it, when they did so and what the previous date was. This tells her what happened to the task. It doesn't prove that the client agreed to the new arrangement - the team needs to record that decision in their own words.
There is also a limit to what this record captures. Changing the description alone doesn't create a system message; an “(edited)” label appears by the name. If someone changes “three subpages” to “five subpages” in the brief and this affects Magda's work, don't leave her with only the updated description. Write in the thread what changed and what it means for the due date.
| Team rules | What you agree on | What to check in Task Manager |
|---|---|---|
| One person to ask for the outcome | Who is responsible for the whole task | People assigned to the task; changes to assignees in the thread |
| The due date works for the next person | Whether you also need a time | The due date and how it's shown in the list |
| Status shows the stage | When the team changes the status | The ring on the task and the change entry in the thread |
| Important changes need context | Why the plan changed | The previous due date in the system message and the team's explanation in the conversation |
These are the four main rules. Once you've agreed on them, fine-tune three details: task steps, permissions and absences.
A separate task or a to-do list item? Responsibility decides
Create a separate task when a piece of work has its own person responsible or its own due date. If it's just a step in the same piece of work, add it to the to-do list in the task description; this is a way to organise work, not a Task Manager limitation.
On Tuesday, Magda needs to prepare the homepage copy by 16:00, while Marek needs to deliver the mock-ups by Thursday at 12:00. These are two tasks: each has a different person responsible and a different due date. In Magda's task, “gather information about the offer”, “write a draft” and “check the headings” can stay on the to-do list. You don't need to create extra cards just to tick off three steps in one piece of work.
Add a to-do list using the button in the Description field. Participants can tick off items directly in the task card, even if they don't have permission to edit the task itself; a shared bar shows progress, for example, “2 of 4 done”. A small avatar next to a ticked-off item shows who marked it complete. For ideas on organising these steps, read the article about the task checklist.
Not everyone needs to be able to create tasks to work on them
You set the permission to create tasks separately in each Workspace. Someone without the “Tasks” permission can still see tasks they've been added to and write in their threads; not being able to create new tasks doesn't cut them off from the work assigned to them.
In a five-person agency, Marta can manage the “New website” space, give Magda the “Tasks” and “Chats” permissions, and give Kasia and Marek only “Chats”. The latter two can then create new chats, but not new tasks in that space - they can still work and write as usual in tasks Marta adds them to. If your colleagues take on client work themselves, you can divide permissions differently. The point is to make a deliberate choice, not to take the initiative away from the team.
In each Workspace, you can set the “Administrator”, “Tasks” and “Chats” permissions. An administrator of a given space manages its participants and can edit and delete other people's tasks and chats; selecting this role automatically enables the other two permissions. There is also a separate global administrator role, which gives access to all spaces and lets the administrator manage them. The difference between these levels is explained in user permissions in Task Manager.
Check whether someone is away before assigning them a task
Before assigning a task, make sure the person will be available when needed. In Task Manager, everyone sets their profile status to Available, Holiday, Sick or Away; an absence applies for the selected date range and expires when that period ends.
On Monday, Marta plans to assign Kasia a task due on Wednesday, but Kasia is on Holiday then. The AI Assistant alerts you to an absence when you try to assign a task to someone who is away, so Marta can arrange cover with Magda straight away. If she writes to Kasia in a thread while she's on Holiday or Sick, an automatic reply appears, no more than once a day in that thread. It's a signal to change the plan, not a mechanism that will choose someone else for you.
The AI Assistant is optional: Task Manager also works without AI. So you can start with a simple habit that doesn't require any extra tools: ask someone if they're available before assigning them a task, then record the agreed due date in the task.
Tomorrow morning, choose one Workspace, open the “Overdue” tile and review the tasks that need a decision. For each one, decide who you'll ask about the outcome, and include a time only if the next stage of work depends on it. Want to see what this kind of task allocation looks like on screen? Open Demo.
Frequently asked questions
How do you divide tasks in a team when several people are working on one?
You can assign several people to one task, but choose one person to ask for the result. That’s a team rule, not a limit in Task Manager’s Assignees field.
How can I tell who changed a task’s due date?
Check the task thread: a system message shows the due date change and its previous value, so you can see who made it and when. The thread also records changes to status, assignees, priority and name.
Can everyone on the team create tasks?
No - the “Tasks” permission is set separately in each Workspace. Someone without this permission can still see tasks they’ve been added to and write in them.
What should I do when a task has several steps?
Add steps that don’t need their own due date or owner to the to-do list in the task description. If a step needs its own due date or someone responsible for the result, make it a separate task.
How can I avoid assigning a task to someone who’s on leave?
Check their availability before assigning the task; you can set the Holiday status for a specific date range. If you use the AI Assistant, it will notify you that they’re away when you try to assign the task.
Sources
- Task Manager, Tasks - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/zadania (accessed: 2026-09-23).
- Task Manager, Users and Roles - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/uzytkownicy-i-role (accessed: 2026-09-23).
- Task Manager, Workspaces - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/workspaces (accessed: 2026-09-23).
- Task Manager, Resources: Tasks - https://taskmanager.pl/materialy/zadania (accessed: 2026-09-23).
- Task Manager, Resources: Users and Roles - https://taskmanager.pl/materialy/uzytkownicy-i-role (accessed: 2026-09-23).
- Task Manager, Absence - https://taskmanager.pl/funkcje/nieobecnosc (accessed: 2026-09-23).
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.
