Most task management applications fail not because they lack features, but because there is no plan for the first week: someone installs the application, creates two accounts and goes back to email three days later. This plan is designed to prevent that - five days at 30 minutes a day, each with one task to complete and one pitfall to avoid.
Before you start: four things to prepare
Gather the following in one place:
- hosting access - control panel, FTP and the ability to create a MySQL/MariaDB database (a standard Polish shared hosting package is sufficient),
- licence key - you receive it after purchase; the installer will not run without it,
- mailbox details for the account the application will use to send invitations and password resets: SMTP server, port (usually 465 or 587), username and password - you can find these in your hosting control panel; for Gmail, you need an app password rather than your account password,
- a list of team members with their email addresses and responsibilities.
Our example for the whole week is Studio Kreska, a creative agency in Poznań with 9 people - owner Marta, account managers, graphic designers, a copywriter, a developer and an accountant. Until now, they have used email, instant messaging and a corkboard in the kitchen. Studio Kreska does not exist - it is a model agency we use to illustrate the plan; the situations are typical of a team of 8-10 people.
Day 1: installation and first login
What to do:
- In your hosting control panel, create a new MySQL/MariaDB database and make a note of the host, database name, username and password.
- Upload the program files to the domain or subdomain directory (e.g.
zadania.studiokreska.pl). - Open the address in your browser. The installer will check the server for PHP 8.1 or later, database and encryption extensions, and write permissions for directories. Critical issues will stop the installation and display a clear message.
- Complete a single form with the database details, administrator's first name, surname, email address and password, application address, licence key and SMTP account details (server, port, encryption, login, password, sender address). The installation cannot be completed without a mail account - this is where team invitations will be sent from. Click “Test configuration” below the SMTP fields before continuing.
- Log in. You will see three columns: Workspaces, a list of Tasks and Chats, and the open Thread. The installer has already created the “General” Workspace and the “Shared” Chat, which every new user joins. Your list will be almost empty for now - the screenshot below comes from a Demo instance with sample data to show what the layout looks like after a few days of use.
If you do not want to configure the hosting yourself, Remote installation is listed separately in the Pricing - it is charged for under the Starter plan and included with higher plans.
Day 1 pitfall: installing on http:// instead of https://. The program will work, but the “install as an app” option will not appear in Chrome or Safari, and your team will have to access it through a browser bookmark. Enable an SSL certificate in your hosting control panel before uploading the files.
30-minute limit: if the installer reports a missing PHP extension, do not struggle with it today - send the extension name shown in the message to your hosting provider and come back tomorrow. The column layout is explained in the Getting started guide.
Day 2: Workspaces, team and roles
A Workspace is where the Tasks and Chats for a particular topic live. Marta creates four: Clients, Studio (internal matters), New website (a two-month project) and Finance. Not ten - creating a Workspace for every client is the most common mistake on day two.
What to do:
- Click “+” next to “Workspaces” and create 3-5 of them. The rule is simple: a Workspace is for a department or a project that will last at least a month.
- Check your mailbox first, then send invitations. Invitations are sent by email from the account you entered in the installer. Settings → Mail → System Mail → “Send test message” - if the email does not arrive or you entered the details in a hurry, you can correct them here.
- People group icon next to the cogwheel → “Add” tab: email address, first name, surname, role (Administrator or User) and permissions.
- In the “Assign to Workspaces” table, select which Workspaces the person can access and what they can do: a Workspace Administrator manages participants and other people's Tasks, while Tasks and Chats allow them to create new ones. Without these two permissions, the person can still read and post in anything they have been added to.
- Save the changes. Everyone receives an invitation by email and sets their own password - you do not enter it for them.
At Studio Kreska, Marta and one account manager are global administrators. Designers create Tasks in “Clients” and “New website”, while the accountant can only see “Finance” and “Studio”. This means less noise for everyone.
Day 2 pitfall: inviting people without sending a test message. The test in the installer only checks the connection to the server, not whether the email reaches the recipient's inbox. If the invitations have not arrived, correct the details in System Mail and use “Resend” for each person on the list. If the sender uses Gmail, an app password requires two-step verification to be enabled.
30-minute limit: today, only invite people from the first two Workspaces; invite the rest on day 3, when there will be something for them to see. Full description of roles: Users and Roles.
Day 3: first Tasks, Chats and naming conventions
An empty program will not convince anyone. On day three, move everything happening this week into Tasks.
What to do:
- Review your inbox and messaging app from the past five days. Every item with someone responsible and a due date becomes a Task: subject, description (the program does not require one, but Marta has a rule that a Task without a description is just a slogan), Priority, Due date and assignees.
- Items without a specific outcome - “let's agree how we handle complaints” - should become Chats. Create 2-3 topic-specific ones and let “Shared” collect the remaining conversations.
- For a Task with several steps, use a To-do list in the description. Items can be ticked off directly in the Task card, and each one shows who ticked it.
- Ask everyone to create one Task today and post one message with an
@mention.
Three naming conventions Marta wrote down in the “Studio” Chat:
- The subject starts with a verb and the client's name: “Prepare mock-ups - Nord”, not “Nord mock-ups”.
- The Due date is the delivery date, not the meeting date. Meetings go into the Calendar as events.
- No more than one Task per person can have High Priority at a time. If everything is urgent, nothing is.
Day 3 pitfall: moving the entire archive. After three hours spent creating Tasks from a month ago, no one wants to open the program again. Only move what is still active.
30-minute limit: 10-15 Tasks and 2-3 Chats - enough for everyone to have something of their own on the list tomorrow.
Day 4: AI Assistant with your own key
By day four, the team already has Tasks, so the AI Assistant has something to talk about. Task Manager does not sell AI packages - you connect your own account with OpenAI, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude or xAI Grok and pay the provider directly, with no mark-up. The program also works without a key, so you can postpone this step.
What to do:
- Create an account with a provider and generate an API key. Set a monthly spending limit there - you control the budget with the provider, not in the program.
- Settings → AI: choose a provider, paste in your key, refresh the model list and select one marked “(recommended)”. Save the settings - the software will test the connection.
- Check permissions: AI in tasks, AI in chats and the AI Assistant are separate switches on each person's account, along with the Assistant's internet access, which is disabled by default. If someone cannot see the AI buttons, this is usually why.
- Send your team five prompts to try in the AI Assistant window (the views icon in the top bar):
- “Show my overdue tasks”
- “Create a task called Poprawki do oferty Nord due on Friday and assign it to Ola”
- “Summarise the Studio chat from this week”
- “Change the status of the Makiety Nord task to in progress”
- “Create a PDF summarising the Kampania na wrzesień task”
For anyone asking about data: the application and database remain on your server, but a question sent to the Assistant, together with the required context (task content, messages, attachment), goes to your chosen AI provider using your key. Simply do not select topics that should not be sent there as sources in the conversation.
How much does it cost? According to OpenAI's pricing, the gpt-5-mini model costs 0,25 USD per million input tokens and 2,00 USD per million output tokens. A thousand questions, each with 5 000 tokens of context and a 500-token response, cost around 2,25 USD per month. Find out more: AI costs with no markup.
Day 4 pitfall: pasting in the key and deciding that AI “doesn't work” because nobody knows what to ask. The Assistant gives good answers about what it has in front of it - which is why you should provide five ready-made prompts rather than tell people to “try it out”.
30-minute limit: configuration takes 10 minutes. Use the rest of the time to discuss a real task - the Assistant opens a window with the fields already completed and waits for your approval. It does not do anything behind your back.
Day 5: getting organised - Notification Centre, Calendar, Board
The goal on day five is for everyone to know where to start each morning without clicking through four Workspaces.
What to do:
- Notification Centre. A dark “island” at the edge of the window: a thin line means all is quiet, a coloured line means something is waiting, and a pill with a number shows how many items there are. Clicking it opens a panel with summaries (“Tasks - 2 with new messages”), while the morning briefing, shown the first time you open the software after 6:00, displays the day's due dates and events on a single card.
- Calendar. Tasks with a due date appear there automatically in a colour based on their status (red when overdue, blue when due today, green when on schedule); a task without a time is placed at 17:00. Add this week's meetings as events and drag one task to another day - its due date changes without opening the editor.
- Board. Each Workspace has a column with Favourites, Tasks and Chats sections. Arrange the columns in the order you check them in the morning - the software will remember the layout - and drag tasks you need to keep an eye on to Favourites.
- Ask everyone to do one thing: Settings → Profile → Browser notifications. Without this permission, a reminder that arrives while you are in another tab waits in the island's list instead of appearing on screen.
Day 5 pitfall: disabling notifications because “there are too many”. In the first week, everyone creates tasks at the same time; after the first two weeks, activity drops to a few items per day. Instead of disabling notifications, move the island somewhere less distracting (use the position icon in the panel footer).
30-minute limit: do not configure Mail, Files or Automations today, even if you have Pro - that is for the second week. Read more about the island: Notification Centre.
The whole week in one table
| Day | What you do | Outcome at the end of the day | Pitfall |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Database, files, installer, licence key | You sign in as an administrator and the licence is active | Installation without HTTPS |
| 2 | 3-5 Workspaces, inbox test, invitations with roles | The team has accounts and can see their Workspaces | Invitations without a test message |
| 3 | 10-15 tasks from the current week, 2-3 chats, naming conventions | Everyone has something of their own on the list | Moving the entire archive |
| 4 | AI key, model, permissions, five prompts | The team knows how to use the Assistant with their own tasks | AI without specific questions |
| 5 | Notification Centre, Calendar, Board, notification permission | Everyone can see what lies ahead each morning | Disabling notifications in the first week |
What comes after the first week
After a week following this plan, a team of 9 people will usually have dozens of tasks, several chats and their first conversations with the Assistant. In our example, Marta does not hold a status meeting on Monday - she opens the Board, drags two overdue tasks to Favourites and posts a message under each one using @. At this point, using the software becomes a habit.
In the next parts of the “Getting started” series, we will cover the second week: Mail and Files in Pro, your first rule in Automations and an AI knowledge base. If you would like to see it working with real data first, visit the Demo.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an IT specialist to install Task Manager?
No, if you know how to create a database in your hosting control panel and upload files via FTP. The installer checks the requirements (PHP 8.1+, MySQL/MariaDB) automatically and guides you through a single form. Remote installation is priced separately.
Does the application work without an AI key?
Yes. Tasks, chats, Calendar, Board and notifications work without AI. You can add a key whenever you want and pay the model provider directly for usage, with no Task Manager mark-up.
Why did the team not receive their invitations?
The most common cause is incorrect system mailbox details entered in the installer. Correct them under Settings → Mail → System Mail, send a test message, then use “Resend” next to the relevant person in the user list.
How many Workspaces should I create to start with?
Three to five. A Workspace is for a department or a project lasting at least a month - not an individual client or job. Too many Workspaces leave tasks scattered where nobody can see them.
What if we cannot keep to 30 minutes a day during the first week?
Nothing. It is better to do less every day than everything in one afternoon. The order matters; the calendar does not.
Sources
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.
