User Tasks: The Complete Guide — When to Use Each Task Type, How to Get the Most From Your Board

The User Tasks board is live. This is the complete guide to using it -- not just what the buttons do, but when to use each task type, how to set up your board for different workflows, and how to make the card widgets work for you.

Getting Started: Your First Project

When you open User Tasks for the first time, you will see a "Create Project" button. A project is a board -- it has its own lanes (columns), its own tasks, and its own settings. You might have one project for everything, or you might create separate boards for different areas of work.

To create a project: Click the projects dropdown in the toolbar and select Create new project, or use the big button on the empty board.

Examples of projects you might create:

• "Daily Operations" -- for day-to-day tasks across the team
• "Participant Onboarding" -- for tracking new participant setup steps
• "Policy Review Q3" -- for a specific bounded piece of work
• "IT Requests" -- for inbound tech support from staff

Each project gets three default lanes: TO DO, IN PROGRESS, and DONE. You can customise these through Board Settings (the gear icon).

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The Nine Task Types: When to Use Each One

Every task has a type. The type determines the icon on the card and signals to the team what kind of work it is. Choosing the right type means people can scan the board visually and immediately understand what they are looking at.

Task (default)

Icon: Checkbox
Use when: You need something done and it does not fit any other category.
Examples:

• "Order new printer cartridges"
• "Update the emergency contact list"
• "Send welcome pack to new participant"
• "Book meeting room for Friday"

This is your workhorse. If you are unsure which type to pick, use Task.

Bug

Icon: Red bug
Use when: Something that was working is now broken and needs fixing.
Examples:

• "Roster export shows wrong dates for night shifts"
• "Participant photo not loading on profile page"
• "SMS notifications going to wrong phone number"
• "Billing report double-counting weekend hours"

A Bug signals urgency and a fix-it mindset. Set priority to High or Urgent if it affects live operations.

Feature Request

Icon: Lightbulb
Use when: Someone wants a new capability or improvement that does not exist yet.
Examples:

• "Add a print button to shift reports"
• "Allow bulk SMS to selected participants"
• "Show weather forecast on the daily dashboard"
• "Auto-generate birthday cards for participants"

Feature Requests are great with the voting widget. Create the card, and let the team vote on which features matter most. The vote count shows on the card so you can sort by what people actually want.

Decision

Icon: Signpost
Use when: The team needs to make a choice and you want to track the options, discussion, and outcome.
Examples:

• "Which catering company for the Christmas party?"
• "Should we switch to fortnightly pay runs?"
• "New vehicle: lease vs buy?"
• "Office hours change proposal"

Decisions benefit from three widgets: voting (to gauge preference), rating (to score options), and comments (to capture the discussion). Put the options in the description, let people vote and comment, and when the decision is made, add the outcome to the description and move it to DONE.

Milestone

Icon: Green flag
Use when: You need to mark a significant deliverable or deadline that other tasks lead up to.
Examples:

• "NDIS audit submission deadline — June 30"
• "New participant management system go-live"
• "Annual performance reviews complete"
• "Policy manual v4 published"

Milestones should always have a due date. They act as anchor points on the board -- when you see a flag with a red "2d overdue" indicator, you know something important slipped.

Note / Memo

Icon: Sticky note
Use when: You need to capture information that is not actionable but needs to be visible to the team.
Examples:

• "Internet will be down Saturday 6am-10am for maintenance"
• "New parking rules start next month — see attached PDF"
• "Meeting notes from Monday standup"
• "Reminder: public holiday roster rules"

Notes do not need to move through lanes. They can sit in TO DO indefinitely as reference material. Use the description field for the full content and file attachments if there are documents.

Risk / Issue

Icon: Red warning triangle
Use when: You have identified something that could go wrong, or something that is currently blocking progress.
Examples:

• "Staff shortage risk for Easter long weekend"
• "Participant transport provider may not renew contract"
• "Server backup has not run in 3 days"
• "Budget overrun risk on building renovation"

Risks should have a priority set (how severe is the impact?) and assignees (who is responsible for mitigating it?). Use the checklist for mitigation steps. When the risk is resolved or passes, move it to DONE.

Request

Icon: Inbox
Use when: Someone has asked for something and you need to track it through to completion.
Examples:

• "Sean requested new laptop"
• "Participant family asked for progress report"
• "Board member requested financial summary"
• "Staff member requested shift swap for next Thursday"

Requests always have an external origin -- someone asked for something. Use assignees to track who is handling it and due date for when it needs to be done by. The comment thread is useful for tracking correspondence.

Recurring Task

Icon: Repeat arrow
Use when: This is something that needs to happen on a regular schedule.
Examples:

• "Weekly timesheet review (every Monday)"
• "Monthly fire extinguisher check"
• "Fortnightly team meeting agenda preparation"
• "Quarterly WHS walkthrough"

Use the checklist for the steps that need to happen each time. When the cycle is complete, you can either reset the checklist for the next cycle or create a new card. The due date should be set to the next occurrence.

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Card Widgets: What Shows on Each Card and Why

Every card on the board can display multiple pieces of information at a glance. Here is what each widget means and when to use it.

Priority Stripe

A colored left border on the card:

• Red = Urgent (drop everything)
• Orange = High (do this soon)
• Theme color = Normal (standard priority)
• Grey = Low (when you get to it)

Set priority in the Add Task modal or the detail panel. If you sort the board by Priority, urgent items float to the top of every lane.

Checklist with Progress Bar

A list of checkboxes with a striped progress bar showing completion percentage. You can tick checkboxes directly from the card without opening the detail panel.

When to use: Any task with multiple steps. A 6-step onboarding process, a list of documents to collect, a set of checks to perform.

Pro tip: The progress bar color changes -- red at 0%, theme color in the middle, green at 100%. At a glance you can see which tasks are stuck (red) and which are nearly done (green).

Due Date with Countdown

Shows how many days remain until the deadline:

• Green/neutral = more than 7 days
• Blue = 3-7 days
• Amber = 1-2 days (approaching)
• Red with exclamation = overdue

Click the calendar icon in the detail panel to add the due date to your calendar reminders.

Tag Badges

Colored labels for categorisation. Tags are freeform -- type whatever you want when creating a task (comma-separated). Use them for things like department, category, or sprint.

Examples: HR, IT, URGENT, Q3, PARTICIPANT, WHS

Assignee Avatars

Overlapping profile photos showing who is responsible. Up to 5 avatars display on the card with a +N overflow. Add or remove assignees in the detail panel.

When you assign someone, they get a Discord notification with the task title.

Comment Count

A chat bubble icon with a number. Shows that people are discussing this task. Open the detail panel to read and add comments.

Vote Count

A thumbs-up icon with a number. Shows how many people have voted for this item. Particularly useful for Feature Request and Decision type tasks. Toggle your vote in the detail panel.

Star Rating

A star icon with the average rating. Use this to score or review tasks -- particularly useful for Decision type tasks where you want to rate options, or for reviewing completed work quality.

Description Preview

The first line of the task description shown on the card. Gives enough context to understand the task without opening it.

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Board Customisation

Custom Lanes

Click the gear icon to open Board Settings. From here you can:

• Add lanes -- type a code (e.g. review) and label (e.g. UNDER REVIEW) and click Add
• Rename lanes -- edit the label directly in the settings
• Reorder lanes -- use the up/down arrows
• Delete lanes -- remove lanes you do not need

Example custom workflows:

Project Type	Lanes
Daily ops	TO DO → IN PROGRESS → DONE
Approvals	SUBMITTED → UNDER REVIEW → APPROVED → FILED
IT requests	NEW → INVESTIGATING → WAITING ON PARTS → RESOLVED
Hiring	APPLIED → INTERVIEW → REFERENCE CHECK → OFFER → ONBOARDING

Allowed Tool Types

In Board Settings, you can restrict which task types are available in a project. An "IT Requests" project might only allow Bug, Request, and Task. A "Strategic Planning" project might only allow Decision, Milestone, and Feature.

Sort Modes

• Manual -- drag cards to reorder within and between lanes
• Priority -- urgent items first, then high, normal, low
• Due Date -- soonest deadlines first

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Working With Tasks Day-to-Day

Quick-Add from Any Page

See the + icon in the header bar (next to chat and calendar)? Click it to create a task without leaving your current page. Set a title, priority, and due date. The task goes into your default project's TO DO lane. Great for capturing things as they come up.

My Tasks Filter

Click My Tasks in the toolbar to see only tasks assigned to you or owned by you. Click All to see the full board. Use this when the board is busy and you just want to focus on your own work.

Drag and Drop

In Manual sort mode, drag cards between lanes to change their status. Drag from TO DO to IN PROGRESS when you start working. Drag to DONE when finished. The status change triggers a Discord notification if the lane is marked as closed (like DONE).

Search

Type in the search box to filter cards by title or description in real-time. The board updates as you type. Clear the search to see all cards again.

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Discord Notifications

Two actions trigger Discord notifications in the admin-notifications channel:

1. Task assigned -- the assigned person gets an @mention: "@brett was tagged in task 'Order new cartridges'"
2. Task completed -- when a task moves to a closed lane: "Brett completed task: 'Order new cartridges'"

Same privacy rules as everywhere else -- task titles only, never description or comment content.

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Quick Reference Card

I want to...	Do this
Create a new project	Projects dropdown → Create new project
Add a task	ADD TASK button, or + icon in header
See task details	Click any card
Move a task to another lane	Drag it, or change status in detail panel
Add a checklist	Open detail → type in checklist input → Add
Assign someone	Open detail → type @username → Add
Vote on a task	Open detail → click Vote button
Rate a task	Open detail → click stars (1-5)
Comment on a task	Open detail → type in comment input → Send
Set a due date	Open detail → pick date → optionally click calendar icon
Filter to my tasks	Click "My Tasks" in toolbar
Search tasks	Type in the search box in toolbar
Customise lanes	Gear icon → Board Settings
Sort by priority	Sort dropdown → Priority
Delete a task	Open detail → click trash icon → confirm

-- Reginald