Manage Your Tasks After Switching from Outlook to Google Workspace

When I started my first full-time job, I was pumped. I was making my own way in the world. I had a boss I liked. And it came with free snacks on Thursdays! ...I was less excited to learn Microsoft Outlook. If I hadn’t been required to use Outlook, I probably wouldn’t have chosen to. Then I learned about a feature that completely converted me: Tasks (now known as To Do). 

I had always gotten by with writing out a to-do list in my notebook or putting sticky notes on my monitor. As anyone who’s switched to a digital planner will know, being able to keep track of my action items in the same place as my email and calendar was a major game changer. I became addicted to Tasks. I scheduled recurring monthly and yearly tasks so I wouldn’t ever forget work that happened less frequently. I assigned them to my teammates after we doled out work at weekly meetings. If it needed to be done, I made it a task.

If you rely on Outlook’s task functionality to stay on top of your work, what are you supposed to do when your company migrates to Google Workspace? Or you switch jobs for a company that’s already deep in the Google ecosystem? There’s no way you’re going back to a physical planner and giving up the timely reminders telling you to get your work done. Google’s great in lots of ways, but one place they’re lacking is the task management department. 

There are lots of adjustments to get used to when you switch from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace. Google has helpful guides for how to handle most of these transitions. Word to Docs? Covered. OneDrive to Google Drive? Covered. Outlook to Gmail? Covered. They even have a section specifically for making Gmail look like Outlook. Very useful! While Google Tasks is an option for your task management needs, it’s functionality is still pretty limited, especially when it comes to sharing your tasks with others.

Instead of scraping by with Google Tasks, get the full task management functionality you’re used to by adding GQueues to your Google Workspace. 

How to Manage Tasks After Migrating from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace

GQueues is a work management app that’s specifically designed for Google users. It offers deep integration to Google Workspace including Gmail, Calendar, and Drive. So you get to see your tasks alongside your other Google tools, but you also get more functionality compared to Google Tasks. You’ll get everything you’re used to with To Do, and even some extra! Here’s how it works: 

1. Sign in to GQueues with your Google Account
2. Set up Teams or Categories to organize your work. They’re both like thematic buckets to organize your task lists. Teams are ideal for collaborative work.
3. Create queues within the Team. Queues are the equivalent of Task Lists in To Do. This is where your tasks live. 
4. Activate Calendar syncing to see your tasks in Google Calendar.
5. Install the Google Workspace Add-on to turn emails into tasks.
6. Start adding your tasks! (If you’ve already made new versions of your tasks in Google Tasks, you can move them into GQueues with a one-time import. Otherwise, try using the Quick Add Window within GQueues to add up to 50 tasks at a time. And if you prefer, there’s always the good, old-fashioned, one-at-a-time entry 😉)

Setup done! Now you can see your tasks while checking email or looking at your schedule for the day. You have all the ease and convenience of managing your work digitally, without sacrificing any of the features Microsoft To Do provided.

Get More From Your Task Management App

When I moved to a Google-centric workplace, I’ll admit I was feeling a little lost on how to manage my work. Then I found GQueues. *Angels sing*

GQueues gives you the benefits of To Do in Microsoft that Google Tasks is lacking, including:

• Sharing your lists with others for collaborative projects.
• Tagging your tasks for an additional layer of organization.
• Assigning tasks to teammates for clear delegation on shared work.
• Attaching files to tasks so everything you need to complete the work is easily accessible.
• Smart queues for filtering tasks based on criteria like their due date and tag.

And GQueues has helped me with so much more than just reliable task management. Last year I successfully led our Customer Care Team in migrating our help documentation to our new Help Center platform (ahead of schedule)! That’s because you get extra work management benefits like:

• More sharing options. Instead of giving people all-or-nothing access, choose between six different permission levels in shared teams. 
• Assigning work to people who aren’t already shared on your lists. This gives you more flexibility so you don’t have to divulge every one of your project details with folks who are just helping out with one-off tasks.
• Getting notified about collaborator changes. When you have a shared project, it’s useful to know when teammates make progress. Customize your notifications so you always hear about key updates.
• Unlimited layers of subtasks. Complex work needs more planning space!
• Task comments. Give quick updates to teammates right on the task. They’re time- and date-stamped so it’s easy to follow along.

The migration from Microsoft to Google doesn’t have to mean a major downgrade in task management capabilities. Sign in to GQueues today to upgrade your work.