assignment time to practice working with events and state

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React interactivity: Events and state

• Overview: Understanding client-side JavaScript frameworks

With our component plan worked out, it's now time to start updating our app from a completely static UI to one that actually allows us to interact and change things. In this article we'll do this, digging into events and state along the way, and ending up with an app in which we can successfully add and delete tasks, and toggle tasks as completed.

Handling events

If you've only written vanilla JavaScript before now, you might be used to having a separate JavaScript file in which you query for some DOM nodes and attach listeners to them. For example, an HTML file might have a button in it, like this:

And a JavaScript file might have some code like this:

In JSX, the code that describes the UI lives right alongside our event listeners:

In this example, we're adding an onClick attribute to the <button> element. The value of that attribute is a function that triggers a simple alert. This may seem counter to best practice advice about not writing event listeners in HTML, but remember: JSX is not HTML.

The onClick attribute has special meaning here: it tells React to run a given function when the user clicks on the button. There are a couple of other things to note:

• The camel-cased nature of onClick is important — JSX will not recognize onclick (again, it is already used in JavaScript for a specific purpose, which is related but different — standard onclick handler properties).
• All browser events follow this format in JSX – on , followed by the name of the event.

Let's apply this to our app, starting in the Form.jsx component.

Handling form submission

At the top of the Form() component function (i.e., just below the function Form() { line), create a function named handleSubmit() . This function should prevent the default behavior of the submit event . After that, it should trigger an alert() , which can say whatever you'd like. It should end up looking something like this:

To use this function, add an onSubmit attribute to the <form> element, and set its value to the handleSubmit function:

Now if you head back to your browser and click on the "Add" button, your browser will show you an alert dialog with the words "Hello, world!" — or whatever you chose to write there.

Callback props

In React applications, interactivity is rarely confined to just one component: events that happen in one component will affect other parts of the app. When we start giving ourselves the power to make new tasks, things that happen in the <Form /> component will affect the list rendered in <App /> .

We want our handleSubmit() function to ultimately help us create a new task, so we need a way to pass information from <Form /> to <App /> . We can't pass data from child to parent in the same way as we pass data from parent to child using standard props. Instead, we can write a function in <App /> that will expect some data from our form as an input, then pass that function to <Form /> as a prop. This function-as-a-prop is called a callback prop . Once we have our callback prop, we can call it inside <Form /> to send the right data to <App /> .

Handling form submission via callbacks

Inside the App() function in App.jsx , create a function named addTask() which has a single parameter of name :

Next, pass addTask() into <Form /> as a prop. The prop can have whatever name you want, but pick a name you'll understand later. Something like addTask works, because it matches the name of the function as well as what the function will do. Your <Form /> component call should be updated as follows:

To use this prop, we must change the signature of the Form() function in Form.jsx so that it accepts props as a parameter:

Finally, we can use this prop inside the handleSubmit() function in your <Form /> component! Update it as follows:

Clicking on the "Add" button in your browser will prove that the addTask() callback function works, but it'd be nice if we could get the alert to show us what we're typing in our input field! This is what we'll do next.

Aside: a note on naming conventions

We passed the addTask() function into the <Form /> component as the prop addTask so that the relationship between the addTask() function and the addTask prop would remain as clear as possible. Keep in mind, though, that prop names do not need to be anything in particular. We could have passed addTask() into <Form /> under any other name, such as this:

This would make the addTask() function available to the <Form /> component as the prop onSubmit . That prop could be used in Form.jsx like this:

Here, the on prefix tells us that the prop is a callback function; Submit is our clue that a submit event will trigger this function.

While callback props often match the names of familiar event handlers, like onSubmit or onClick , they can be named just about anything that helps make their meaning clear. A hypothetical <Menu /> component might include a callback function that runs when the menu is opened, as well as a separate callback function that runs when it's closed:

This on* naming convention is very common in the React ecosystem, so keep it in mind as you continue your learning. For the sake of clarity, we're going to stick with addTask and similar prop names for the rest of this tutorial. If you changed any prop names while reading this section, be sure to change them back before continuing!

Persisting and changing data with state

So far, we've used props to pass data through our components and this has served us just fine. Now that we're dealing with interactivity, however, we need the ability to create new data, retain it, and update it later. Props are not the right tool for this job because they are immutable — a component cannot change or create its own props.

This is where state comes in. If we think of props as a way to communicate between components, we can think of state as a way to give components "memory" – information they can hold onto and update as needed.

React provides a special function for introducing state to a component, aptly named useState() .

Note: useState() is part of a special category of functions called hooks , each of which can be used to add new functionality to a component. We'll learn about other hooks later on.

To use useState() , we need to import it from the React module. Add the following line to the top of your Form.jsx file, above the Form() function definition:

useState() takes a single argument that determines the initial value of the state. This argument can be a string, a number, an array, an object, or any other JavaScript data type. useState() returns an array containing two items. The first item is the current value of the state; the second item is a function that can be used to update the state.

Let's create a name state. Write the following above your handleSubmit() function, inside Form() :

Several things are happening in this line of code:

• We are defining a name constant with the value "Learn React" .
• We are defining a function whose job it is to modify name , called setName() .
• useState() returns these two things in an array, so we are using array destructuring to capture them both in separate variables.

Reading state

You can see the name state in action right away. Add a value attribute to the form's input, and set its value to name . Your browser will render "Learn React" inside the input.

Change "Learn React" to an empty string once you're done; this is what we want for our initial state:

Reading user input

Before we can change the value of name , we need to capture a user's input as they type. For this, we can listen to the onChange event. Let's write a handleChange() function, and listen for it on the <input /> element.

Currently, our input's value will not change when you try to enter text into it, but your browser will log the word "Typing!" to the JavaScript console, so we know our event listener is attached to the input.

To read the user's keystrokes, we must access the input's value property. We can do this by reading the event object that handleChange() receives when it's called. event , in turn, has a target property , which represents the element that fired the change event. That's our input. So, event.target.value is the text inside the input.

You can console.log() this value to see it in your browser's console. Try updating the handleChange() function as follows, and typing in the input to see the result in your console:

Updating state

Logging isn't enough — we want to actually store what the user types and render it in the input! Change your console.log() call to setName() , as shown below:

Now when you type in the input, your keystrokes will fill out the input, as you might expect.

We have one more step: we need to change our handleSubmit() function so that it calls props.addTask with name as an argument. Remember our callback prop? This will serve to send the task back to the App component, so we can add it to our list of tasks at some later date. As a matter of good practice, you should clear the input after your form is submitted, so we'll call setName() again with an empty string to do so:

At last, you can type something into the input field in your browser and click Add — whatever you typed will appear in an alert dialog.

Your Form.jsx file should now read like this:

Note: You'll notice that you are able to submit empty tasks by just pressing the Add button without entering a task name. Can you think of a way to prevent this? As a hint, you probably need to add some kind of check into the handleSubmit() function.

Putting it all together: Adding a task

Now that we've practiced with events, callback props, and hooks, we're ready to write functionality that will allow a user to add a new task from their browser.

Tasks as state

We need to import useState into App.jsx so that we can store our tasks in state. Add the following to the top of your App.jsx file:

We want to pass props.tasks into the useState() hook – this will preserve its initial state. Add the following right at the top of your App() function definition:

Now, we can change our taskList mapping so that it is the result of mapping tasks , instead of props.tasks . Your taskList constant declaration should now look like so:

Adding a task

We've now got a setTasks hook that we can use in our addTask() function to update our list of tasks. There's one problem however: we can't just pass the name argument of addTask() into setTasks , because tasks is an array of objects and name is a string. If we tried to do this, the array would be replaced with the string.

First of all, we need to put name into an object that has the same structure as our existing tasks. Inside of the addTask() function, we will make a newTask object to add to the array.

We then need to make a new array with this new task added to it and then update the state of the tasks data to this new state. To do this, we can use spread syntax to copy the existing array , and add our object at the end. We then pass this array into setTasks() to update the state.

Putting that all together, your addTask() function should read like so:

Now you can use the browser to add a task to our data! Type anything into the form and click "Add" (or press the Enter key) and you'll see your new todo item appear in the UI!

However, we have another problem : our addTask() function is giving each task the same id . This is bad for accessibility, and makes it impossible for React to tell future tasks apart with the key prop. In fact, React will give you a warning in your DevTools console — "Warning: Encountered two children with the same key…"

We need to fix this. Making unique identifiers is a hard problem – one for which the JavaScript community has written some helpful libraries. We'll use nanoid because it's tiny and it works.

Make sure you're in the root directory of your application and run the following terminal command:

Note: If you're using yarn, you'll need the following instead: yarn add nanoid .

Now we can use nanoid to create unique IDs for our new tasks. First of all, import it by including the following line at the top of App.jsx :

Now let's update addTask() so that each task ID becomes a prefix todo- plus a unique string generated by nanoid. Update your newTask constant declaration to this:

Save everything, and try your app again — now you can add tasks without getting that warning about duplicate IDs.

Detour: counting tasks

Now that we can add new tasks, you may notice a problem: our heading reads "3 tasks remaining" no matter how many tasks we have! We can fix this by counting the length of taskList and changing the text of our heading accordingly.

Add this inside your App() definition, before the return statement:

This is almost right, except that if our list ever contains a single task, the heading will still use the word "tasks". We can make this a variable, too. Update the code you just added as follows:

Now you can replace the list heading's text content with the headingText variable. Update your <h2> like so:

Save the file, go back to your browser, and try adding some tasks: the count should now update as expected.

Completing a task

You might notice that, when you click on a checkbox, it checks and unchecks appropriately. As a feature of HTML, the browser knows how to remember which checkbox inputs are checked or unchecked without our help. This feature hides a problem, however: toggling a checkbox doesn't change the state in our React application. This means that the browser and our app are now out-of-sync. We have to write our own code to put the browser back in sync with our app.

Proving the bug

Before we fix the problem, let's observe it happening.

We'll start by writing a toggleTaskCompleted() function in our App() component. This function will have an id parameter, but we're not going to use it yet. For now, we'll log the first task in the array to the console – we're going to inspect what happens when we check or uncheck it in our browser:

Add this just above your taskList constant declaration:

Next, we'll add toggleTaskCompleted to the props of each <Todo /> component rendered inside our taskList ; update it like so:

Next, go over to your Todo.jsx component and add an onChange handler to your <input /> element, which should use an anonymous function to call props.toggleTaskCompleted() with a parameter of props.id . The <input /> should now look like this:

Save everything and return to your browser and notice that our first task, Eat, is checked. Open your JavaScript console, then click on the checkbox next to Eat. It unchecks, as we expect. Your JavaScript console, however, will log something like this:

The checkbox unchecks in the browser, but our console tells us that Eat is still completed. We will fix that next!

Synchronizing the browser with our data

Let's revisit our toggleTaskCompleted() function in App.jsx . We want it to change the completed property of only the task that was toggled, and leave all the others alone. To do this, we'll map() over the task list and just change the one we completed.

Update your toggleTaskCompleted() function to the following:

Here, we define an updatedTasks constant that maps over the original tasks array. If the task's id property matches the id provided to the function, we use object spread syntax to create a new object, and toggle the completed property of that object before returning it. If it doesn't match, we return the original object.

Then we call setTasks() with this new array in order to update our state.

Deleting a task

Deleting a task will follow a similar pattern to toggling its completed state: we need to define a function for updating our state, then pass that function into <Todo /> as a prop and call it when the right event happens.

The deleteTask callback prop

Here we'll start by writing a deleteTask() function in your App component. Like toggleTaskCompleted() , this function will take an id parameter, and we will log that id to the console to start with. Add the following below toggleTaskCompleted() :

Next, add another callback prop to our array of <Todo /> components:

In Todo.jsx , we want to call props.deleteTask() when the "Delete" button is pressed. deleteTask() needs to know the ID of the task that called it, so it can delete the correct task from the state.

Update the "Delete" button inside Todo.jsx , like so:

Now when you click on any of the "Delete" buttons in the app, your browser console should log the ID of the related task.

At this point, your Todo.jsx file should look like this:

Deleting tasks from state and UI

Now that we know deleteTask() is invoked correctly, we can call our setTasks() hook in deleteTask() to actually delete that task from the app's state as well as visually in the app UI. Since setTasks() expects an array as an argument, we should provide it with a new array that copies the existing tasks, excluding the task whose ID matches the one passed into deleteTask() .

This is a perfect opportunity to use Array.prototype.filter() . We can test each task, and exclude a task from the new array if its id prop matches the id argument passed into deleteTask() .

Update the deleteTask() function inside your App.jsx file as follows:

Try your app out again. Now you should be able to delete a task from your app!

At this point, your App.jsx file should look like this:

That's enough for one article. Here we've given you the lowdown on how React deals with events and handles state, and implemented functionality to add tasks, delete tasks, and toggle tasks as completed. We are nearly there. In the next article we'll implement functionality to edit existing tasks and filter the list of tasks between all, completed, and incomplete tasks. We'll look at conditional UI rendering along the way.

Clientside Goodies

Practice React's useState hook with 8 Interactive Exercises

Put your react state management skills to the test with 8 interactive exercises.

So, grab some coffee or tea and let's get started!

In this exercise, you’re tasked with creating a simple counter component that increments a number every time a button is clicked.

Expectations:

Every time the button is clicked, the number should increment by 1

Display the current number state in the text element

Solution Walkthrough for Counter

Spoiler Alert!

Don't read this unless you've already solved the problem.

Key ReactJS Concepts:

Solution walkthrough:.

Display the current count :

2. Controlled Input Field

Create an input field component that allows a user to type in text and displays the text in real-time.

Every time the user types something in the input field, the text should update in the text element

You should use the useState hook to keep track of the text state

Solution Walkthrough for Controlled Input Field

Controlled Components :

In React, a controlled component is a component where the state of the input field is directly controlled by React. The value of the input field is set by a state variable, and any change in the value triggers an event handler to update the state.

Set up the controlled input field component :

Display the text in real-time :

3. Toggle Visibility

In this exercise, you're tasked with creating a component that toggles the visibility of a piece of text when a button is clicked. Expectations:

Initially, the text should be hidden

When the button is clicked, the text should become visible if it was hidden, and hidden if it was visible

• Use the useState hook to manage the visibility state

Solution Walkthrough for Toggle Visibility

Conditional Rendering :

React allows you to conditionally render elements based on a certain condition. In this exercise, we'll use conditional rendering to display or hide the text element based on the visibility state.

Event Handling :

4. Character Counter

Create a simple Character Counter component that allows users to type in text and displays the number of characters in real-time.

Create a textarea element for users to type in text

Display the character count below the textarea in real-time

• Use the useState hook to manage the text state

Solution Walkthrough for Character Counter

Event Handling and Controlled Components:

Real-time updates and react's re-rendering:, putting it all together:.

5. Todo List

In this exercise, you are tasked with creating a simple Todo List component that allows users to add new items to the list and delete items once they are completed. The Todo List should have the following features:

An input field for adding new todo items

A button to submit the new todo item

Display the list of todo items

A delete button next to each todo item to remove it from the list

• Use the useState hook to manage the todo list state

Solution Walkthrough for Todo List

List Rendering :

• handleInputChange updates the inputValue state variable whenever the input field value changes.
• handleSubmit adds a new todo item to the todos array when the "Add Todo" button is clicked. Before adding the item, it checks if the trimmed input value is not empty to prevent adding empty or whitespace-only items.
• handleDelete removes a todo item from the todos array based on its index.
• Attach the handleInputChange function to the input field's onChange event handler and set its value to the current inputValue state.
• Attach the handleSubmit function to the "Add Todo" button's onClick event handler.

Display the list of todo items :

6. Color Switcher

In this exercise, you are tasked with creating a simple Color Switcher component that allows users to change the background color of a div by selecting a color from a dropdown list.

Create a dropdown list with a few color options (e.g., red, blue, green, yellow)

When a color is selected from the dropdown, the background color of the div should change to the selected color

• Use the useState hook to manage the background color state

Solution Walkthrough for Color Switcher

7. Search Filter

In this exercise, you are tasked with creating a simple Search Filter component that allows users to filter a list of items based on their search input.

Create an input field for users to type in their search query

Display the list of items and filter them based on the user's search input

• Use the useState hook to manage the search input state

Solution Walkthrough for Search Filter

Filtering Items Based on Search Input:

This approach efficiently filters the list of items based on the user's search input, allowing us to display only the items that match the search criteria.

Rendering Filtered Items:

Searchfilter component:.

8. Drag and Drop List

In this exercise, you are tasked with creating a simple Drag and Drop List component that allows users to reorder a list of items by dragging and dropping them. The Drag and Drop List should have the following features:

Display the list of items

Allow users to drag and drop items to reorder the list

• Use the useState hook to manage the list state

Solution Walkthrough for Drag and Drop List

Managing Drag-and-Drop State:

Handling drag-and-drop events:.

We'll need to handle three drag-and-drop events to enable list reordering:

Rendering Draggable List Items:

Dragdroplist component:, ready to dive deeper.

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•   Adding a Cart Context (7:43)
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•   Adding a Cart Reducer (10:45)
•   Working with Refs & Forward Refs (10:49)
•   Outputting Cart Items (7:23)
•   Working on a More Complex Reducer Logic (5:29)
•   Making Items Removable (8:18)
•   Using the useEffect Hook (7:44)
•   Module Introduction (2:16)
•   How React Really Works (7:22)
•   Component Updates In Action (6:51)
•   A Closer Look At Child Component Re-Evaluation (10:41)
•   Preventing Unnecessary Re-Evaluations with React.memo() (11:36)
•   Preventing Function Re-Creation with useCallback() (4:13)
•   useCallback() and its Dependencies (7:10)
•   A First Summary (4:01)
•   A Closer Look At State & Components (3:30)
•   Understanding State Scheduling & Batching (9:05)
•   Optimizing with useMemo() (9:01)
•   Module Introduction (2:10)
•   What & Why (4:52)
•   Adding a First Class-based Component (6:54)
•   Working with State & Events (11:38)
•   The Component Lifecycle (Class-based Components Only!) (5:20)
•   Lifecycle Methods In Action (11:46)
•   Class-based Components & Context (4:53)
•   Class-based vs Functional Components: A Summary (2:42)
•   Introducing Error Boundaries (9:52)
•   Module Introduction (1:46)
•   How To (Not) Connect To A Database (3:32)
•   Our Starting App & Backend (3:52)
•   Sending a GET Request (10:35)
•   Using async / await (2:01)
•   Handling Loading & Data States (4:45)
•   Handling Http Errors (11:13)
•   Using useEffect() For Requests (6:27)
•   Preparing The Project For The Next Steps (6:16)
•   Sending a POST Request (9:16)
•   Wrap Up (1:16)
•   Module Introduction (1:25)
•   What are "Custom Hooks"? (1:44)
•   Creating a Custom React Hook Function (6:39)
•   Using Custom Hooks (4:45)
•   Configuring Custom Hooks (5:51)
•   Onwards To A More Realistic Example (6:45)
•   Building a Custom Http Hook (9:16)
•   Using the Custom Http Hook (7:44)
•   Adjusting the Custom Hook Logic (8:45)
•   Using The Custom Hook In More Components (8:53)
•   Module Introduction (1:36)
•   Our Starting Setup (1:41)
•   What's So Complex About Forms? (5:08)
•   Dealing With Form Submission & Getting User Input Values (10:04)
•   Adding Basic Validation (3:57)
•   Providing Validation Feedback (3:54)
•   Handling the "was touched" State (5:40)
•   React To Lost Focus (4:15)
•   Refactoring & Deriving States (9:07)
•   Managing The Overall Form Validity (7:30)
•   Time to Practice: Forms - Problem (1:22)
•   Time to Practice: Forms - Solution (5:45)
•   Adding A Custom Input Hook (12:44)
•   Re-Using The Custom Hook (2:54)
•   A Challenge For You! (1:41)
•   Applying Our Hook & Knowledge To A New Form (11:05)
•   Summary (3:17)
•   Bonus: Using useReducer() (8:22)
•   Module Introduction (3:21)
•   Moving "Meals" Data To The Backend (4:05)
•   Fetching Meals via Http (9:27)
•   Handling the Loading State (4:00)
•   Handling Errors (7:44)
•   Adding A Checkout Form (10:47)
•   Reading Form Values (4:51)
•   Adding Form Validation (12:04)
•   Submitting & Sending Cart Data (6:48)
•   Adding Better User Feedback (9:28)
•   Summary (1:31)
•   Module Introduction (1:05)
•   Another Look At State In React Apps (5:14)
•   Redux vs React Context (6:19)
•   How Redux Works (5:48)
•   Important: createStore() is (Not) Deprecated
•   Exploring The Core Redux Concepts (15:14)
•   More Redux Basics (3:04)
•   Preparing a new Project (1:59)
•   Creating a Redux Store for React (4:54)
•   Providing the Store (3:13)
•   Using Redux Data in React Components (5:08)
•   Dispatching Actions From Inside Components (3:33)
•   Redux with Class-based Components (10:20)
•   Attaching Payloads to Actions (4:15)
•   Working with Multiple State Properties (6:19)
•   How To Work With Redux State Correctly (5:07)
•   Redux Challenges & Introducing Redux Toolkit (5:27)
•   Adding State Slices (8:11)
•   Connecting Redux Toolkit State (4:47)
•   Migrating Everything To Redux Toolkit (6:19)
•   Working with Multiple Slices (11:50)
•   Reading & Dispatching From A New Slice (6:56)
•   Splitting Our Code (5:03)
•   Summary (3:53)
•   Module Introduction (0:39)
•   Redux & Side Effects (and Asynchronous Code) (3:27)
•   Refresher / Practice: Part 1/2 (20:12)
•   Refresher / Practice: Part 2/2 (18:00)
•   Redux & Async Code (4:28)
•   Frontend Code vs Backend Code (5:40)
•   Where To Put Our Logic (8:59)
•   Using useEffect with Redux (6:00)
•   A Problem with useEffect()
•   Handling Http States & Feedback with Redux (12:49)
•   Using an Action Creator Thunk (12:07)
•   Getting Started with Fetching Data (8:39)
•   Finalizing the Fetching Logic (5:16)
•   Exploring the Redux DevTools (5:37)
•   Summary (1:52)
•   Routing: Multiple Pages in Single-Page Applications (3:15)
•   Project Setup & Installing React Router (3:06)
•   Defining Routes (7:42)
•   Adding a Second Route (2:07)
•   Exploring an Alternative Way of Defining Routes (3:01)
•   Navigating between Pages with Links (4:36)
•   Layouts & Nested Routes (8:24)
•   Showing Error Pages with errorElement (3:58)
•   Working with Navigation Links (NavLink) (6:37)
•   Navigating Programmatically (2:41)
•   Defining & Using Dynamic Routes (7:44)
•   Adding Links for Dynamic Routes (3:22)
•   Understanding Relative & Absolute Paths (10:38)
•   Working with Index Routes (1:56)
•   Onwards to a new Project Setup (3:16)
•   Time to Practice: Problem (1:25)
•   Time to Practice: Solution (23:16)
•   Data Fetching with a loader() (7:35)
•   Using Data From A Loader In The Route Component (2:51)
•   More loader() Data Usage (3:17)
•   Where Should loader() Code Be Stored? (2:18)
•   When Are loader() Functions Executed? (2:48)
•   Reflecting The Current Navigation State in the UI (2:53)
•   Returning Responses in loader()s (4:01)
•   Which Kind Of Code Goes Into loader()s? (1:14)
•   Error Handling with Custom Errors (4:56)
•   Extracting Error Data & Throwing Responses (6:24)
•   The json() Utility Function (2:07)
•   Dynamic Routes & loader()s (7:32)
•   The useRouteLoaderData() Hook & Accessing Data From Other Routes (7:41)
•   Planning Data Submission (2:22)
•   Working with action() Functions (9:08)
•   Submitting Data Programmatically (9:06)
•   Updating the UI State Based on the Submission Status (4:02)
•   Validating User Input & Outputting Validation Errors (6:57)
•   Reusing Actions via Request Methods (7:55)
•   Behind-the-Scenes Work with useFetcher() (9:11)
•   Deferring Data Fetching with defer() (9:07)
•   Controlling Which Data Should Be Deferred (7:22)
•   Module Summary (2:57)
•   Module Introduction (1:10)
•   How Authentication Works (9:08)
•   Project Setup & Route Setup (3:46)
•   Working with Query Parameters (7:35)
•   Implementing the Auth Action (11:40)
•   Validating User Input & Outputting Validation Errors (4:18)
•   Adding User Login (1:55)
•   Attaching Auth Tokens to Outgoing Requests (6:32)
•   Adding User Logout (4:21)
•   Updating the UI Based on Auth Status (6:05)
•   Adding Route Protection (2:46)
•   Adding Automatic Logout (5:10)
•   Managing the Token Expiratoin (7:28)
•   Module Introduction (1:40)
•   Deployment Steps (3:35)
•   Understanding Lazy Loading (4:47)
•   Adding Lazy Loading (9:11)
•   Building the Code For Production (2:22)
•   Deployment Example (6:44)
•   Server-side Routing & Required Configuration (4:07)
•   Project Setup & Overview (4:08)
•   React Query: What & Why? (5:59)
•   Installing & Using Tanstack Query - And Seeing Why It's Great! (16:32)
•   Understanding & Configuring Query Behaviors - Cache & Stale Data (7:43)
•   Dynamic Query Functions & Query Keys (13:05)
•   The Query Configuration Object & Aborting Requests (5:27)
•   Enabled & Disabled Queries (6:55)
•   Changing Data with Mutations (11:29)
•   Fetching More Data & Testing the Mutation (6:39)
•   Acting on Mutation Success & Invalidating Queries (8:50)
•   A Challenge! The Problem (2:14)
•   A Challenge! The Solution (16:37)
•   Disabling Automatic Refetching After Invalidations (2:42)
•   Enhancing the Demo App & Repeating Mutation Concepts (9:18)
•   React Query Advantages In Action (8:57)
•   Updating Data with Mutations (4:49)
•   Optimistic Updating (13:06)
•   Using the Query Key As Query Function Input (7:47)
•   React Query & React Router (20:26)
•   Module Introduction (2:08)
•   What is NextJS? (4:45)
•   Key Feature 1: Built-in Server-side Rendering (Improved SEO!) (6:37)
•   Key Feature 2: Simplified Routing with File-based Routing (3:13)
•   Key Feature 3: Build Fullstack Apps (1:50)
•   Creating a New Next.js Project & App (5:39)
•   Analyzing the Created Project (2:52)
•   Adding First Pages (6:05)
•   Adding Nested Paths & Pages (Nested Routes) (3:47)
•   Creating Dynamic Pages (with Parameters) (3:36)
•   Extracting Dynamic Parameter Values (4:07)
•   Linking Between Pages (7:13)
•   Onwards to a bigger Project! (3:32)
•   Preparing the Project Pages (3:42)
•   Outputting a List of Meetups (5:03)
•   Adding the New Meetup Form (3:54)
•   The "_app.js" File & Layout Wrapper (6:17)
•   Using Programmatic (Imperative) Navigation (3:47)
•   Adding Custom Components & CSS Modules (10:00)
•   How Pre-rendering Works & Which Problem We Face (5:52)
•   Data Fetching for Static Pages (8:56)
•   More on Static Site Generation (SSG) (5:44)
•   Exploring Server-side Rendering (SSR) with "getServerSideProps" (6:27)
•   Working with Params for SSG Data Fetching (5:14)
•   Preparing Paths with "getStaticPaths" & Working With Fallback Pages (7:16)
•   Introducing API Routes (6:20)
•   Working with MongoDB (9:32)
•   Sending Http Requests To Our API Routes (6:49)
•   Getting Data From The Database (7:09)
•   Getting Meetup Details Data & Preparing Pages (9:41)
•   Adding "head" Metadata (9:19)
•   Deploying Next.js Projects (12:26)
•   Using Fallback Pages & Re-deploying (4:13)
•   Summary (2:15)
•   Module Introduction (3:05)
•   Project Setup & Overview (1:42)
•   Animating with CSS Transitions (7:41)
•   Animating with CSS Animations (5:38)
•   Introducing Framer Motion (3:48)
•   Framer Motion Basics & Fundamentals (8:29)
•   Animating Between Conditional Values (4:13)
•   Adding Entry Animations (4:28)
•   Animating Element Disappearances / Removal (3:51)
•   Making Elements "Pop" With Hover Animations (4:13)
•   Reusing Animation States (3:28)
•   Nested Animations & Variants (7:46)
•   Animating Staggered Lists (4:29)
•   Animating Colors & Working with Keyframes (4:04)
•   Imperative Animations (7:28)
•   Animating Layout Changes (3:34)
•   Orchestrating Multi-Element Animations (10:05)
•   Combining Animations With Layout Animations (3:55)
•   Animating Shared Elements (4:15)
•   Re-triggering Animations via Keys (4:52)
•   Scroll-based Animations (15:44)
•   Module Introduction (2:58)
•   Preparing the Demo Project (4:56)
•   Using CSS Transitions (4:34)
•   Using CSS Animations (5:32)
•   CSS Transition & Animations Limitations (4:04)
•   Using ReactTransitionGroup (12:19)
•   Using the Transition Component (3:24)
•   Wrapping the Transition Component (3:16)
•   Animation Timings (3:14)
•   Transition Events (2:33)
•   The CSSTransition Component (5:23)
•   Customizing CSS Classnames (2:30)
•   Animating Lists (6:53)
•   Alternative Animation Packages (4:28)
•   Wrap Up (1:57)
•   Module Introduction (1:01)
•   Starting Project & Why You Would Replace Redux (4:19)
•   Alternative: Using the Context API (7:13)
•   Toggling Favorites with the Context API (5:43)
•   Context API Summary (and why NOT to use it instead of Redux) (2:30)
•   Getting Started with a Custom Hook as a Store (8:11)
•   Finishing the Store Hook (5:53)
•   Creating a Concrete Store (4:11)
•   Using the Custom Store (5:40)
•   Custom Hook Store Summary (3:13)
•   Optimizing the Custom Hook Store (4:04)
•   Wrap Up (2:00)
•   Bonus: Managing Multiple State Slices with the Custom Store Hook
•   Module Introduction (1:23)
•   What & Why? (3:23)
•   Understanding Different Kinds Of Tests (4:04)
•   What To Test & How To Test (1:29)
•   Understanding the Technical Setup & Involved Tools (2:39)
•   Running a First Test (7:16)
•   Writing Our First Test (10:14)
•   Grouping Tests Together With Test Suites (2:14)
•   Testing User Interaction & State (14:00)
•   Testing Connected Components (3:19)
•   Testing Asynchronous Code (9:11)
•   Working With Mocks (8:30)
•   Summary & Further Resources (3:47)
•   Module Introduction (1:26)
•   What & Why? (6:34)
•   Installing & Using TypeScript (6:38)
•   Exploring the Base Types (3:55)
•   Working with Array & Object Types (5:33)
•   Understanding Type Inference (2:47)
•   Using Union Types (2:48)
•   Understanding Type Aliases (2:42)
•   Functions & Function Types (5:19)
•   Diving Into Generics (8:01)
•   A Closer Look At Generics
•   Creating a React + TypeScript Project (8:34)
•   Working with Components & TypeScript (5:41)
•   Working with Props & TypeScript (14:20)
•   Adding a Data Model (9:09)
•   Time to Practice: Exercise Time! (7:02)
•   Form Submissions In TypeScript Projects (5:21)
•   Working with refs & useRef (10:56)
•   Working with "Function Props" (7:26)
•   Managing State & TypeScript (5:13)
•   Adding Styling (2:19)
•   Time to Practice: Removing a Todo (9:27)
•   The Context API & TypeScript (13:55)
•   Summary (2:18)
•   Bonus: Exploring tsconfig.json (5:46)
•   What Are React Hooks? (4:56)
•   The Starting Project (4:51)
•   Getting Started with useState() (9:20)
•   More on useState() & State Updating (11:54)
•   Array Destructuring (2:34)
•   Multiple States (3:47)
•   Rules of Hooks (2:20)
•   Passing State Data Across Components (7:56)
•   Time to Practice: Hooks Basics - Problem (1:03)
•   Time to Practice: Hooks Basics - Solution (2:55)
•   Sending Http Requests (7:16)
•   useEffect() & Loading Data (8:06)
•   Understanding useEffect() Dependencies (2:21)
•   More on useEffect() (9:37)
•   What's useCallback()? (5:28)
•   Working with Refs & useRef() (5:21)
•   Cleaning Up with useEffect() (3:20)
•   Deleting Ingredients (2:28)
•   Loading Errors & State Batching (8:48)
•   More on State Batching & State Updates
•   Understanding useReducer() (9:43)
•   Using useReducer() for the Http State (10:40)
•   Working with useContext() (8:27)
•   Performance Optimizations with useMemo() (10:30)
•   Getting Started with Custom Hooks (13:45)
•   Sharing Data Between Custom Hooks & Components (14:58)
•   Using the Custom Hook (8:11)
•   Wrap Up (3:05)
•   Module Introduction (1:08)
•   What Is React & Why Would You Use It? (5:37)
•   React Projects - Requirements (2:09)
•   Creating React Projects (3:27)
•   Our Starting Project (3:28)
•   Understanding How React Works (7:46)
•   Building A First Custom Component (11:15)
•   Outputting Dynamic Values (5:03)
•   Reusing Components (6:00)
•   Passing Data to Components with Props (6:15)
•   CSS Styling & CSS Modules (10:07)
•   Exercise & Another Component (6:31)
•   Preparing the App For State Management (3:46)
•   Adding Event Listeners (7:52)
•   Working with State (10:00)
•   Lifting State Up (9:08)
•   The Special "children" Prop (7:21)
•   State & Conditional Content (8:59)
•   Adding a Shared Header & More State Management (7:51)
•   Adding Form Buttons (3:34)
•   Handling Form Submission (6:18)
•   Updating State Based On Previous State (5:30)
•   Outputting List Data (6:39)
•   Adding a Backend to the React SPA (6:10)
•   Sending a POST HTTP Request (4:12)
•   Handling Side Effects with useEffect() (9:06)
•   Handle Loading State (4:23)
•   Understanding & Adding Routing (3:55)
•   Adding Routes (5:36)
•   Working with Layout Routes (4:08)
•   Refactoring Route Components & More Nesting (5:35)
•   Linking & Navigating (8:09)
•   Data Fetching via loader()s (9:07)
•   Submitting Data with action()s (11:08)
•   Dynamic Routes (8:41)
•   Module Summary (1:25)
•   What Now? Next Steps You Could Take! (3:19)
•   Explore The React Ecosystem! (4:27)
•   Finishing Thoughts (1:10)
•   Optional: Old Lectures

  Time to Practice: Working with Events & State - Solution

Time Worksheets

• Kindergarten

how to effectively assign tasks to team members to increase productivity?

Picture this: It's Monday morning, and your team is buzzing with excitement, ready to take on the week. But wait! Who's doing what? Does everyone know their roles and responsibilities? Ah, the perennial challenge of assigning tasks . If this rings a bell, worry not. We've all been there. Have you ever felt the sting of mismatched roles? Like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole? Assigned tasks play a pivotal role in the smooth functioning of any team. And guess what? There are methods and tools that make this process easier. Let’s dive in.

As a leader in the workplace, it is essential to ensure that everyone in the team gets the appropriate amount of work. Sometimes, it's tempting to give an employee more tasks than others, especially if he/she finishes the tasks faster. But keep in mind that as managers, you must be fair. You must learn how to effectively assign tasks to your team members . 

Although it may seem like a simple management function, assigning tasks to your team is actually challenging. As said by Liane Davey, cofounder of 3COze Inc. and author of  You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done , You are “juggling multiple interests” in the pursuit of optimal team performance.

Task distribution among various departments might vary from person to person. For efficient delegation, it is vital to consider guidelines while distributing duties to team members.

Tasks that are delegated effectively move your people, projects, and the entire business forward. It increases management and staff trust and accountability, helps in refining and teaching new abilities, enables personnel to become acquainted with various groups and areas of employment, and is an excellent foundation for performance reviews, etc.

How do you assign tasks to your employees? 

Assigning tasks is typically perceived as a time-consuming activity that focuses on removing items from task lists in order to keep the project moving forward. Task assignment, nevertheless, ought to be a more employee-focused procedure that calls for extra commitment and work, which produces excellent outcomes. 

Here are some tips to effectively assign tasks to your employees:

1. Delegate Positively

Don't just throw work at someone and expect them to deliver when they might not be qualified for that particular assignment. Maintain a mindset of doubting every assignment you gave and go over your personnel roster to see whether anyone else is capable of completing it as effectively as you can. They will be more likely to believe that they can do the assignment in the manner that the leader desires if they have a positive outlook. Employees won't feel inspired to start their assignment if you adversely assign them or have doubts about their competence. A little encouragement will make their day happier and encourage them to confidently do the tasks given to them.

2. Set Clear Goals and Objectives

To understand how your team performs, you should set clear goals and objectives before entrusting them with any responsibilities. When goals and objectives are not defined, it'll be harder for your team to see the big picture and perform tasks in a particular manner. 

3. Assign the Right Task to the Right Employee

This is the key to productivity. Who has the most expertise and experience should be given priority, but don't give that individual too much work. You should also think about who needs to develop their sense of responsibility. Also, take into account the passage of time and their eagerness to seize the opportunity. To do this, the manager should create a delegation plan that considers the various skill sets of each employee and assign tasks that are properly suited to each individual. On the other hand, when a task requires an extraordinary employee and there is a talent shortage, the leaders themselves should do the assignment in an emergency or without a workforce.

4. Obtain Inputs from Your Team and Set Up Meetings if Possible

Get suggestions from your team on what should be modified, who you could include, and how outcomes should be defined. Engage with the specific managers of the sub-teams if you are in charge of a large team or organization. A meeting with the entire team is necessary before assigning tasks to team members. You may obtain a clear picture of who is responsible for what and how purposefully they can do the assignment. Getting suggestions from your team members ensures that each of them will contribute to the task's accomplishment.

5. Conduct Training and Supervision

A project's completion necessitates the blending of various delegation techniques, a high degree of team member commitment, and effective planning and execution. It is essential to teach the team members and meet with the team every day in order to produce a skilled workforce. The training includes free access to resources for developing skills, such as courses from Upskillist ,  Udemy , or  Coursera . Following the training phase, the work must be supervised by a professional to ensure that the team learned from the training provided. Before and throughout the task assignment and execution among several team members, training and supervision are equally crucial.

6. Communicate Constantly

It doesn't mean that when you're done delegating the tasks, everything's good. No, it doesn't work that way. Constant communication is also the key to unlocking productivity. You need to collaborate with your team . Professionals at work must keep a close watch on their team members to learn about any challenges or issues they may be having.  For the task to be completed and the status of each team member to be tracked, communication is essential. Following up on tasks you assign to your employees helps them manage pressure and boost job productivity since problems like stress and pressure may tangle them and slow them down. Employee burnout is a result of micromanagement, which is not a good concept. It is best to let staff go free by following up casually.

7. Know who to Handover Authorization and Control

Decentralized power relieves employers of job management. Make sure to provide your staff some authority when you delegate tasks to them using management apps such as Trello , Asana , Edworking , Slack , and the like. Employees become empowered and responsible for completing tasks as a result of the control transfer. Giving them too little authority can cause issues because they lose interest in their work while giving them too much control might overwhelm them and cause them to forget basic responsibilities. The key to the team's success is giving each member the authority they rightfully deserve while also soliciting input.

8. After the project, assess the results

Ask yourself how you as the manager could support the success of your team members more effectively. Give constructive criticism and accept it in return.

The most vital phase in job completion is assigning tasks to team members. Due to the frequent mistakes made while delegating duties, it is imperative to use management tools when giving your team responsibilities. Project management solutions provide better work allocations by incorporating features like marketing automation. Employee development and time tracking are made easier by the task assignment guidelines, which also help keep workers interested. 

Allocating Vs. Delegating Tasks 

Now that you've learned about some tips to properly assign tasks, you may also have questions like, "what's the difference between allocating and delegating tasks?" 

As stated by Abhinav in a published article on LinkedIn, "The imbalance of responsibility and accountability is the main difference between Delegation and Allocation." What does it mean? Delegation gives a real opportunity for your team to upskill, grow, and develop. Allocating tasks is merely assigning tasks without the goal of helping your team grow.

Although assigning tasks has its merits, delegating tasks offers significant advantages in terms of employee growth and engagement. Because delegation when done well delivers diversity and other intrinsic motivational incentives that make work so much more meaningful, it will be even more rewarding for the manager and team members.

Task Tips and Best Practices 

In order to accomplish our objectives and SMART goals, we define a particular number of tasks that we must do each day. We frequently take on more than we can handle in the fight to remain at the top of our game and maintain our competitive edge.

Even while everything appears to be of the utmost importance, something is off in your struggle to finish everything while maintaining your composure. Some of us have a lengthy list of things we want to get done before a given age or period. Others devote so much effort to honing a particular skill that by the time it shines, it is no longer relevant.

Time management and balancing workload are not just skills of project managers or superiors. In reality, these abilities should be embraced at every level, particularly when working in a team. Research by Cornerstone found that when workers believe they don't have enough time in the day to do their jobs, work overload reduces productivity by 68%. What tips and best practices should you do so you don't only allocate tasks but delegate them effectively?

1. Prioritize. Make a to-do list according to the order of priority

Even if to-do lists are classic, they are still more efficient and effective than ever. People used to keep handwritten notes for ideas and tasks back in the day.  There are smart to-do lists apps and software that provide notifications and reminders prior to the task's due date. 

2. Maximize productivity and minimize procrastination

To start, delegate the tasks to the right people. Don't do it tomorrow or the next day. Do it today. Having a lot to accomplish may be stressful, which is sometimes worse than the actual task. If you struggle with procrastination, it's possible that you haven't come up with a good task management strategy. You might express your lack of starting knowledge by procrastinating. It could not be laziness, but rather a matter of setting priorities.

3. Be motivated

Procrastination and a lack of motivation are closely correlated. When you lack motivation, you tend to get distracted. If you want to meet milestones and deadlines, be motivated.

4. Delegate and be involved

The reality of being overburdened can have a negative impact on productivity if it is not properly managed. At the end of the day, we're still just humans. When it comes to having patience, resilience, working under pressure, or finishing a task quickly, each one of us possesses a certain set of skills. So, delegate the right tasks to the right person in your team, and don't just stop there. Be involved. Leaving the stadium just because you're done delegating is a big no. Keep in touch with them and follow up on the progress of the tasks assigned.

Task Vs. Subtask 

Tasks and subtasks are quite similar. The only difference is that a subtask should be completed as an element of completing a larger and more complex task.

For example, the task is to increase your company's social media presence. So, what should you do to accomplish those tasks? That's when you have subtasks such as creating optimized posts and content on various social media platforms, scheduling them, interacting with your audience in the comment section, etc. 

The additional stages that make up a task are called subtasks. They are essential while working on large projects with a wide range of tasks. In some task management tools, You may create as many subtasks as you need in the task view, but you must first choose the parent task before you can create a subtask.

Why You Should Assign Tasks Effectively to Team Members

Enhance team productivity.

Efficient task assignment can work wonders for your team's productivity. When each team member knows their role and is well-suited for their tasks, they can focus on delivering high-quality results. Imagine a well-oiled machine, with each cog spinning smoothly and in harmony - that's your team at peak productivity!

Consider these points:

• Match tasks to individual skills : Ensure tasks align with your team members' unique abilities and expertise.
• Set clear expectations : Be transparent about deadlines, deliverables, and objectives.
• Foster collaboration : Encourage communication and collaboration among team members.

Nurture a Sense of Ownership

Assigning tasks effectively helps to in still a sense of ownership and responsibility within your team. When individuals understand their role in a project, they are more likely to take pride in their work and strive for excellence. It's like planting a seed - with proper care and attention, it'll grow into a strong, thriving tree.

Key elements to foster ownership:

• Encourage autonomy : Allow team members to make decisions and take charge of their tasks.
• Provide feedback : Offer constructive feedback and celebrate successes.
• Support development : Invest in your team members' growth through training and development opportunities.

Reduce Work Overload and Burnout

Nobody wants to be buried under an avalanche of tasks. By allocating work effectively, you can prevent team members from feeling overwhelmed and burned out. Just as we can't run on empty, neither can our team members - so, let's ensure they have a manageable workload.

Strategies to avoid overload:

• Balance workloads : Distribute tasks evenly and consider individual capacities.
• Encourage breaks : Promote a healthy work-life balance and remind your team to take breaks.
• Monitor progress : Regularly check in with your team members to assess their workloads and stress levels.

Boost Employee Engagement

An engaged employee is a happy and productive one. When you assign tasks effectively, you're laying the groundwork for increased engagement. Think of it as a dance - with the right choreography, everyone knows their steps and performs in harmony.

Steps to enhance engagement:

• Align tasks with goals : Ensure tasks contribute to the overall goals of your team and organization.
• Offer variety : Mix up tasks to keep things interesting and provide opportunities for growth.
• Recognize achievements : Acknowledge hard work and accomplishments.

Improve Overall Team Morale

Finally, effective task assignment can lead to a happier, more cohesive team. When everyone feels valued and supported, team morale soars. Imagine a choir, each voice blending harmoniously to create a beautiful symphony - that's a team with high morale.

Ways to uplift team morale:

• Empower decision-making : Encourage team members to contribute their ideas and be part of the decision-making process.
• Foster a positive atmosphere : Cultivate an environment of open communication, trust, and support.
• Celebrate successes : Acknowledge both individual and team achievements, and celebrate them together.

Tools to Simplify Task Assignments in Teams

Microsoft outlook: not just for emails.

Yes, you heard that right. Beyond sending emails, Outlook has task features that allow managers to assign work to team members. You can set deadlines, prioritize, and even track progress. Think of it as your digital task manager. How cool is that?

Google Docs: Collaboration Made Easy

A favorite for many, Google Docs allows real-time collaboration. Need to distribute tasks ? Create a shared document, list down the tasks, and voila! Everyone can view, edit, or comment. Ever thought of using a simple shared document as a task distribution board?

Trello: Visual Task Management

For those of us who are visual creatures, Trello is a game-changer. Create boards, list assigned duties , and move them across columns as they progress. Remember playing with building blocks as a kid? It’s pretty much that, but digital and for grown-ups!

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Assigning tasks effectively is a skill that every leader must master to ensure team productivity and employee satisfaction. While the tips provided earlier can help you get there, being aware of common mistakes in task assignment is equally crucial. Avoiding these pitfalls can save you from derailing your projects and hampering your team's morale.

1. Overburdening Skilled Employees

It's tempting to give the bulk of the work to your most skilled team members, but this can lead to burnout and decreased productivity in the long term.

2. Lack of Clarity in Instructions

Vague or unclear instructions can result in misunderstandings, leading to poor quality of work or project delays. Always be specific and clear about what is expected.

3. Micromanaging

While it’s essential to oversee the progress of tasks, hovering over your team members can undermine their confidence and create a stressful work environment.

4. Failing to Prioritize Tasks

Not all tasks are created equal. Failing to prioritize can lead to poor allocation of resources, with less important tasks taking away time and energy from critical objectives.

5. Ignoring Team Input

Ignoring suggestions or feedback from your team can result in missed opportunities for more effective delegation and stronger team cohesion.

6. One-Size-Fits-All Approach

Remember that each team member has unique skills and limitations. Assigning tasks without considering these factors can lead to ineffective results and frustrated employees.

7. Neglecting Follow-Up

Assigning a task is not the end but part of an ongoing process. Failing to follow up can result in delays and could indicate to your team that the task wasn’t that important to begin with.

8. Fear of Delegating

Sometimes managers avoid delegating tasks because they feel that no one else can do the job as well as they can. This not only increases your workload but also deprives team members of growth opportunities.

A significant aspect of a leader's duties is delegating assignments to team members effectively. The secret to a manager's team functioning like an efficient machine is wise delegation.

Because of delegation, you won't have to spend hours on work that someone else can complete more quickly. Trying to handle everything on your own can quickly wear you out, regardless of your knowledge or expertise. Effectively delegating tasks enables you to keep on top of your own work while assisting team members in acquiring new abilities and developing a sense of comfort with taking ownership of tasks. 

Proper delegation of tasks also provides managers and team members with a learning opportunity since it enables everyone to build trust and become accustomed to exchanging comments and showing each other respect and appreciation.

Less is more when attempting to boost your team's output. Your team may become burned out if you try to increase their production too rapidly. In contrast, if you're too aggressive, your team can lose interest in their work and productivity might drop. Keep in mind that everyone will be more productive if they are part of the decision-making and execution process.

If you want to delegate tasks with ease and convenience, go for Edworking . This management tool lets you assign tasks and oversee your team's progress in a specific task. You can also conduct meetings to meet your team.`

Know that productivity greatly matters. With the right knowledge of assigning tasks to your team members, you can maximize productivity. Thus, achieving the goals and objectives of your organization.

What is the best way to assign tasks to team members?

Recognizing and understanding each member's unique strengths and expertise is paramount. Instead of assigning tasks randomly, it's always better to match each job with the individual’s skill set. Consider open dialogue, seek feedback, and ensure the assigned tasks align with both team and individual goals. It's a bit like giving everyone their favorite role in a play; wouldn't they shine brighter?

How do you assign tasks to a team in Teamwork?

In Teamwork, tasks can be assigned effortlessly. Start by creating a task list, then add individual tasks. Within each task, there's an option to 'Assign To.' Simply choose the team member you wish to assign the task to. Think of it as passing the baton in a relay race – each person knows when to run and when to pass it on!

Why is it important to assign tasks to your team members?

Assigning specific tasks helps in streamlining the workflow, ensuring accountability, and reducing overlaps or gaps in responsibilities. It also empowers team members by giving them ownership of their work. Have you ever seen a football team where everyone runs after the ball? Without clear roles, it's chaos!

How do you politely assign a task?

Start by acknowledging the individual's capabilities and expressing confidence in their ability to handle the task. Then, clearly explain the job's scope, expectations, and its importance in the overall project. Think of it as offering a piece of cake, not dumping a plate on their lap!

How do short term goals differ from long term goals?

Short-term goals act as stepping stones towards achieving long-term goals. While short-term goals focus on immediate challenges and tasks (think weeks or months), long-term goals look at the bigger picture and can span years. It's like comparing a sprint to a marathon. One's quick and intense, the other's about endurance and the long haul.

12 Best Practices for Successful Task Assignment and Tracking

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1. What are the top 12 practices for successful task assignment and tracking?

Key practices for effective task assignment.

The assignment of tasks should always be done strategically to ensure successful completion. Here are six key practices for successful task assignment:

• Clear and concise instructions: Always provide clear steps on how to accomplish the task. Vague instructions may lead to misunderstandings and poor results.
• Assign tasks based on skills and experience: Certain tasks require special skills. Assign tasks to those who have the skills and experience needed to perform them efficiently.
• Establish realistic deadlines: Set achievable deadlines to prevent unnecessary pressure and poor quality of work.
• Communicate the task's importance: Explain why the task is necessary and how it contributes to the overall project.
• Availability check: Make sure that the person assigned to the task has the capacity to do it.
• Empower them: Give them the freedom to do the work in their own way, as long as they meet the project’s quality standards.

Efficient Task Tracking Methods

Task tracking not only ensures timely completion but also guarantees that the quality of work is not compromised. Here are six efficient task tracking methods:

• Use of tracking tools: Implementing task tracking tools like Trello or Asana can automate the tracking process.
• Regular follow-ups: Frequent check-ins allow early detection of issues and timely resolution.
• Setting Milestones: Break down the tasks into manageable chunks or stages with set deadlines.
• Encourage self-reporting: Ask team members to provide status updates on assigned tasks. This makes tracking easier and instills a sense of responsibility.
• Document progress: Keep a record of task progression to easily identify bottlenecks and delays.
• Feedback session: Constructive feedback sessions aimed at learning can be helpful for future tasks.

Comparison Table for Task Assignment and Task Tracking

2. How can I effectively use these best practices in my daily work management?

Utilizing best practices in daily work management.

Deploying the best practices in your daily work management is all about integration and consistency. Whether you are leading a small team or managing a large project, the successful task assignment and tracking methods will boost productivity and keep everyone on the same page. Here's how you can effectively use these practices:

• Clear Communication: Always communicate task details clearly. Specify the project description, important deadlines, and the expected deliverables. Make use of tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams for smooth communication.
• Team Collaboration: Encourage teamwork, brainstorming sessions and ensure everyone contributes their ideas. Collaborative tools like Google Workspace or Monday.com can assist in shared work.
• Prioritization & Scheduling: Prioritize tasks based on their urgency and importance. Use scheduling tools, like Asana or Trello, to arrange tasks for all team members, ensuring they are aware of their responsibilities.

Implementing Task Assignment Practices

Assigning tasks effectively involves understanding each team member's strengths and weaknesses. The following steps are recommended:

Successful Task Tracking

Tracking tasks helps in maintaining the project's accuracy ensuring that everything is running smoothly. Adopting effective tracking practices can lead to a drop in missed deadlines, an increase in productivity, and a more efficient workflow. Here are some tracking methods:

• Use a Project Management System that offers real-time tracking.
• Conduct regular progress meetings.
• Encourage team members to provide progress reports.

3. Can these best practices for task assignment and tracking be applied to any industry?

Applicability of best practices across industries.

The best practices for task assignment and tracking are versatile, adaptable and can be beneficial to most, if not all industries. This includes but is not limited to the IT, healthcare, construction, education, and manufacturing industries. The principles of clarity, efficiency, and productivity that underscore these best practices are universal needs across business operations.

List of Industries

• Information Technology
• Construction
• Manufacturing

Each of these industries can make use of the best practices in their own unique way. For instance, in the IT industry, these best practices can be utilized to assign and track different coding or debugging tasks. In healthcare, these practices can be used to efficiently assign patient care tasks to different members of a healthcare team. In education, teachers can assign tasks to students and track their progress more effectively. In short, these practices foster a culture of accountability and efficiency.

Tabular Representation of Application in Different Industries

In conclusion, these best practices provide a standard system that is convenient, effective and that can be customized to any industry’s specifics. The consistent theme across all industries is to enhance productivity and optimize resources.

4. What is the first step one should take to apply these practices effectively?

Understanding the task.

The first step towards effectively applying the practices for successful task assignment and tracking is gaining a thorough understanding of the task at hand. To successfully delegate assignments and oversee their completion, you must grasp the task's specifics, objectives, and requirements. The following goals can guide you:

• Determine the nature and scope of the task: Exactly what does this task entail? What are its dimensions and boundaries?
• Identify the expected outcome: What should the ideal result look like once the task is completed?
• Analyze potential problems: What kind of issues may arise during the execution of the task? How can they be addressed proactively?

Establishing Clear Objective and Goals

Once you've comprehended the task, the next step involves establishing clear objectives and goals. These goals should ideally be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). A well-defined goal gives a clear direction to the entire task assignment process. Consider the following points when mapping out your goals:

Identifying the Right People for the Task

Once each task has been clearly defined and its goals set, the next step is to assign the right people to the task. This requires analyzing your team's strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and workload. Here are some factors to consider:

• Skills and capabilities: Does the person possess the necessary skills and abilities to perform the task effectively?
• Workload: Does the person have the necessary time and bandwidth to take on the task?
• Preference: Does the person show an interest in the task? Are they excited about the work they're assigned?

5. Are there specific tools that help facilitate these best practices for task assignment and tracking?

Top tools for task assignment and tracking.

There are numerous tools designed specifically to facilitate task assignment and tracking. They range from simple to-do list apps to complex project management systems. Here are a few popular options:

• Asana: This tool is designed for both individuals and teams. It allows for task assignment, due dates, priorities, comments, file attachments, and progress tracking.
• JIRA: Popular among software development teams, JIRA provides a detailed view of ongoing tasks, project timelines, and allows for personalized workflows.
• Trello: Trello operates on a board-and-card system, allowing for easy visualization of tasks and assignments. It also supports collaboration and progress tracking.
• Basecamp: This is a project management tool that integrates discussions, tasks, files, and timelines in one place. It offers a clear view of who’s working on what.

Choosing the Right Tool for Your Needs

To choose the right tool for task assignment and tracking, you need to consider the size of your team, the complexity of the tasks, and the specific features you need. Equally important is the user-friendliness and cost of the tool. Here's a simple comparison:

Consistent Use of Tools

Regardless of which tool you choose, consistent use is essential. All team members should be trained on how to use the tool effectively. Regular updates and reviews are also crucial to keep everyone aligned and ensure smooth progression of tasks. Remember, a tool is only as good as how you use it.

6. How does clear communication help in successful task assignment and tracking?

Benefits of clear communication.

Successfully assigning and tracking tasks in any business or organization often hinge on clear and effective communication. With effective communication, team members can understand their responsibilities, tasks can be properly tracked, and project deadlines can be met. There are several benefits that clear communication provides:

• Boosts Team Morale: When everyone understands their role in a project, they feel valued, which increases motivation and productivity.
• Prevents Confusion: Clear instructions prevent misunderstandings, ensuring tasks are done correctly the first time.
• Increases Efficiency: When goals and objectives are clear, teams can work more efficiently, saving time and resources.

How to Communicate Clearly

Implementing the right communication strategies can be crucial for successful task assignment and tracking. Here are a few methods to foster better communication:

Elements of Clear Communication

To ensure your communication is clear and effective, consider the following elements:

• Clarity: Ensure the message is simple, direct and that technical jargon is minimized where possible.
• Conciseness: Too much information can confuse. State only necessary details.
• Feedback: Encourage feedback - it helps affirm the message was understood correctly.

7. Why is it important to define expected outcomes when assigning tasks?

Importance of defining expected outcomes.

Defining expected outcomes is a vital step in task assignment and tracking because it sets the direction and provides a clear vision of what needs to be achieved. It helps in setting the standards, improving performance, and ensuring better accountability. The following points will further elucidate its significance:

• Clarity and direction: defining the expected outcome provides clear instructions to the task performer about what exactly needs to be achieved. It gives them a sense of direction and purpose.
• Performance measurement: With a defined outcome, it becomes easier to measure performance. The actual results can easily be compared against the expected results, simplifying performance appraisal.
• Increased Accountability: If expected outcomes are well-defined, it can help increase accountability. Task performers are more likely to take ownership and responsibility of their work, ensuring that they deliver the expected results.

Best Practices When Defining Expected Outcomes

While defining expected outcomes is important, it is equally crucial to ensure they are well drafted. Following are some best practices to consider when defining the expected outcomes:

Defining expected outcomes when assigning tasks is a fundamental step to ensure smooth progress and successful task completion. It not only provides a clear vision of what needs to be achieved but also facilitates performance measurement, leading to improved productivity and increased accountability. Employing the best practices while defining these outcomes can greatly enhance their effectiveness.

8. How can these best practices improve overall team productivity?

Enhancing team productivity through best practices.

Implementing best practices in task assignment and tracking can significantly improve overall team productivity. Effective task assignment ensures that the right tasks are allocated to the right people based on their skills, capabilities, and availability. This eliminates confusion, reduces the chances of mistakes, and improves efficiency. When tasks are tracked effectively, it's easier to identify bottlenecks, improve workload distribution, and ensure timely completion of tasks.

Key benefits include:

• Better task distribution: When tasks are assigned judiciously taking into consideration individual skills and capabilities, it ensures a better distribution of workload. This leads to improved efficiency and higher productivity.
• Proactive problem-solving: Effective task tracking allows for early detection of problems or issues that might arise during the execution of tasks. This allows for proactive problem-solving, ensuring the smooth continuation of work.
• Effective communication: These practices foster better communication within the team as tasks and responsibilities are clear. This reduces chances of misunderstanding or confusion, promoting a more harmonious and productive work environment.

Illustrating Productivity Improvement Through a Table

Here's a simple table illustrating the difference in overall team productivity before and after implementing these best practices:

9. What are some challenges one might face when implementing these best practices and how can they be overcome?

Challenges faced in implementing best practices.

When initiating the best practices for successful task assignment and tracking, several challenges might pop up which could hinder the effective execution of the process. Firstly, resistance to change is a common obstacle that organizations face. Employees might resist the new strategies brought about by these best practices, partly due to their unfamiliarity or because they feel comfortable with the old systems. Secondly, lack of adequate resources such as software and tools for task assignment and tracking can also pose a significant challenge. Lastly, the lack of appropriate training to equip the workforce with the necessary skills can impede the implementation of these practices.

Overcoming the Challenges

The good news is, these challenges aren't insurmountable. Here are a few solutions:

• Resistance to Change: This can be overcome by fostering a culture of open communication where the benefits of the new practices are clearly articulated. Regular feedback forums where employees' concerns can be addressed can also help ease the transition.
• Lack of Resources: For businesses facing this issue, it could be worth investing in project management software or tools which have proven to enhance task assignment and tracking. There are many budget-friendly options available.
• Inadequate Training: Conduct regular training sessions and workshops. Such initiatives would enhance employees' skills, thus boosting their confidence in using new systems.

Considerations for Successful Implementation

10. Can these practices be adjusted for small teams or individuals, or are they only relevant for large organizations?

Adapting practices for different team sizes.

The beauty of best practices for task assignment and tracking is that they can be adapted to suit any team size, from large organizations to small teams and even individuals. Indeed, achieving productivity and efficiency is not merely the preserve of the big players. A small team or self-employed individual can efficiently manage their tasks by adjusting these practices to their unique needs.

• Small teams: Best practices can be refined to a simpler format for smaller teams. For instance, daily huddles could replace full-blown weekly meetings for status updates. Task tracking might also involve a more shared responsibility, with every team member being able to monitor and update their progress. Prioritization is still key, but it takes on a more immediate, flexible form.
• Individuals: For solo entrepreneurs or self-employed professionals, these practices can be tailored to personal task management. Clear objectives and deadlines are just as crucial and can be self-imposed. Tools such as personal to-do lists, digital diaries, or task management software can replace team boards and project management platforms.

Best Practices Table

To sum up, while these best practices were developed with larger organizations in mind, they are certainly not restricted to them. With some adjustments, they can offer immense benefits to the efficiency and productivity of smaller teams and individuals too. Therefore, it is important to experiment with, and adapt these practices to fit the specific dynamics and requirements of your working arrangement.

Best Practices for Successful Task Assignment and Tracking

Successful task assignment and tracking is often the difference between successful and unsuccessful projects. The following are the 12 best practices that can streamline your working process and ensure successful task tracking:

• Clarity: Make certain that instructions are clear and comprehensible.
• Define Objectives: Clearly state the purpose and outcome of each task.
• Relevant Skills: Assign tasks based on individual competencies.
• Priority Tasks: Highlight priority tasks.
• Transparent Communication: Maintain an open communication line to deal with problems quickly.
• Empowerment: Empower your team members in task management.
• Use of Technology: Utilize technology to track and manage tasks efficiently.
• Time tracking: Employ a software to track time spent on each task.
• Regular Updates: Showcase constant updates to keep the team on track.
• Project progress visualization: Represent the progression of the project visually for better understanding.
• Deadlines: Set realistic and flexible deadlines.
• Feedback: Regularly give feedback to promote constant improvement.

In light of the above-mentioned practices, the role of technology in task assignment and tracking cannot be overstressed. Several softwares are available in the market to help you streamline your task assignment and tracking processes but none are more efficient and user-friendly than Retainr.io .

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Retainr.io is a whitelabel software that unifies all your task management needs. It enables you to sell, manage clients, orders, & payments with your own branded app, ensuring that all information is kept in one place, thus, making accessibility and tracking easier.

With its vast array of features, it empowers your team members by making task assignment and tracking seamless and efficient. It simplifies project management and enhances transparency in communication. The software's use of visual aids for project progress ensures that all team members have a clear view of where the project stands and what needs to be done.

So, harness the power of Retainr.io to ensure a well-coordinated, proficient, and successful execution of your projects. Start your journey towards efficient task management with Retainr.io today.

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How To Assign Tasks To Team Members Effectively? Our Full Guideline

How can I effectively assign tasks to people?

Why is it that despite assigning tasks, some groups reach peak productivity and project success, while others grapple with conflicts and burnout?

And how can I address and solve issues related to task assignment?

In this article, we’ll provide answers to all of these questions.

Ready to elevate your task assignment skills and boost your project success? Let’s dive right in!

I. Assigning Tasks: Quick Overview

1. What is task assigning?

Task assigning is the process of allocating specific duties to team members to achieve a common goal.

2. Why is assigning tasks to team members important?

Effective task assigning is crucial for achieving team goals and maintaining productivity because it improves:

• Fair workload distribution.
• Resource efficiency.
• Seamless team collaboration
• Simplifying project progress tracking.

There’s more.

As everyone knows their role, responsibilities, and how their work contributes to the bigger picture, they feel less confused and more accountable for their assigned task.

II. How to assign tasks effectively in a project?

Below are the best strategies, practices, and tips for assigning tasks to others effectively.

Stage 1: Before assigning tasks

• Understand the project & your team members

Ensure you get a clear understanding of:

• Project’s objectives, scope, desired outcomes, and any deadlines.
• Team members’ skills, strengths, weaknesses, and preferences.

This step allows you to match the right tasks with the right team member, which helps allocate tasks efficiently, increase productivity, and maximize project success.

• Break down the project into individual tasks

Follow these steps:

• Identify major components of the project based on its goals.
• Break components into smaller tasks.

This makes it easier for managers to allocate responsibilities and track progress while helping team members better grasp the overall process.

• Prioritize tasks

Prioritize tasks based on 3 factors: 1) urgency, 2) importance, and 3) complexity. Here’s how:

• Identify time-sensitive tasks.
• Address tasks contribute to your long-term goals and should not be neglected.
• Categorize tasks based on difficulty levels, and time and resources required.
• Create a priority list of tasks based on the combination of all three criteria.

This valuable step helps managers make informed decisions on which tasks to tackle first and find the right people to work on each task.

Stage 2: While assigning employee tasks

• Match the right person to the right task

Assign tasks to the most qualified people.

Start by allocating high-priority tasks to the first available person with the matching expertise. Schedule low-priority tasks.

Straightforward tasks can be assigned to less experienced members, while complex tasks may be given to those with advanced skills.

• Be mindful of your team’s availability.
• Set realistic deadlines. Ensure to give members sufficient time to complete their assigned task.
• If someone shows interest in a particular task, consider assigning it to them.

If you know your employees well enough, then make a list of dependable people who are ready to take on a little more duties.

Give them low-priority yet important tasks with authority.

• Communication

To avoid disputes, constant clarification, or errors, it’s important to help your team members understand:

• Project’s goals, desired outcomes, and deadlines.
• Tasks’ requirements and priorities, plus how they contribute to the overall project’s success.
• Who is responsible for which task and what is expected of them.

Tips: Use clear and concise language when communicating. Encourage employees to ask questions and seek clarification on the project and their assigned tasks.

Stage 3: After assigning tasks

• Monitor Progress & Offer Help

Check-in with team members regularly to see how they are doing and if they need any help.

Encourage them to open up and transparently communicate their concerns and challenges.

On your side as a team leader or project manager, be available to offer assistance if they encounter challenges.

This helps resolve issues and improve the task assignment process.

• Provide Necessary Resources

Ensure that team members have the necessary resources, tools, and information for their task completion.

Stage 4: After the task/project is completed

• Reflect on Past Assignments

After each project or task, take time to reflect on what worked well, what didn’t, and where certain tasks weren’t up to par.

Address any issues and offer feedback on completed tasks. Use this feedback to refine your approach in future assignments.

Recognize and reward everyone’s efforts and contributions. This helps keep employees excited and motivated.

• Continuous Learning and Improvement

Invest in training and development opportunities for your team to enhance new skills and knowledge.

Extra tips for assigning tasks effectively:

• Use project management software to help you manage workload, make time estimates, performance reviews, etc.
• Be flexible. Things don’t always go according to plan, so be prepared to adjust your assignments as needed.
• Don’t be afraid to experiment. Try different approaches to see what works best for your team.

III. How to assign tasks in Upbase?

In this section, I’ll show you how a project management tool like Upbase helps simplify task assignments, improve morale, and increase outcomes.

Quick info:

• Upbase organizes and manages projects by lists.
• Members of a list can’t see and access other ones except those lists’ owners allow them to.
• Upbase offers unlimited free users and tasks.

Sign up for a free Upbase account here , follow this guide, and take your task assignment process to the next level.

1. Break down projects into smaller tasks

Create a new list:

• Hover over “Lists” on the left sidebar to open the dropdown menu.
• Select “List”
• Edit the list’s icon, color, name, and description. Then, add your employees.

Add new tasks to the list:

• Navigate to the Tasks module.
• Create and edit sections.
• Add tasks to sections by clicking “+” or “Add task”.

Add new tasks via emails : Open the dropdown menu next to the list name, select “add tasks via emails”, and follow the instructions.

Add task details:

You can add specific instructions, priorities, deadlines, and other attributes to individual tasks and subtasks.

Keyboard shortcuts : Hover over a task card and press:

• “S” to set high priority
• “D” to open the Due date picker
• “C” to open the Tag picker

Upbase Tip : Use task tags to categorize tasks by urgency, importance, and complexity. This makes it easier to match the right tasks to people for later.

2. Assign tasks

Check your employee availability:

Go to the Members page, and click on the team member you’d to assess their workload.

You’ll be driven to a separate page that shows that member’s assigned tasks, along with their due dates, priorities, etc. You can also filter tasks by one of these attributes.

Use this page to check each employee’s availability and identify who can complete additional tasks.

Assign tasks:

Open the desired task, click “Assignee”, and choose the right team member(s).

Keyboard shortcuts : Hover over the task and press “A” to open the Assignee picker. Press the space bar to assign yourself. This way makes assigning tasks easier and quicker!

If you want multiple people to work on a particular task, consider dividing it into subtasks, give time estimates for each, and then assign them to the right team member(s).

Communicate tasks:

Use the Messages and Chat modules to communicate with your team.

Messages is best suited to show the big picture, like project goals, desired outcomes, everyone’s duties, and how their work contributes to the whole.

Make use of the comment box to encourage everyone to ask questions and seek clarification about the project or their assigned tasks.

Chat supports both 1:1 chats and group chats. It’s perfect for quick discussions about issues, task deadlines, etc.

3. Track progress

Upbase offers an array of tools for project managers to track the workload of other employees.

To track a project’s progress:

From the Tasks module :

Here, you can view tasks in a List or Board format.

The List format provides an overview of tasks, deadlines, priorities, and employees working on them, while the Board visualizes the project’s progress.

Besides, you can group tasks by due date, priority, assignee, or section. View tasks filtered by one or multiple tags. Or create a custom filter.

From the Calendar module:

It shows all the scheduled tasks within a project by week or month. It also allows you to create a new task or reschedule overdue tasks.

To track the progress of all projects in a workspace :

Filters : In addition to filtering tasks within a project, you can create custom filters across multiple or all projects in a workspace.

Schedule : It functions similarly to the Calendar module. The two main differences are:

1) Schedule is to track the progress of tasks from all projects while Calendar is to track the progress of tasks within a project.

2) Schedule offers an additional view, named Daily Planner.

Other tools for progress tracking:

My Tasks : A private place where you can get an overview of all the tasks you create or tasks assigned to you.

4. Encourage collaboration and provide support

Use Upbase’s Docs, Files, and Links to provide employees with resources, information, and tools they need to complete tasks.

These modules are available in each list, making it easy to manage project data separately. Plus, they all provide collaboration features like watchers and comment boxes.

• Docs : You can create native documents, share a doc’s public link, embed Google Docs, and organize documents by folders.
• Files : It allows you to upload/download files, manage file versions, embed Google Drive folders, and show files by Grid or Board view.

• Links : You can save URLs as cards, and then add descriptions, watchers, and comments.

5. Providing feedback

On the Tasks module, you can create a section, named “Review”.

When a task is completed, the assignee will drag and drop it here. Then, you, as a project manager will leave feedback on it via the comment box.

So, why wait? Sign up for a free Upbase account now and experience it yourself.

IV. Common mistakes to avoid

For successful task assignment, remember to avoid these common mistakes:

1. Fear of Assigning Tasks

Some people, particularly new or inexperienced managers, may hesitate to allocate tasks to others due to concerns about:

• The quality of the work
• Fear of losing control
• Lack of trust in team members

This fear can hinder productivity and personal growth within a team or organization.

2. Lack of Clarity

This means that the instructions and details regarding a task are not transparent.

Team members may not have a clear understanding of what they are supposed to do, what the goals are, or what the expected outcomes should be.

This lack of clarity can lead to confusion and misunderstandings.

3. Poor Communication

Poor communication can contribute to misunderstandings and problems in task assignments, too.

However, it addresses different aspects of the overall process.

Poor communication means that there might be a lack of information sharing or ineffective communication methods. This could include:

• Not providing updates
• Failing to ask questions when something is unclear
• Not actively listening to others.

Even with clear instructions, if there’s poor communication, the information may not be conveyed effectively.

2. Overloading

Assigning too many tasks to a single person or team can overwhelm them and negatively impact the quality of their work. It’s crucial to distribute tasks evenly and consider each individual’s capacity.

3. Ignoring Skills and Strengths

Neglecting to match tasks with team members’ skills and strengths can result in subpar performance. Assign tasks based on individuals’ expertise and abilities to optimize results.

5. Micromanagement

Hovering over team members and scrutinizing every detail of their work can stifle creativity and motivation.

Trust your team to complete their tasks and provide support when needed.

6. Inflexibility

Being rigid in task assignments can prevent adaptation to changing circumstances or new information. It’s essential to remain open to adjustments and feedback.

8. Unrealistic Deadlines

Setting unattainable deadlines can put unnecessary pressure on your team and lead to a rushed and subpar outcome. Ensure that timelines are realistic and allow for unexpected delays.

10. Lack of Feedback

Forgetting to provide constructive feedback or failing to seek input from team members can hinder growth and improvement. Regularly discuss progress and provide guidance when necessary.

In summary:

Successful task assignment relies on clear communication, matching tasks to skills, flexibility, and a supportive, accountable, and feedback-driven environment.

Avoiding these common mistakes will help ensure that tasks are completed efficiently and effectively.

1. What’s the difference between assigning and delegating tasks?

Task delegation means you give someone the authority to make decisions and complete tasks independently without constant supervision.

Task allocation, on the other hand, means you assign specific duties to someone, often with clear instructions, while retaining overall control.

A delegated task gives the team member more freedom to make decisions and determine how to produce the desired results. An assigned task is more limited because it’s based on instructions and under supervision.

In short, delegating tasks typically involves a higher degree of trust and empowerment than allocating tasks.

2. What’s the difference between tasks and subtasks?

Tasks are generally larger, more significant activities that need to be completed, while subtasks are smaller, specific components or steps that contribute to the completion of a task.

Subtasks are often part of a broader task and help break it down into manageable pieces.

3. Who is the person assigned to a task?

The person assigned to a task is called an “assignee”. They’re responsible for completing that specific job or duty.

4. Who should you delegate a task to?

Delegate a task to the person best suited for it based on their skills, expertise, and availability.

Choose someone who can complete the task effectively and efficiently, taking into account their experience and workload.

5. What is the best way to assign tasks to team members?

The best way to assign tasks to others is by considering each member’s strengths, skills, and workload capacity, and aligning tasks with their expertise and availability.

6. Why is it important to assign tasks to your team members?

Assigning tasks to team members is crucial because it ensures clarity, accountability, and efficiency in achieving goals.

It helps prevent duplication of efforts, enables better time management, and allows team members to focus on their strengths, ultimately leading to successful project completion.

7. How do you politely assign a task?

To politely assign a task, you can follow these steps:

• Start with a friendly greeting.
• Clearly state the task and its importance.
• Ask if the person is available and willing to take on the task.
• Offer any necessary information or resources.
• Express appreciation for their help.

8. How do short-term goals differ from long-term goals?

Short-term goals are specific, achievable objectives that you aim to accomplish soon, typically within days, weeks, or months.

Long-term goals are broader, more substantial objectives that you work towards over an extended period, often spanning years.

Short-term goals are like stepping stones to reach long-term goals.

One place for all your work

Tasks, messages, docs, files, chats – all in one place.

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Exploring Advanced Work Assignment

Use Advanced Work Assignment ( AWA ) to automatically assign work items to your agents, based on their availability, capacity, and optionally, skills. AWA pushes work to qualified agents using work item queues, routing conditions, and assignment criteria that you define. Agents see their assignments in their Agent Workspace inbox.

Customers use different channels to request service, for example, chats, cases, or incidents. Requests from customers create task or interaction records that store information about these objects, called work items. AWA automatically routes work items to queues that focus on certain types of support, using criteria (such as priority or customer status) that you provide.

Queues can be defined based on need or type, for example product or critical cases. You also identify the agent groups responsible for work in the queue. AWA then applies assignment rules that you set and use agent availability, capacity, skills (if defined), and shifts (if defined) to assign work to the most qualified agent.

See the following diagram to learn more about the Advanced Work Assignment process flow.

Navigate to Advanced Work Assignment > Home to start exploring AWA features.

Advanced Work Assignment components

Reassigning messaging conversations.

If you want messaging conversations to be automatically reassigned if the current Assigned To agent on the conversation isn’t available, set the glide.messaging.reassign.enabled system property to\n true. The system property only affects messaging conversations and the Assigned To agent is considered not available if the AWA Inbox status isn’t set to "Available."

• Service channels \nProvide customer support by automatically routing incoming work to agents through service channels.
• Work item queues \nIn Advanced Work Assignment , queues store a specific type of work item for a service channel.
• Work assignments \nAfter routing work items to the appropriate queues and corresponding agent groups, Advanced Work Assignment pushes work to the most qualified agent using the assignment criteria that you specify.
• Agent Inbox controls \nControl certain elements of the agent experience in Agent Workspace . Define the agent presence (availability) states and the work item rejection reasons used by agents to decline work assignments in their Agent Workspace inbox.
• Work items \nView Advanced Work Assignment work items using the Work Items menu options.

Get it done: The Importance of Completing Assignments on Time

Completing assignments on time is more than just meeting a requirement or fulfilling an academic obligation; it carries significant weight in the realm of education. Timely assignment completion plays a crucial role in ensuring academic success and fostering a positive learning environment. 

It requires planning, organization, and prioritization of tasks. By adhering to deadlines, students learn to allocate their time wisely, juggle multiple assignments, and balance their academic workload. These skills are not only valuable during their educational journey but also in future endeavors where time management plays a vital role.

Getting work done on time helps reduce stress and anxiety levels too. Procrastination and last-minute rushes can lead to heightened stress, negatively impacting the quality of work and overall well-being. When assignments are completed on time, students can approach their tasks with a clear mind, devote adequate attention to detail, and produce their best work.

Benefits of Timely Assignment Completion

Finishing assignments contributes to improved time management skills. By adhering to deadlines, students learn to plan and allocate their time effectively. They develop the ability to break down tasks into manageable parts, set priorities, and create realistic schedules.

Reduced stress

Procrastination and the pressure of looming deadlines can lead to heightened stress and feelings of overwhelm. However, when students complete assignments within the given timeframe, they experience a sense of accomplishment, alleviating stress and promoting a more positive mindset. Reduced stress levels allow students to focus better, maintain clarity of thought, and produce higher quality work.

Enhanced Learning

When assignments are submitted on time, students have the opportunity to receive timely feedback from instructors. This feedback allows for a deeper understanding of the subject matter, clarification of concepts, and the chance to address any misconceptions or gaps in knowledge. By engaging in this feedback loop, students can consolidate their learning, reinforce key concepts, and apply their newfound knowledge to future assignments and examinations.

Positive impression on instructors

Consistently meeting deadlines demonstrates professionalism, reliability, and respect for academic requirements. Instructors are more likely to view students who complete assignments on time as motivated and dedicated learners. This positive impression can lead to increased support, guidance, and opportunities for academic growth, such as participation in research projects, recommendation letters, or mentorship opportunities.

Time Management Strategies for Assignment Completion

Breaking down assignments into manageable tasks.

One effective strategy for managing assignments is to break them down into smaller, more manageable tasks. Rather than tackling the entire assignment at once, divide it into smaller components or steps. This approach helps prevent overwhelm and allows you to focus on one task at a time, making the overall assignment feel more achievable.

Creating a Schedule and Setting Milestones

Establishing a schedule and setting milestones is crucial for effective time management. Allocate specific time slots for working on your assignments and create a realistic timeline for completing each task. Setting milestones helps you track your progress and provides a sense of accomplishment as you reach each milestone. Additionally, incorporating regular breaks and allowing for flexibility within your schedule ensures that you maintain focus and avoid burnout.

Prioritizing Tasks Based on Importance and Deadline

Prioritization is a key aspect of time management when it comes to assignment completion. Evaluate the importance and urgency of each task, considering factors such as due dates, weightage, and their contribution to your overall grade. Prioritize tasks accordingly, focusing on those with closer deadlines or higher importance. 

Utilizing Tools and Techniques for Time Management

Various tools and techniques are available to aid in time management for assignment completion. Utilize digital or physical planners, calendars, or task management apps to organize your assignments, deadlines, and milestones. Consider using productivity techniques such as the Pomodoro Technique, which involves working in focused bursts followed by short breaks, to maximize productivity and maintain concentration.

Remember, finding a time management approach that suits your personal style and preferences is key. Experiment with different strategies and refine your approach as you learn what works best for you.

Tips for Meeting Assignment Deadlines

Setting realistic timeframes.

One of the most important tips for meeting assignment deadlines is to set realistic timeframes. Evaluate the scope and requirements of each assignment and allocate sufficient time for research, planning, writing, and revising.

Avoiding Distractions and Proactive Time Management

Distractions can significantly impact your ability to meet assignment deadlines. Create a conducive work environment by minimizing distractions such as social media notifications, email alerts, or noisy surroundings. Practice proactive time management techniques like time blocking, where you allocate specific periods for focused work and eliminate potential distractions during those times.

Seeking Clarification and Asking for Help

When faced with assignment tasks that seem unclear or confusing, seeking clarification is essential. Reach out to your instructors, teaching assistants, or classmates to clarify any doubts or uncertainties regarding the assignment requirements. By seeking clarification early on, you can avoid misunderstandings and ensure that you are on the right track.

Proofreading and Editing for Quality

To ensure that your assignments meet the required standards and are of high quality, allocate time for proofreading and editing. After completing the initial draft, take a break and then review your work with a fresh perspective. Look for errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and overall coherence. Make necessary revisions and edits to improve the clarity, organization, and flow of your assignment. Taking the time to proofread and edit ensures that you submit polished work that reflects your best efforts.

By implementing these tips for meeting assignment deadlines, you can enhance your productivity, minimize stress, and increase your chances of submitting high-quality work. Remember, effective time management and proactive planning are key to successfully meeting assignment deadlines and achieving academic success.

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Creating and Adapting Assignments for Online Courses

Online teaching requires a deliberate shift in how we communicate, deliver information, and offer feedback to our students. How do you effectively design and modify your assignments to accommodate this shift? The ways you introduce students to new assignments, keep them on track, identify and remedy confusion, and provide feedback after an assignment is due must be altered to fit the online setting. Intentional planning can help you ensure assignments are optimally designed for an online course and expectations are clearly communicated to students.  

When teaching online, it can be tempting to focus on the differences from in-person instruction in terms of adjustments, or what you need to make up for. However, there are many affordances of online assignments that can deepen learning and student engagement. Students gain new channels of interaction, flexibility in when and where they access assignments, more immediate feedback, and a student-centered experience (Gayten and McEwen, 2007; Ragupathi, 2020; Robles and Braathen, 2002). Meanwhile, ample research has uncovered that online assignments benefit instructors through automatic grading, better measurement of learning, greater student involvement, and the storing and reuse of assignments. 

In Practice

While the purpose and planning of online assignments remain the same as their in-person counterparts, certain adjustments can make them more effective. The strategies outlined below will help you design online assignments that support student success while leveraging the benefits of the online environment. 

Align assignments to learning outcomes. 

All assignments work best when they align with your learning outcomes. Each online assignment should advance students' achievement of one or more of your specific outcomes. You may be familiar with  Bloom's Taxonomy,  a well-known framework that organizes and classifies learning objectives based on the actions students take to demonstrate their learning. Online assignments have the added advantage of flexing students' digital skills, and Bloom's has been revamped for the digital age to incorporate technology-based tasks into its categories. For example, students might search for definitions online as they learn and remember course materials, tweet their understanding of a concept, mind map an analysis, or create a podcast. 

See a  complete description of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy  for further ideas. 

Provide authentic assessments. 

Authentic assessments call for relevant, purposeful actions that mimic the real-life tasks students may encounter in their lives and careers beyond the university. They represent a shift away from infrequent high-stakes assessments that tend to evaluate the acquisition of knowledge over application and understanding. Authentic assessments allow students to see the connection between what they're learning and how that learning is used and contextualized outside the virtual walls of the learning management system, thereby increasing their motivation and engagement. 

There are many ways to incorporate authenticity into an assignment, but three main strategies are to use  authentic audiences, content, and formats . A student might, for example, compose a business plan for an audience of potential investors, create a patient care plan that translates medical jargon into lay language, or propose a safe storage process for a museum collection.  

Authentic assessments in online courses can easily incorporate the internet or digital tools as part of an authentic format. Blogs, podcasts, social media posts, and multimedia artifacts such as infographics and videos represent authentic formats that leverage the online context. 

Learn more about  authentic assessments in Designing Assessments of Student Learning . 

Design for inclusivity and accessibility. 

Adopting universal design principles at the outset of course creation will ensure your material is accessible to all students. As you plan your assignments, it's important to keep in mind barriers to access in terms of tools, technology, and cost. Consider which tools achieve your learning outcomes with the fewest barriers. 

Offering a variety of assignment formats is one way to ensure students can demonstrate learning in a manner that works best for them. You can provide options within an individual assignment, such as allowing students to submit either written text or an audio recording or to choose from several technologies or platforms when completing a project. 

Be mindful of how you frame and describe an assignment to ensure it doesn't disregard populations through exclusionary language or use culturally specific references that some students may not understand. Inclusive language for all genders and racial or ethnic backgrounds can foster a sense of belonging that fully invests students in the learning community.  

Learn more about  Universal Design of Learning  and  Shaping a Positive Learning Environment . 

Design to promote academic integrity online. 

Much like incorporating universal design principles at the outset of course creation, you can take a proactive approach to academic integrity online. Design assignments that limit the possibilities for students to use the work of others or receive prohibited outside assistance.  

Provide   authentic assessments  that are more difficult to plagiarize because they incorporate recent events or unique contexts and formats. 

Scaffold assignments  so that students can work their way up to a final product by submitting smaller portions and receiving feedback along the way. 

Lower the stakes  by providing more frequent formative assessments in place of high-stakes, high-stress assessments. 

In addition to proactively creating assignments that deter cheating, there are several university-supported tools at your disposal to help identify and prevent cheating.  

Learn more about these tools in  Strategies and Tools for Academic Integrity in Online Environments . 

Communicate detailed instructions and clarify expectations. 

When teaching in-person, you likely dedicate class time to introducing and explaining an assignment; students can ask questions or linger after class for further clarification. In an online class, especially in  asynchronous  online classes, you must anticipate where students' questions might arise and account for them in the assignment instructions.  

The  Carmen course template  addresses some of students' common questions when completing an assignment. The template offers places to explain the assignment's purpose, list out steps students should take when completing it, provide helpful resources, and detail academic integrity considerations.  

Providing a rubric will clarify for students how you will evaluate their work, as well as make your grading more efficient. Sharing examples of previous student work (both good and bad) can further help students see how everything should come together in their completed products. 

Technology Tip

Enter all  assignments and due dates  in your Carmen course to increase transparency. When assignments are entered in Carmen, they also populate to Calendar, Syllabus, and Grades areas so students can easily track their upcoming work. Carmen also allows you to  develop rubrics  for every assignment in your course.  

Promote interaction and collaboration. 

Frequent student-student interaction in any course, but particularly in online courses, is integral to developing a healthy learning community that engages students with course material and contributes to academic achievement. Online education has the inherent benefit of offering multiple channels of interaction through which this can be accomplished. 

Carmen  Discussions   are a versatile platform for students to converse about and analyze course materials, connect socially, review each other's work, and communicate asynchronously during group projects. 

Peer review  can be enabled in Carmen  Assignments  and  Discussions .  Rubrics  can be attached to an assignment or a discussion that has peer review enabled, and students can use these rubrics as explicit criteria for their evaluation. Alternatively, peer review can occur within the comments of a discussion board if all students will benefit from seeing each other's responses. 

Group projects  can be carried out asynchronously through Carmen  Discussions  or  Groups , or synchronously through Carmen's  Chat function  or  CarmenZoom . Students (and instructors) may have apprehensions about group projects, but well-designed group work can help students learn from each other and draw on their peers’ strengths. Be explicit about your expectations for student interaction and offer ample support resources to ensure success on group assignments. 

Learn more about  Student Interaction Online .

Choose technology wisely. 

The internet is a vast and wondrous place, full of technology and tools that do amazing things. These tools can give students greater flexibility in approaching an assignment or deepen their learning through interactive elements. That said, it's important to be selective when integrating external tools into your online course.  

Look first to your learning outcomes and, if you are considering an external tool, determine whether the technology will help students achieve these learning outcomes. Unless one of your outcomes is for students to master new technology, the cognitive effort of using an unfamiliar tool may distract from your learning outcomes.  

Carmen should ultimately be the foundation of your course where you centralize all materials and assignments. Thoughtfully selected external tools can be useful in certain circumstances. 

Explore supported tools 

There are many  university-supported tools  and resources already available to Ohio State users. Before looking to external tools, you should explore the available options to see if you can accomplish your instructional goals with supported systems, including the  eLearning toolset , approved  CarmenCanvas integrations , and the  Microsoft365 suite .  

If a tool is not university-supported, keep in mind the security and accessibility implications, the learning curve required to use the tool, and the need for additional support resources. If you choose to use a new tool, provide links to relevant help guides on the assignment page or post a video tutorial. Include explicit instructions on how students can get technical support should they encounter technical difficulties with the tool. 

Adjustments to your assignment design can guide students toward academic success while leveraging the benefits of the online environment.  

Effective assignments in online courses are:  

Aligned to course learning outcomes 

Authentic and reflect real-life tasks 

Accessible and inclusive for all learners 

Designed to encourage academic integrity 

Transparent with clearly communicated expectations 

Designed to promote student interaction and collaboration 

Supported with intentional technology tools 

• Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty (e-book)
• Making Your Course Accessible for All Learners (workshop reccording)
• Writing Multiple Choice Questions that Demand Critical Thinking (article)

Learning Opportunities

Conrad, D., & Openo, J. (2018).  Assessment strategies for online learning: Engagement and authenticity . AU Press. Retrieved from  https://library.ohio-state.edu/record=b8475002~S7 

Gaytan, J., & McEwen, B. C. (2007). Effective online instructional and assessment strategies.  American Journal of Distance Education ,  21 (3), 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923640701341653   

Mayer, R. E. (2001).  Multimedia learning . New York: Cambridge University Press.  

Ragupathi, K. (2020). Designing Effective Online Assessments Resource Guide . National University of Singapore. Retrieved from  https://www.nus.edu.sg/cdtl/docs/default-source/professional-development-docs/resources/designing-online-assessments.pdf  

Robles, M., & Braathen, S. (2002). Online assessment techniques.  Delta Pi Epsilon Journal ,  44 (1), 39–49.  https://proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eft&AN=507795215&site=eds-live&scope=site  

Swan, K., Shen, J., & Hiltz, S. R. (2006). Assessment and collaboration in online learning.  Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks ,  10 (1), 45.  

TILT Higher Ed. (n.d.).  TILT Examples and Resources . Retrieved from   https://tilthighered.com/tiltexamplesandresources  

Tallent-Runnels, M. K., Thomas, J. A., Lan, W. Y., Cooper, S., Ahern, T. C., Shaw, S. M., & Liu, X. (2006). Teaching Courses Online: A Review of the Research.  Review of Educational Research ,  76 (1), 93–135.  https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/stable/3700584  

Walvoord, B. & Anderson, V.J. (2010).  Effective Grading : A Tool for Learning and Assessment in College: Vol. 2nd ed . Jossey-Bass.  https://library.ohio-state.edu/record=b8585181~S7

Related Teaching Topics

Designing assessments of student learning, strategies and tools for academic integrity in online environments, student interaction online, universal design for learning: planning with all students in mind, related toolsets, carmencanvas, search for resources.

Time Management Resources for Parents Studying and Working from Home

Even under normal circumstances, Penn State World Campus students are expert jugglers, balancing families and work with school. Now that so many schools and daycares are closed as a result of coronavirus, online students who are parents or grandparents are unexpectedly caring for and homeschooling children, leaving less time for their own studies.

We’ve compiled an assortment of tips and resources to help you stay productive while working remotely and completing your school work, especially if you also have kids at home.

Organization is Essential

This is the time to rely upon the productivity skills you already have—or develop new ones. Organization is a must. Review the syllabus and schedule for each of your courses, focusing on any important upcoming events like deadlines and exams. Then work backward, blocking off chunks of time on your calendar to devote to preparing for tests or completing assignments.

Take advantage of any organizational or scheduling tools and resources available to you. Remember, as a Penn State student, you already have access to the complete suite of Office 365 tools and apps. Some others you might use include:

• Trello : This is great for visual learners, as it lets you see all of your tasks and projects on a bulletin board–type of arrangement, and you can easily move things around as needed.
• Google Drive and Google Docs: Cloud-based tools are helpful if you will be completing tasks on the fly and using a variety of different devices or workspaces. This lets you access files from wherever you happen to be, and you don’t need to worry about losing your work, because everything gets saved as you go.
• Zapier : This tool streamlines many common tasks and processes by helping your go-to apps work together in automated sequences. It can boost your productivity immensely while saving you time and aggravation.

If you prefer old-school tools, a large desk calendar or printed planner will work, too. The key is to use tools that are comfortable for you.

Brush Up on Productivity Tactics

There are many strategies and tricks that can help you get more accomplished. We love these tips from Thrive Global on staying productive while working from home, as well as this advice from Google’s productivity expert , to help you avoid getting stressed and overwhelmed while working remotely.

Be sure to check out some of our past blog posts on this topic, including:

• 9 Tech Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity
• Time Management: Five Essentials for Online Learners
• Five Essential Steps to Help Students Master Time Management

Draw Upon Skills You Developed as an Online Student

As an experienced Penn State World Campus student, you have likely already developed habits and best practices for studying online. Share those strategies and lessons with children who may now need them for their own school work. You may have also learned effective ways to connect at a distance, and those skills can be useful in all aspects of your life while you shelter at home.

Time Management Tips

These conditions can be challenging even for those who excel at productivity and time management. Multitasking goes to a whole new level when you must work, study, maintain social/family connections, and teach your children, all without leaving home.

• Break your course work into smaller chunks so that you can fit it in between your responsibilities.
• Create a space for your children near your workspace so that you can be there for them while also doing your school work.
• Find your rhythm. Make a daily schedule that includes time for them and time for your studies. Think about what you must accomplish each day, identifying your top priorities or must-do tasks, and then develop your schedule and routine around those items. For example, if you have a quiz, schedule the time you will take it and plan to have the children listen to a podcast or watch a video. Productivity expert James Clear shares these tips about prioritizing tasks .
• Define your “non-negotiables,” and be willing to let other things go. Focus on the things you and your children must accomplish that day, and stick to them. Be willing to delay less essential items, or eliminate them from your schedule entirely. 

What Can Kids Do While You Study? 

One of your biggest challenges right now may be keeping kids occupied and entertained so you can concentrate on work or school. These positive learning activities can keep kids busy:

• Learning at Home initiative : engaging and educational content provided by Pennsylvania public television
• Wow in the World : NPR podcast that guides kids (and grown-ups) on a journey to explore fascinating things in the world around them
• Story Pirates : a podcast that celebrates the “words and ideas of kids”
• Virtual art museum tours : take virtual tours of museums around the world
• Other great virtual tours : a round-up of zoos, museums, and theme parks offering virtual tours, provided by Good Housekeeping
• Reading resources : reading tools and other resources from Scholastic
• Seussville : games, crafts, videos, and other activities from the home of Dr. Seuss
• National Geographic Kids : everything from science experiments to fun trivia
• Cosmic Kids Yoga : yoga and meditation routines for kids

Go Easy on Yourself

Many of us are trying to accomplish superhuman feats right now, tackling an overwhelming mix of responsibilities while also dealing with increased levels of anxiety. Nobody can do it all, especially during times of uncertainty when things are constantly changing and you must adjust quickly. Many experts are reminding us right now that if you are keeping yourself and everyone in your household safe, healthy, and fed, that’s enough of an accomplishment—and anything else is a bonus.

Self-care is important to stay healthy and avoid burnout. These tips from the CDC can help. Our strategies for reducing test anxiety can also be useful at any time.

We know this is a stressful, challenging time, and we want to help. Be sure to explore the resources available to you as a Penn State World Campus student , including mental health services, library experts, and IT support.

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A trick to submit 100% of assignments on time

• On August 27, 2019

Many college students struggle to turn assignments in on time. This is one of the leading causes of low grades. Unlike high school, students don’t have the leeway and flexibility that teachers gave them. Most high schools will accept late work at any point in time, even days before the semester ends. In college, you either get it in on time or it is a zero. These missed assignments, even one or two, can have a significant impact on a student’s grades. It can be the difference between an A and a B or a B and a C. In more drastic cases where the student is not turning in their assignments, it can lead them to fail a class.

So the question is how can students turn 100% of their assignments in on time? They need to be organized, consistent, and structured. By taking a few actions, students can make sure that no assignment is missed for an entire semester.

It starts with the calendar. College students should pore through their syllabi and course websites the very first week of school. They need to identify every single assignment that is due. Because each class has variable schedules of assignments being due, this can actually be quite challenging. Some courses will have an assignment due weekly for an entire semester. For instance, an assignment must be submitted by midnight on Monday night. In other classes, there are biweekly reports or lab write ups. There are essays and online quizzes and lab write ups. These are all going to be due at different times. Students can log each deadline into their calendar as an event to signify that an assignment is due. This will give them constant visibility to their due dates. In addition, students should set Google notifications that remind them to complete assignments. We encourage students to set 2 alarms: one for the ideal time to complete the assignment and one as an emergency alarm to complete or submit the work. For especially forgetful students, we always recommend a backup to each reminder.

So how does this look? Let’s say a student has a 3 page short essay due every other Friday in English 101, and the essay must be submitted by 5 PM. The student will put the calendar event in as “English Essay Due” on Friday at 5 PM. They will then determine the amount of time the assignment will take (let’s say 2 hours) and pick a time during their week that they will work on the essay. Let’s say the student picks Wednesday night at 7 PM. They can set a notification to remind themselves to work at that time. And then they can add a backup just in case they blow off the first notification. Now, their phone will buzz them at 7 on Wednesday saying “Time to write the paper” and then again at 7:20 in case they don’t get started. In addition, the student can set their “emergency” notification. In this story, the student should set that notification for about noon on Friday to give them enough time to write a quality paper and submit it before the deadline. 

In many cases, tracking assignments without teacher guidance is new for college students. By giving themselves this structure, they can make the jump from periodically missing assignments to submitting 100% of their assignments on time. This should produce better grades, but it is also a skill students must master to be successful in any professional role.

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10 Tips from Experts for Completing Assignments on Time

David Lucas

Assignments are essential to learning in the modern era, giving students freedom and ease. However, with this ease comes the challenge of properly organizing your time to ensure all tasks are finished before the deadline. So, to help you navigate all aspects of learning online, experts from assignment writing service platforms have collected tips to help you complete your projects on time.

In an ever-changing educational realm, the rise of the internet in education brings both comfort and difficulties to learners. Although online classrooms allow students to adjust to the way they learn, they must also have a greater sense of duty, particularly when it comes to finishing tasks on time. Handling the complexities of tasks online needs an organized strategy and a good plan.

Tips to Complete Assignments Quickly

The following tips have been made to be easy to use, giving you an outline for achieving success in an online educational setting. They cover everything from building a well-organized timetable to using technology and protecting your overall health. Whether you are a skilled digital student or just starting, these tips will help you face assignments calmly and efficiently. Let’s look at some expert tips and ways that can improve the way you learn online:

• Make a Plan: The first step is to plan your approach. Experts strongly believe that making a timetable is extremely important for good time management. Begin by dividing up the task into parts and giving time frames for all of them. This is the only way to go about doing work, according to an expert. It simply makes your task a little easier, and it also helps you to concentrate better.
• Set Realistic Goals: Experts believe that setting realistic targets and goals is key to maintaining the quality of the work. Be aware of what you can do and set realistic goals, keeping in mind your strengths and strong points. This avoids delays and guarantees that you don’t pull up extra threads to make it cool or different. Goals that are clear, specific, and possible can help you stay organized and inspired without making you tired of the work.
• Avoid Distractions: Try creating a safe and inspiring space to focus and pump up good ideas. Experts stress the need to avoid distractions as much as possible while working to create good-quality work. Be mindful of the time and manage it accordingly. Distractions can greatly affect one’s ability to finish tasks on time; therefore, creating an enjoyable and calm working environment is important.
• Make Use of Technology: In this new and exciting digital age, it is easy to get carried away, especially while working. Hence, many online apps and sites could help you navigate this stimulating corpus and keep you focused. A lot of tools have been designed for this specific problem; try finding the one you like and get back on the grind. Or you could simply ask someone, “Can you do my assignment for me ?” to get some help online.
• Start the Work Early: Start doing the task as soon as you get it. Furthermore, it lessens the anxiety and overall stress, but it also allows an extra-careful and focused attitude towards the task. Timely starts offer more time for changes and editing. If you think you don’t have enough time and might need some help, don’t be shy about asking for it. You could get some professional advice only if you look up assignment writing service, to get online help.
• Break Down Difficult Tasks: Experts very well believe that further breaking down complex tasks gives clarity and allows you to see the problem. Experts advocate dividing challenging tasks into smaller, simpler tasks and then dividing them into multiple parts as a healthy way to work on them. Working on one part makes the whole thing less scary. Additionally, it makes way for more logical and fresh ideas. Working in smaller chunks also helps you focus better, allowing you to give your best.
• Prioritize Tasks : Setting priorities is a key component of managing your time. Find activities by urgency and significance. Important things should be tackled first to make sure that vital parts are finished on time. Setting goals helps make good use of both resources and time.
• Create a Routine: Setting a routine helps in making progress. Working on the sections and making them a part of the schedule will make things easier. Set up a daily schedule that involves regular research and writing hours. This practice trains the brain to pay attention during given periods, which makes it easy to switch to study mode.
• Ask for Clarity: If you have any doubts or worries about the task, do not hesitate to ask for explanations. Miscommunications can lead to mistakes. Early on, get clarity from your lecturers or classmates to verify that you’re on the correct path. It also, in a way, lets you work in peace, knowing what the question is demanding. In a way, it increases productivity and saves one from making a grave error.
• Taking Breaks: Finally, experts highlight the value of maintaining overall well-being. A strong mind and body lead to higher productivity. To avoid stress, make sure that you get enough rest, work out often, and take breaks in between. Mental and physical health are keys to efficient time management. It also keeps you energized and more focused on the work.

Of course, these tips will make your task easier, but it is also important to keep in touch with your mentor. They can solve specific topic-related issues in a whiff. Online learning can be uneasy sometimes, and it is important to make your presence felt in the class. Try asking for feedback from your mentor, and surely, you’ll get better help without wasting your time looking up things online. Also, be confident and vocal and learn as much as you can from this unique learning experience.

To summarize, finishing online projects on time needs an equal amount of good organization, effort, and a sense of self. By following these excellent tips, you can not just regularly meet goals but also improve the standard of your assignment. Understand that effective planning is a talent that can be learned and honed with diligence and practice. Get some help from the assignment writing service online, if needed. The internet is full of ideas and tips to help you. Good luck and happy assignment writing!

Written by David Lucas

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How to Schedule Time for Assignments

Home » Blog » Productivity » How to Schedule Time for Assignments

I remember when I was at University how pressed for time I was. Balancing multiple projects, assignments and other commitment's can be tough. But don't worry, I'm here to help.

In fact, it was back when I was studying that I began my journey into productivity. Here's a very simple approach I used to organise my time so that I could get all my assignments completed on time:

Step one: Be aware of all your deadlines

Usually, at the start of the semester, the lecturer will go through the course plan and tell you when all the tests and assignments have been scheduled for. The first thing you want to do is jot down all the dues dates for the assignments you have for each class.

You can do this in a task management app like Asana or ToDoist . I suggest having one project for each class or paper that you're taking.

Step two: Deconstruct each assignment

Write down all the steps you need to complete to finish each assignment. For example, if you're writing an essay you need to:

• Do some research.
• Plan the essay.
• Write the introduction.
• Write paragraph 1.
• Write paragraph 2.
• and so on….
• Write the conclusion.
• Review and rework the essay.
• Write the final draft.
• Proofread for mistakes.
• Hand in for grading.

Other types of assignments will have different steps. Go through a similar process to list everything you need to do to complete the assignment.

Step three: Working backwards, schedule time to work on each of these steps

If you need to hand in the assignment on the 20th of June, then you'll want to proofread at least a day or two before this. You'll want to write the final draft a few days before this, and you'll want to edit and rework the essay maybe a week before this…

For each task, schedule a block of time in your calendar to complete the work. Make sure you are realistic with the amount of time you need to do the work.

TIP: Make sure you've already scheduled all your classes so you know when everything is happening and appointments don't clash.

As you work backwards you'll be able to work out the date you need to start the work by in order to finish the assignment on time (assuming you stick to the plan). The advantage of scheduling your time like this is that you're making a commitment to yourself that you're going to do a specific piece of the work at a particular time. You know that if you delay your plan will be thrown off. As a consequence, you become less impulsive and are less likely to procrastinate.

Posted: 03/03/2016 By: Paul Minors

With: 8 Comments

# How To # Studying # Time

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• Subject Areas for Transactional Business Intelligence in HCM

Workforce Management - Worker Assignment Event Real Time

Description.

Report on the worker assignment changes (past, present, and future) including hires, transfers, assignment changes, promotions, manager changes, and termination. Assignment events are identified by HR Actions and HR Action Reason dimensions which group assignment events by Action Type, Action, and Action Reason. For example, you can use Action Type Promotion to retrieve all promotions and use Terminate Work Relationship to retrieve all worker terminations. This subject area includes important assignment metrics to monitor assignment events. For example you can monitor Number of hires, Headcount of promotions, Number of transfers, Termination Full Time Employees (FTE), and Rehire counts. You can use the Time dimension or Assignment Event Effective Start/End Date to report assignment history. Time dimension allows you to roll up assignment events by week, month, quarter, or year. With Effective Start and End date, you can see a workers complete assignment history with associated job, department, grade, location, business unit and legal employer information. This subject area includes future dated assignment changes, such as hires and terminations. By default only a workers assignment history as of todays date is retrieved. You can use a SQL prefix SET VARIABLE PARAM_EFFECTIVE_DATE= future date to reset the default as-of date and include future-dated assignments. The assignment detail information in Worker dimension reflects the workers current assignment information.

Business Questions

This subject area can answer the following business questions:

What are the various reasons for worker terminations under both voluntary and involuntary categories?

What is an employee's assignment history in the chronological order?

What is the count of transfers into a Business Unit or Department?

What is the headcount of terminations by categories such as voluntary and involuntary?

What are the Hire, rehire, transfer, termination counts by Business Unit, Department, Location, Manager etc?

What is the count of terminations by various termination reasons?

What is the total number of promotions between two dates for a worker?

The following job roles secure access to this subject area:

Human Resource Analyst

Line Manager

The following duty roles secure access to this subject area:

Workforce Transaction Analysis Duty

Primary Navigation

My Client Groups > Quick Actions > Manage Employment OR My Client Groups > Apps > Person Management > Actions > Personal and Employment > Manage Employment

Time Reporting

The worker assignment events history data is available for reporting in this subject area.

Time dimension is linked to "Assignment Event Details"."Effective Start Date".

Transactional Grain

This subject area returns data at the grain of Assignment Events (PER_ALL_ASSIGNMENTS_M) ) with the following filter conditions applied: (ASSIGNMENT_TYPE = 'C' OR ASSIGNMENT_TYPE = 'E' OR ASSIGNMENT_TYPE = 'N' OR ASSIGNMENT_TYPE = 'P' ). Note that Fusion HCM data security may further restrict the data being returned in OTBI as OTBI uses the same data security as Fusion HCM.

Special Considerations

Time Management for Students Juggling Work, Life, and School

Whether you attend school part- or full-time, balancing college with work, family, and other commitments requires a tremendous amount of effort and planning. Time can feel scarce when you’re juggling so many commitments. Here are our tips for managing your time wisely so that you can improve your productivity and achieve your goals with less stress.

Use a planner

Prioritize your tasks

Competing obligations means you’ll need to prioritize certain projects over others. When looking at your calendar for the month or week, first pursue tasks that are most important and have the fastest-approaching deadlines. Next, schedule items that are either important or urgent but not both. Finally, tasks that are neither significant nor pressing should be last on your to-do list.

On a day-to-day basis, you’ll need to determine what works best for you. Some people prefer to take on their most challenging, high-effort tasks at the beginning of their day. Others reserve deep-concentration projects for those hours when they know they will be least interrupted and most focused. Try taking notes for a week on how effectively you worked on projects and when you worked on them; you’ll discover your productivity peaks and valleys and can schedule future tasks accordingly.

Think small

As you look ahead on your calendar and convert due dates to to-do lists, break down longer-term and bigger projects into smaller tasks. For example, you can divide that paper into separate chunks of time for brainstorming, researching, outlining, drafting, revising, and editing. Reducing a major assignment to its components can make it much more manageable, allowing you to feel confident as you check off individual tasks rather than spending time on stressing about how big the project feels.

Schedule breaks

Practice, practice, practice

New meetings, unexpected work shifts, and surprise events inevitably require shuffling our calendars and to-do lists. But as with nutrition and fitness, going off track for a day or two shouldn’t mean abandoning your schedule completely. Forgive yourself, remember that life often gets in the way, and keep moving forward. 

By practicing time management, you’ll reduce stress, create habits valued by employers, and improve your ability to achieve your goals. You’ll also find that you have more time to enjoy downtime without experiencing guilt over things left undone. And achieving that work–school–life balance is key to your success. Good luck!

Need more help with time management?

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Proactive Time Management for Online Learning

In the following modules, our learning specialists offer videos and interactive resources to support students in developing proactive time management strategies, specifically for online coursework. Our partners in the  Penn Online Learning Initiative  were invaluable in supporting the development of this resource. We recommend starting with the self-guided Time Management Self-Assessment.

Time Management Self-Assessment

This self-assessment will help you think more deeply about your habits and what you can do to improve your time management skills, especially as you prepare for online coursework and remote learning.

Proactive Time Management Videos and Resources

What is proactive time management.

When it comes to time management, we often assume that scheduling is the extent to which we can manage our time well. But, what if time management is much more than that? How can we tap into the results that time management affords so many people?

Well, we’ve come to understand that time management is a little less about “managing your time” and more about increasing and maintaining your productivity. Time management is actually a holistic skill based on four competencies: Planning, Working Smarter, Self-Regulation, and Flexibility. The synergy of these competencies is what you observe as productivity. This productivity, in turn, empowers you to handle whatever challenges you may encounter.

We’ve selected some of our favorite strategies and tips for each of the four competencies to share with you. Read through our words of wisdom and download our worksheets to think about how you can successfully manage your time and increase your productivity this semester.

Syllabus Analysis

Once you’ve figured out when you will study or complete assignments, you’ll need to think about how to upgrade your work efficiency in those time slots. Your syllabus will help you discover the study activities that translate to success in the course. Establishing working goals and checkpoints for feedback will help you stay on track. Finally, taking breaks will help you maintain your work efficiency over a longer period of time.

Planning & Project Management

Planning is the competency we are most familiar with. This is because we know that we should use syllabi to plan out our schedules for each week throughout the semester. However, we may not capitalize on all of the information that a syllabus provides. We may be aware of our weekly commitments and that consistent study time is ideal, but how can we be realistic about how long routine assignments may take? How can we make optimal use of a visual calendar and its additional features?

Self-Regulation: Prioritize, Optimize, & Revise

Self-Regulation is the competency that generates consistent improvement because you are reflecting on how to optimize your environment and work habits. By evaluating yourself in specific ways, you can address challenges in a more streamlined fashion.

Flexibility

Flexibility is about adjusting quickly to your circumstances and anticipating changes. Instead of reacting to situations without a plan, we hope you will learn to become more flexible in a very proactive sense.

Your Feedback

After you have a chance to engage with this module, we would appreciate your feedback. Your comments will help us improve this Proactive Time Management module and develop additional modules on other topics.

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Diagnosing the reasons behind procrastination and offering solutions and tips: Procrastination Cures and Causes

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