Tracking Projects & Tasks in Airtable
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
- Project management is a massive undertaking - one that I couldn’t possibly do justice in a brief 15 minute CZcams video. That being said, there are definitely some factors that must be included with any kind of task tracking software. Often, I’ll speak to people using Trello or Asana, and they’ll explain to me how they need information to travel between their Airtable and their productivity software. I always ask the same question: “Can you explain why you aren’t using Airtable to track your projects as well?”
The short version is this… if you’re using Airtable in conjunction with a productivity software - there’s very likely an opportunity to remove the latter, saving you on your software expenses as well as the headache of getting two different platforms talking!
This video goes into an example of tracking tasks that relate to a project. The initial set-up is relatively simple (projects have a relationship to tasks that can be marked as ‘complete’). But that’s only the first step! From there, we build the ability to track a project’s status, entirely by monitoring the tasks assigned to it. The elegance of this solution is that it doesn’t require any Zapier automation - this entire system is entirely housed inside of the Airtable database!
With this solution, you get a granular view of the pending tasks in addition to a macro view of the current projects. The end result is a fully enclosed solution that gives you clear visibility into your various projects - both current and previous.
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Table of Contents: 📖 👇
00:00 - What this video covers
01:00 - High-level overview of our goal
01:20 - Starting from scratch - building the structure
03:03 - Creating your 'Task' requirements
08:13 - Building the 'Status Tracker' system
12:47 - Replace Percentages with a Status Output
14:08 - Creating a 'View' for Current Projects
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Software Resources (may contain affiliate links): 💻 👇
Airtable - airtable.com/invite/r/v0eI3ASY
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Thank you Gareth. Another great video. Really appreciate your willingness to share your experience and wisdom. Thank you.
Thanks for watching, David!
I literally like your templates more than the airtable ones! Thanks for making these videos they are helping so much!
So glad they are helpful!
this was amazing and so clear - thank you!!
Thank you so much for this video, just what i needed
Happy it helped!
Hey Gareth! this is amazing, I recently got into Airtable as it was recommended to me by a collaborator. I came across you video as I was searching a good way to organise my base, and boom, this was very well explained and I subscribed for more.
Thanks EyemotionView! Appreciate the feedback and I hope these videos continue to help you out!
This video just saved me so much time! I have so much to tweak but the foundation is essential.
Glad it was helpful! 100% agree that the foundation is the key - getting that right from the beginning saves you so much time!
Great work, thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
Very helpful! thank you so much!!
Glad it helped!
Thank you Gareth. Awesome video!
Do you know where I can find a document with all the formulas and commands?
Thanks
It's either done or not done, end of story lol. Love it!
Cant' stand those lingering tasks that never end!
Thank you for the awesome video. We use Restyaboard to track our Projects and Tasks.
Glad it was helpful!
Awesome demo!
Thank you! We need to make a more current version of this video, but glad you liked it!
so helpful, thank you!
Happy to help!
Hello Gareth, just discovered your work as I try to implement and improve the usage of Airtable at work and I am amazed, thank you so much ! I have a question though, could you imagine the same mechanism but with "big projects" composed of several "projects" that have several "tasks" and how that would work together ? Thanks a lot !
Hi Pauline, yes indeed! That's a totally valid use case and one we see a lot of!
you are my Airtable hero. Thanks so much for your great informative and very practical videos. Is there a way when the project is completed that the wording can change colour? ie green or red? or is that only available in the pro version .
Unfortunately not - you can't change the color of text, only add a color to the side of the record. This does require the pro plan.
Great Video. Thanks. How do you solve for NaN in the tasks you've created but have not yet begun (no tick boxes). Using the formula you shared {Task Completed Count}/{Task Count} seems to return NaN for such tasks. Is there a way to show 0% without the NaN showing as it's not computing 0/0. Thanks so much.
Hey Mitch, absolutely! Suppose your equation is "X / Y" - in this case, NaN will be thrown whenever you don't have a value for X. You'll also get an Infinity error when Y is 0. To remove these errors, you can write the following logic:
IF(AND(X,Y!=0),X/Y,0)
This way, only when you have a value for X AND Y doesn't equal 0, will your formula perform the function X/Y - in all other cases (where you would have received errors) your formula will output a 0 instead.
I like the overall idea and presentation, so thanks. And I get that you are keeping this simple. But “it’s not a task if it doesn’t have a Due Date”? I don’t agree. I have many tasks that aren’t yet assigned a Due Date. If you have hundreds of tasks then Due Date becomes too hard to manage, so I use ‘Timeframe’ dropdown field with ‘Today’ ‘ Tomorrow’ ‘This Week’ ‘Next Week’ ‘This Month’ Next Month’. Then if I don’t get to tasks by the calendar date I don’t have to adjust hundreds of tasks every day constantly pushing them out. I only use Due Date if I have an actual hard date involved so I use it very sparingly. Sorting by Due Date then Timeframe brings the few tasks with hard dates to the top.
Hey Jeff - this is a really great concept - thanks for the feedback!
Thank you, very helpful. I thought that it seemed a bit redundant that you needed to add the Task Completion Column, as the check box column should be "countable" based on its state, but I guess Airtable didn't think to add that functionality?
You can now use a conditional count formula to do this, but at the time of the video that feature wasn't yet available! Great point, though... Airtable continues to improve and enhance the software 💪
Hi Gareth, is there a way to duplicate the Tasks for each project ? For example, if I have 20 projects that have the same tasks that need to be done, is there a way to do that?
Totally - you can build a Zapier automation so that every time you create a new project, the same tasks are created. Alternatively, you can build a script using the new Scripting Block that will prompt you for a project name and then create the tasks to link to that project. Check out our video on the scripting block here: czcams.com/video/1rOQ_MeoRo4/video.html
you deserve that like👍😉
Hi. I have learned so much by watching this video. Thank you! I am trying to create the "if" formula that you walk through around 10:24 and for some reason it is not working form me. I have followed all of the other steps correctly, do you have any suggestions? Thank you.
I'm sure it's just a slight syntax error, I'd suggest double checking the formula and going character by character 🤞
How does one assigned a task due date X days or y months before the ultimate due date of a project?
Any recommendation on how to transfer tasks and project from Asana to Airtable?
Is there a way to return for status the last task in the list completed, i.e., for project 1 it would show the fifth task and for project 2 it would show the third task?
You could use a conditional rollup field for this at the project level and have the field show you the most recently completed task name.
This is so helpful! Is it possible to create a third level of roll up? (Imagine Initiatives -> Projects -> Tasks.) I thought it would be straight forward to just roll up the counts/completes from the Project level to the Initiative level, but I can't quite make it work!
You sure can! If you have 3 layers simply roll-up the roll-up!
Can we have a visual bar showing the percentage of completion?
Help! When in the Project tab, the Tasks column is showing me ALL of the tasks as opposed to only the one where we currently are. I've checked that the "multiple links allowed" options are exactly as yours on this video. Any thoughts or ideas?
Check your filters on your toolbar and make sure you're only including the tasks you want to see!
Do you use the mobile app to track your tasks when away from the computer?
Hey Lennon - I don't personally, but I know plenty of folks who do!
thank you
Welcome!
Gareth- I'm trying to create training checklists in a restaurant. (New Hire has to be trained in 5 Areas. Each Area has different types of tasks associated with it) Would this be the way I'd do that? With Areas being projects? Does that make sense? Functioning like Trello at that point to track a new hires progress. Thank. you!
Hey Mike, sounds solid to me. I'd consider a table for employees, another table for areas of training, and then I'd make a junction table with the intersection. Check out junction tables videos if your unfamiliar with that
@@GarethPronovost Unfortunately it is just proving too complicated to set up. It obviously does so much, but I will have to use another app like Trello for that. Thank for all your tutorials.
Would love if there was a project due date / deadline and then another column that shows days left to complete and date completed (so shows you completed early or how many days late)
Great point - no idea why I didn't include that in the video (I almost always do so when building these!)
The formula for that would be something like: DATETIME_DIFF ( {DUE DATE FIELD} , TODAY() , 'days' )
@@GarethPronovost Thanks so much! Used it as well to create another field for the 'completion status' to be early, late, in-progress.
Thanks, appreciate the video. Have you identified and approach for projects that have a regular set of tasks. For example, create a new article for a website, and maybe there are the same five tasks that need to occur each time. Basically a template set of tasks for a project, or project type.
Hey Nicholas I was wondering the same thing! You can copy and paste the task cells into new cells and the assign it to a project, Gareth does this in the video at lightning speed, but I wonder if there is a programmatic way?
Hey, that's a great question. The answer is a bit more advanced, so I haven't made a YT video for it yet. I do cover it in my free Airtable Crash Course though - you can sign up here (www.garethpronovost.com/airtable-crash-course) to receive the emailed course. Hope that helps, but always feel free to shoot me an email as well!
Great info! Thanks so much! Question, if I may! If I add a new record to 'project', how do I have it show in the tasks table as well, along with a group of assigned tasks? Almost like a template. I'll have a form feed record data to projects and it would be slick to have all the same tasks assign to that new record!
If you add a project and then create tasks assigned to the project, these two things live in different tables (Projects/Tasks). You can look at the project assigned to a task, or you can look at the tasks assigned to a project. If you're looking to create a templated number of tasks, I'd strongly suggest checking out this video (czcams.com/video/VPTkmBpLtrI/video.html) that goes through the steps of building an automated task system based on the TYPE of project. It's a bit advanced, but I'm sure you can follow the steps to get the result!
@@GarethPronovost Wonderful! Thanks so much for your quick reply!
What if I have a REALLY big task list? Say 75 items? Is this still the best way?
if you can group them using some criteria, for example, by location, or by month, or by a goal. So doesn't have to be by project, as not all jobs can be easily split into projects.
i dont get airtable. Why are people excited about a much less powerful version of Excel? Is it the colors? Or because it's cheap?
Airtable is much more than a spreadsheet tool - a better comparison is to pit it against Google Tables. Using a relational database unlocks a lot more opportunity than a spreadsheet!
@@GarethPronovost I mean there is also MS Access if you do want relatable db/spreadsheet hybrid. It is often not used because, in an office setting, this kind of "hybrid" data store paradigm always gets way too messy extremely quickly. And users always find that they need more powerful relational features for those with relational db and nosql db backgrounds, and other users of excel need more powerful accounting features and simpler data modeling for power excel users. If you try to combine both, it's historically been a horrible experience in the long run. A jack of all trades program just means you're not getting the best of any trade typically.
@@chihchang1139 Definitely a good comparison, althought MS Access isn't cloud-based. The cloud-based DBs (Coda, Airtable, Notion, Google Tables) are exploding because of the ability to connect them to other software via automation. Airtable is leading the pack there.
Agreed that they can get complex and messy... but that's why we make our videos! ;)
@@GarethPronovost well thanks for your explanation. I feel like Access has tried this and businesses have ultimately found that the mess of data modeling is not really worth the relations benefits when there are better relational dbs. It's especially dangerous because migrating out of this hybrid model is extremely difficult and businesses that grow out of this will take a pretty huge tech burden when they need to switch to more suitable technologies. But that's just my experience.
@@chihchang1139 Totally respect your experience and opinion! 🤝
Thank you! Very helpful:)
So glad! Thanks for watching!