Efficiency Starts at Home – Or the Home Screen
Now that you have ClickUp, what do you do?
First thing in the morning, you get into your office, check your emails—stuff like that. Then, you’ll open ClickUp. I like to use the browser version because it has a Chrome extension that you can download when you go to any other website. (I typically like ESPN, but if it’s Cyber Monday, there may be shopping or, you know, actual work). I can take screenshots and then add them to one of my tasks or sub-tasks. I can track my time from here, and I can also create a new task from here. I don’t have to be in ClickUp’s actual tab. I can have the Chrome extension that’s there. I like to use the browser version specifically for that.
Once you log in to ClickUp, you want to go to your homepage. This is going to show you several things. It has the categories Today, Overdue, Next, and Unscheduled. Let’s talk about why they’re here.
Start Here
With the new ClickUp 3.0 rollout, the Home Screen is more customizable. Each section is now a card you can add or omit from your Home Screen. You can choose between My Work (Legacy) and several other functions, whichever works best for you.
Functionality and Edit Layout
Step 1: Today
Check These Tasks First
This is helping you plan out your day today. ClickUp shows you what you’re assigned to that has a Due Date of Today in this section. It looks like you have a pretty easy day today. After you look at Today, you need to check out the Overdue Tasks.
Overdue shows you what you should have done but missed. It’s all based on your assigned tasks, and the due date has passed. We need to update those, and then you can see what’s happening today.
Whatever’s in Today needs to be something you’re committed to getting to today. Things do happen. You get called to an emergency meeting, you have some project that’s dropped on you that is taking priority, and you have to do some rework, and that happens. That’s expected with work.
You could open the task, move it to tomorrow, or move it to a realistic date. The due dates are intended to let you know what’s going on and help you figure out your work balance and workload. Due dates are also intended to show others when you plan on getting something done and when they can expect it.
When you move tasks from the home screen, you can also get into the task from here. You can see who changed the due date on the task, what they changed it from, to what. It shows everybody what you’re doing, but it will also show everybody the due date. They don’t have to call you, talk to you, Slack you, or Teams you. They can see the date on the task, and they can also see the status In Progress. It’s due tomorrow, and people know what’s going on. You can also add a comment on the task, which is a Best Practice.
This is how you would manage your workload. By looking at what’s overdue, let’s say that you have a huge day today. You can go through the tasks and say, “Man, I won’t get to all these. Maybe I’ll get to five, but the sixth one, I won’t get to you today.” It’s going to take me two hours. I do have some availability tomorrow. You can change the due date to tomorrow, and it’s now outside of my today, in your Next.
Next is what’s coming up, and the tasks will be sorted by the closest due date. This will keep showing you what’s coming up. The best practice is to check this before you leave each day to ensure you are not overcommitted and need to reassign some items to others or change the due dates.
Check Tasks Regularly
Step 2: Getting into a Flow
Change Dates and Delegation
That’s the Homepage and a quick rundown of how it can help you organize your workload. It should only take a couple of minutes to see the workload. Again, try reviewing this the day before for more effective planning. This way, you can ensure that some of your upcoming Next tasks are already organized in your Today list.
The more you work this way, the more success you’ll have, knowing what your workload is coming up the next day. Problems can occur if you’re not checking it for days.
Go ahead and start today; go to your Home screen and move some of these tasks around. If you can’t get to them today, put them on a realistic date. Update everybody and make sure they know what you’re going to get to. Put realistic dates on tasks, and it will feel a lot better. This area and method of checking your tasks will be super important for making the best use of ClickUp.
Step 3: Conquering the Monster Under the Bed… or Unscheduled Tasks
Unscheduled Tasks
If you have anything unscheduled, this can be scary because you’re responsible for it, but there is no due date. The problem with unscheduled tasks is that ClickUp doesn’t know when to give you an update. It doesn’t know when to send you a notification or a reminder. It doesn’t know when to tell you to do something. Plus, it won’t flow into any Workload balance because it doesn’t know how many hours to attribute to the task or what day to put those hours in.
When you’re using ClickUp, one of the things that you want to do is use time estimates and time tracking. Time estimates especially will help you see your workload. When you’ve got four tasks, and they each take two hours, you can’t take on anything else today; you’re already booked for eight hours. What if something comes up? You’re going to have to push one of those tasks because you can’t just work eight hours on these tasks. You have other things to do. You’ve got emails coming through, you’ve got meetings, you’ve got other stuff.
That’s the scary thing about unscheduled tasks; they’re always lurking down there in your Unscheduled. Consider this as you’re creating your tasks in ClickUp. Get in the habit of having a due date. Check the tasks that don’t have them; if you don’t know the due date, then make the due date when you want the task to show up on your Today list to check in with it.
The My Work section helps prevent you from going to the left-side navigation bar, clicking into the spaces, and clicking on all the folders and lists to try to find everything.
To get to one task can take five clicks or something; it feels like forever. Right? So, you don’t have to do that. You go to the homepage, and anything coming up should be in your Today or anything you missed in Overdue.
Step 4: Extra Visibility with Trending & LineUp
Create Visibility
There’s another thing that will help you out. When you’ve gotten into a task several times, the Trending section will be the last four or five tasks or subtasks that you’ve been in. You can click on the task from Trending, and it takes you right to it.
Another helpful spot on your Home screen will be your LineUp. These can be the favorites that you get into a lot. Maybe the due date is not for a month, but you’re working on it now. It won’t show up in My Work very easily for you to see it. You can put it in your LineUp by clicking on “+ Add your most important tasks here.” You browse your tasks and click on them; now, this is like your favorites. This is used for tasks and subtasks; when you click on it, you go straight to it. You don’t have to find it.
Now, let’s take this one step further. We’ve already looked at our Home screen. It should only take a few minutes to review everything because it should be like the homepage that you check twice a day. At least you’re on the My Work list, moving stuff around like your working area. It’s like working on your calendar and your email, mixing them together. But you don’t just work alone; you usually have to communicate with other people.
Step 5: Communicate a.k.a. Notifications
Notifications can be scary. There can be hundreds in there pretty quickly if you don’t stay on top of them. The clients who hate notifications are the ones who go into a notification and try to update or fix the notification.
There are more efficient ways to do it. It’s best if you’re only spending 2 to 3 min on these notifications. If you’re spending more time than that, you should probably look at how you’ve got things set up. You’re either assigned to too many things, a Watcher on too many things, or you might not be clearing them out. The best way is for you to come to the Inbox, and it’s only showing you things you care about. These are only the things that should have happened since the last time you were in ClickUp.
Time Adjustment
Let’s make sure that we understand how we get notifications. You get some of these by being a Watcher. Check the watcher bell over here on the task. That means you’re watching this task or subtask, so you’re getting notifications on it. The person icon means that you’ve been assigned. Suppose you don’t want to see the notifications for this particular task anymore; if you’re a Watcher, click the bell, and then you don’t see it anymore. If you’re the assignee, there’s not much you can do other than assign it to another person.
Taking care of Notifications should be super quick. So, if you have ten here, you should ask yourself, “Okay, what is it telling me about this task?” The task tells me exactly where it is when it’s due or if it’s overdue. Once you finish that, clear the notification because you don’t want to be fixing stuff while on this screen; update things fast and move on.
Suppose you feel like you need to look at a task, and it’s going to take you a little bit longer; you have to notify people. There’s a lot more to rescheduling it than just clicking a button. In that case, hit this icon [arrow down] in the upper right of the task. It will send the task to the Task Tray at the bottom of the screen. The tasks will line up along the bottom. Once you do that, your task is lined up, and you can clear out the notification.
Filter Notifications
When you finish this task, hit the X in the upper right-hand corner. The task goes out of the tray. The cool thing about this is when you send it to the tray, regardless of where you go, in ClickUp, the task will stay at the bottom.
You can line up the tasks that need more attention. Then you go somewhere else in ClickUp to work, put out a fire, or do whatever you have to do. When you’re ready, you can click on a task from the Task Tray, and it will open right up.
You can also filter these out; you can do Assigned to Me or @mentions if you want to see those instead of all the notifications. This way, you’re taking it a bit at a time, the most important notifications first. If somebody comments on something, it will be right on the notification, and you reply from there.
These should be tasks and subtasks that you see all the time. This should be stuff that you’re working on where you’re getting notifications that make sense to you. You should have it down to zero at least twice a day. If you cleared one out that you shouldn’t have cleared out, you can go to Cleared. That’s where they will live.
Notifications are just telling you what happened. You look at it and then go. “Oh, okay, thank you,” – clear. It’s gone. You can click on the check mark icon, clear them all out as you read them, and find out what happened since you were gone.
Step 6: Home Sweet Productivity: Wrapping Up the ClickUp Adventure
So that’s how you would control your day. Start at Home, arranging tasks by realistic due dates. Check Notifications/Inbox and clear out your notifications twice a day.
Dive into the endless possibilities of ClickUp and see how it can amp up your workflow. Hang out with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube for more insights, tips, or just some good vibes. Check out our website to see Kolme Group’s ClickUp training packages. Let’s level up together and improve our ClickUp game collectively. Cheers to smoother workflows ahead!
Conclusion
In the end, this blog emphasizes that control over one’s day starts at home, ensuring tasks are organized by realistic due dates, notifications are managed efficiently, and the ClickUp platform is harnessed to its full potential. By following these steps and continually exploring ClickUp’s features, users can unlock a smoother workflow and elevate their productivity. Kolme Group encourages readers to explore ClickUp further and invites them to engage on social platforms for additional insights and tips to improve ClickUp’s proficiency collectively.
If the complexities of ClickUp hinder your productivity. Contact Kolme Group today to unlock the full potential of ClickUp and take your project management to new heights. Let’s embark on a journey together to optimize, configure, and master ClickUp for your unique business needs. Elevate your workflow with Kolme Group – where ClickUp expertise meets tailored solutions!
Contact Us TodayCheers to a more efficient and productive workflow ahead!