Create task, board, or process box?

When you start with a new project that either has no slices or has slices, you are able to start by creating a simple task list, a kanban board with task cards, or process boxes with their own tasks. You can also create a task list by duplicating it from another slice or process box.

Summary Video (under 6 minutes)

Create Task Option

Click Create Task to create a list of tasks.

Use this option when you don't have a lot of tasks to list, such as no more than 10-20 tasks. Simple projects like planning a vacation or simple phased projects for business like moving offices to the new building. 

Create List from other Option (from other slice or box)

Let's say you want to re-use another task list from a slice or a process box. 

Copy a Process Box —

1. Create a new box with a similar label as the other box you want to copy from.
2. Click the "Create List from Other..." button.
3. Choose the project or recipe.
4. Choose the process box.
5. Decide what to include or exclude from the checkboxes (attachments, tags, etc.)
6. Click copy.

Copy a Slice Task List —

Same as above, but you would start with a fresh new slice with no content yet.

Create Board Option

Click Create Board to create a board with columns ready for their task cards (also known as a kanban board)

Use this option as a good way to see all of your tasks in different states at the same time. This is a great option for managing agile sprints. See our working with sprints article.

You can rename your columns, reorder them, delete, and add new ones. You can move task cards between columns with drag and drop. 

Create Process Box Option

Click Create Process Box to create a box to contain tasks.

Use this option when you have a lot of tasks under a slice and want to group them into buckets, such as milestones, deliverables, or sub-phases. This will provide you and your team with a more process workflow model.

Recommendation: Instead of use process boxes under a no-slice pie (which you can easily do if you like), we recommend to slice up the pie itself into pie phases. Then you can add tasks under each slice. Then if you need to go one more level deep with a hierarchy you could add process boxes under a slice and then tasks under the boxes. That gives you three levels deep. A fourth level would be adding subtasks to the tasks, and then a fifth and final level would be a checklist in each subtask. Phew!

Changing from one view to the other

• Task List to Boxes: If you start with a task list, you can turn it into a process box view with one click. Go to the kabab more menu (…) at the upper right of the task list and click “Create box to contain these tasks” and it will turn the task list to the box view with all tasks dropping into the first box. From there you can drag and drop to move the tasks to other boxes.
• Task List to Board: If you start with a task list, turning it into a board is a little trickier. The solution would be to create a new slice to the right of the task list slice, create a board there, then drag the tasks from the task list slice and drop them onto the new board slice. When done dragging all tasks, delete the old slice. If you have a lot of tasks, you can use the move task feature to move them all at once.
• Boxes to Task List: If you start with a box view and you want to turn it into a task list view without boxes, start with drag and drop (or moving) all tasks from each box to the first box. Next, delete the empty boxes (hover over the box and click the more kabab button). Then when you come to the last box, use the box delete option that says “Delete box, but save tasks”.
• Boxes to Board: If you start with a box view and want to convert it into a board, create a new slice to the right of the box slice, and then create a board in that new slice. Then go back to the old box slice and drag and drop each task (or use the move feature) into the new board slice.
• Board to Task List: If you start with a board, the best solution is to create a new slice for the task list and then drag and drop or move the tasks from the board to the new slice. You can then delete the board slice once it has no more tasks.
• Board to Boxes: If you start with a board, the best solution is to create a new slice with at least one new box and then drag and drop or move the tasks from the board to the new slice. If you drag the task over the box slice and hold it there before dropping, the slice will open and allow you to drag to any box you like. If you just drop onto the slice, they will then drop inside the first box. You can then delete the board slice once it has no more tasks.