Delegating Made Easy: Outlook – Assign Tasks to Contacts

Outlook has you covered: You can easily assign tasks to other people from your contacts. The delegated tasks will then appear on the respective person’s contact card.

• Open Outlook.

• Click on People in the menu at the bottom edge of the window.

• You will be taken to the Contacts section.

• Click on the contact in your contact list to whom you want to assign the task.

• Click the More button on the ribbon. A drop-down menu will open.

• Click on Assign Task.

• The Untitled – Task window opens.

• The selected contact is already entered in the To field.

• Enter the task name in the subject line.

• Set the start and end dates.

• If necessary, set additional information such as status, priority, task progress, etc.
• Write the message text. You can also add attachments as usual.
• Click Send. The delegated task will still be displayed in your task list:

However, you can see who owns the task, meaning who is responsible for it. The responsible person receives an email request in Outlook similar to a meeting invitation: They must accept or decline it. If they accept, the task will also appear in their task list.