What are tasks?

Tasks are how you break down the work needed to maintain and run your yacht and track it in Quartermaster. You can think of tasks as a basic unit of action for the systems on your yacht. For example, you might have a task assigned to you to perform an oil filter change, and your partner might have a task assigned to them to clean and grease the starboard aft winch.
You can create new tasks, assign a task to a crew member or yourself, assign a due date, or delete a task.
Tasks will also be created automatically by Quartermaster when you create a maintenance schedule for a system with a due date.
You can find all tasks associated with a yacht under the "Tasks" top menu.

How to add tasks

To quickly add a new task, click the orange + button in the top bar next to "Tasks" and assign it to yourself or a crew member. You can also add tasks from the Board view using the same + orange button. You can also set a due date to receive email reminders for your to-do's. This is also where tasks automatically generated by your maintenance schedule items will show up. Once you start work on a task, make sure to mark (or move) it 'In progress' and once you complete it mark (or move) it as 'Done'.
Start by adding some tasks for yourself. You can list things you want to get done today, tomorrow, this week, or later this month and pick a due date in the "Edit" dialog. Try to write tasks that have a clear owner and result. For example, “Change prop zincs”, or “Scan and upload engine manuals to my Quartermaster account”. Then try adding a task for a crew member. You could ask them to wash the cockpit or de-frost the starboard galley refrigerator.

Assigning your first tasks to others

If you are the first user for your yacht, you can invite other partners or crew members to join your yacht under Yachts, Crew List . After they sign up, you can assign tasks to them. If your crew is already using Quartermaster, you can click on the assignee field of a task and start typing their name or email. They will receive a daily or weekly notification mail that they have task assigned to them.

Building a great task

When you click into a task, or click the "Edit" button in the top right corner, you will pull up the edit dialogue with all the task details. Task details include the assignee, due date , task description , notes , and web link .
Building out a task is easy:

1. Ensure you have a clear task name or description that represents a specific piece of work. For example, you might want to say “De-frost starboard galley refrigerator” versus “De-frost ice” so the work is clear and manageable instead of being vague and undefined.
2. Next you can assign the task to yourself or a crew member. Tasks have only one assignee so it’s clear who’s doing what by when. If multiple people need to contribute to a task's completion, you can break the work into multiple tasks, or pick a team lead to be responsible for the completion.
3. Add a due date to indicate when the task needs to be completed. This gives the assignee clarity about the deadline and helps them prioritize the task with the rest of their work.
4. Use the task notes area to give more details, instructions, or context to the task. Then anyone looking at the task will have the information they need to understand the task and get it done.
5. Finally, you can add an external link to help with the task completion. For example, if the task requires the purchase of a part, you can link to the vendor's website here.

Automatically generated tasks

When you create a schedule for your system maintenance, our application will automatically generate a task for you one day in advance of its due date.

Organize and complete work with Tasks

There are two views for your yacht's tasks: Board and List. You can think of the Board view as a the electronic equivalent of a 'sticky note' Board. The Board view is an easy glance-able place to see all the tasks, their assignees and details about the tasks including their state. You can also collapse the view on different assignees and look at your tasks only. The List view is a more compact way to see a list of all tasks. You can use the Search fields for description, state, due date and assigned to to filter the tasks you are interested in. Use the Board view to move your tasks from "To Do" to "In Progress" and finally to "Done" as you complete work. You can also drag tasks to other crew names' to assign them or to the Trash can icon in the upper right corner to delete them.

Review your tasks daily or weekly

Getting more done and staying organized starts with you, and the Tasks view is your command center. Depending on your yacht work cadence and deadlines (Opening Day anyone?), we recommend you review your task board daily or weekly. The Quartermaster application will also help you by sending you emails with a list of all your yacht's tasks. You can choose the cadence of the Task review emails to either weekly (pick a day or the week) or daily reminders.