The MeisterTask machine is a powerful one, but it probably isn’t the only one you use. And if you’re using MeisterTask as a central knowledge base for yourself and your colleagues, it’s critical that all the things you need to get done make their way swiftly and assuredly into MeisterTask. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could connect all your favorite tools, save time and never let a task slip between the cracks? Well, you can! In this article, we’ll explain how and give you as many examples as we can think of.
Automation sounds complicated — like it would take time and expertise to set it up and make it work properly. But MeisterTask has partnered with Zapier to make sure this isn’t the case. Zapier connects thousands of apps, giving users oodles of permutations and combinations of how they can work together.
Say What?
To explain how Zapier works and prove just how easy it is to use, I’m going to take an example from our very own Partner Manager, Raphaela. She’s set up a Zapier automation, called a Zap, between Typeform and MeisterTask.
People who would like to partner with Meister fill out an online form made using Typeform. And since we here at Meister like to keep everything in MeisterTask (who would have thought?), Raphaela doesn’t want to sign in to Typeform or receive a new email each time someone submits a form. Instead, she’s set up a Zap.
My Zap creates a new task in my MeisterTask project whenever a new application is submitted. The task includes all the information from the form, so I can see at a glance if the person is a good fit for our program and can get back to them right away.
Efficiency, convenience and centralization all in one fell swoop! So, how did she do it? Once you’ve got yourself a Zapier account, it’s just three steps.
Step 1. Choose which tools to connect and how
In this case, we’re connecting Typeform to MeisterTask. And we’re defining what action in Typeform (here, a new entry) should create a task in MeisterTask.
Step 2. Define the details
Choose which project and which section the new task should appear in. Then choose which information points from the app (in this case the form) should appear in the task name and task description. In addition, if you’re setting up this Zap specifically for yourself, make sure to add yourself as the assignee. If using it for another purpose, delegate this task to someone else right now while you set up the Zap!
Step 3. Enjoy and get to work
Can you enjoy getting to work? With an increase in productivity and a decrease in hassle, I think so! Just like that, someone submits a form and Raphaela receives a task assigned to her with all the information she needs.
But I Don’t Use Typeform!
That’s ok, I don’t either. And luckily Zapier works with almost any app you can think of. Here’s my attempt to find at least one way you can automatically create tasks for yourself in MeisterTask.
Emails to tasks
We have a great built-in feature in MeisterTask to get emails from your inbox to your project board. But if you’d like to have different functions in your inbox achieve different things in MeisterTask, Email by Zapier or a Gmail to MeisterTask Zap might be the way to go.
With Email by Zapier you can forward an email to a specific email address and either create, update or find a task, or create an attachment.
Alternatively, you can set up a Zap so that, for example, starring an email in your Gmail inbox will create a task in MeisterTask.
Spreadsheets to tasks
Who doesn’t love a classic Excel, Sheets or Numbers spreadsheet? Maybe a client has you on retainer and simply adds a row to a spreadsheet when they need you to do something. Maybe you keep track of all your clients and their invoices in your own spreadsheet. Whatever it is you do with spreadsheets, you can turn new rows into tasks lickety-split.
Calendar events to tasks
If you’re like me, you like to prepare well for meetings. Creating a task to store all relevant information and other meeting details is key, but I don’t want to have to remember to do that. Enter Zapier: Pick your favorite calendar app and trigger new events to create tasks in MeisterTask.
Sales leads to tasks
Here at Meister, our sales team uses Close to manage their customer relationships. But the rest of us at Meister only have MeisterTask running through our veins. How to reconcile this? Members of our sales team turn their new leads in Close into tasks in MeisterTask. Of course, if you’re using Salesforce, that would also work. As would almost any other app that you or your team use.
Social media to tasks
Whether you want to turn tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts or all of them combined into one (Buffer) into tasks, zapping is your solution. We get a lot of feedback from MeisterTaskers everywhere on various social media platforms, and once again, we like to pull all that information right into our MeisterTask hub so that we never overlook a request, call for help, or piece of praise.
Missed calls to tasks
If your work hinges upon conversations, following up on missed calls is crucial. If you use an app like Nuacom to manage your calls, you can make sure to always get back to your clients, partners and colleagues by turning your missed calls into tasks.
Meeting minutes to tasks
Sometimes meetings go in circles. But sometimes they actually lead to concrete action items that need to be completed. One way to make sure that this happens is to connect your favorite meeting minute taking app with MeisterTask. Zap those action items to completion!
Personal to-dos to tasks
If you keep track of your own to-do list in another app, for example, Microsoft To Do, and sometimes you come up with to-dos so brilliant that you’d like to move them into MeisterTask, that’s possible, too!
Docs to tasks
If you spend a lot of time in documents, as I do, this Zap could really do the trick for you. You can automatically create a task each time a new Google Doc is created in a particular folder. Why would you want to do that? To use myself as an example, when I go about writing a blog post, several people are involved in the process, whether it be to edit, design or approve. Each time I create a new Google Doc in our Blog Post folder, a task is created in MeisterTask and the blog process checklist is automatically loaded into it. Magic!
Marketing goals to tasks
If your marketing team uses a tool like SharpSpring to monitor campaigns and manage customer relationships, but the rest of your company uses MeisterTask, consider them integrated. Just set up a Zap that turns SharpSpring leads into MeisterTask tasks.
Anything at all to tasks
If none of these Zaps have spoken to you, that’s perfectly fine because with Zapier’s Google Chrome extension, Push, you can create Zaps from anywhere on the web. To learn more about how this works and how to set it up, read the article from the experts themselves. There’s nothing quite like being able to instantaneously turn what you’re working on into a task in MeisterTask.
MeisterTaskers, we hope you’ll give some of these ways to automatically create tasks a try! If you have a favorite Zap that we haven’t mentioned, or you want to share how these suggestions are working out, please let us know here on the blog or on Twitter @MeisterTask.
