Mentions and Tasks in Confluence (Assign Follow-ups With a Due Date)
Turn meeting follow-ups into Confluence tasks: a tick box, an at mention for the owner, and a due date. The owner gets told, and ticks the task off when it is done.
Step by step
Follow-ups
- Mentions and tasks. A follow-up with no owner and no date often doesn't get done. In Confluence, a task, a mention and a due date fix that. Each follow-up gets a tick box, a named owner and a deadline.
- New page. From the project overview, click Create. Pick Page. Name it Checkout follow-ups, then press Enter to move into the page body.
Task, owner, date
- A task. Type a short line, Follow-ups from the checkout review:, then press Enter. Type [] and a space, and Confluence turns it into a task with a tick box. Then write what needs doing: Write test cases for discount codes.
- An owner. Now add the owner. Type @ and the start of a name, here @Pri. Confluence lists the people whose names match. Pick Prince from the list. The name turns into a blue mention, and Prince is told about the task once the page is published.
- A due date. Next, the due date. Type by, then two slashes: //. Press Enter to add a date. A calendar opens. Go to next month. Click the day the task is due. The task now says what needs doing, who owns it and when it's due.
- One per line. Press Enter to start the next task on its own line, with its own tick box. Use the same pattern: type Update the checkout page wording, then @Pri. Press Enter to pick Prince from the list.
Share it
- Publish. Click Publish. Then click Publish again to confirm.
- Tick it off. The page is now published, and both tasks show in Prince's task list. When the test cases are written, Prince ticks the box on the page itself.
Recap
- What, who, when. To recap: [] and a space make a task, @ adds the owner, and // adds the due date. Put 1 task on each line, then publish.
Common mistakes
- Leaving out the owner. A task with no @mention has no owner. No one is told about it, and it only shows up in the task list of the person who wrote it, not in anyone else's. Check that every line has an @mention before you publish.
- Typing the date as plain text. Writing "by next Friday" in words doesn't give the task a real due date. Type // and pick the day from the calendar instead.
- Putting several follow-ups in one task. If one line holds 2 jobs, nobody can tick it off until both are done. Press Enter and give each follow-up its own line, owner and date.
- Forgetting the space after []. The tick box only appears after you type the space. If you see the brackets as plain text, delete them and type [] followed by a space.
When a business analyst uses this
After a requirements workshop, a business analyst adds each follow-up to the meeting notes page as a task, with an @mention for the owner and a due date. Before sign-off, the analyst can see on that page which follow-ups are still open and who to chase.
Questions people ask
How do I create a task in Confluence?
In the page editor, type [] and then a space. Confluence turns the line into a task with a tick box, and you write what needs doing after it.
How do I add a due date to a Confluence task?
In the task line, type // and press Enter to open a calendar, then click the day it's due. The date is saved as part of the task.
Does the person I mention in a Confluence task get notified?
Yes. Once the page is published, the person you mention gets a notification and the task shows up in their own task list. If you mention yourself, you get no notification, but the task still shows up in your task list.
