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Rich Hein is a veteran technology journalist with more than two decades covering developer, consumer and enterprise topics. Rich’s career has been dedicated to service journalism, connecting readers to content that informs and delights.

Previously, Rich was vice president and editor-in-chief for Simpler Media Group, director of audience development for IDG and editor/writer for sites like CIO.com, ComputerWorld, CodeGuru and other tech-centric publications. He’s received numerous accolades, including the IDG Summit and Azbee awards and has been covered by Medium for his work in audience development.

When not at his desk, Rich lives in Daytona Beach with his wife and three dogs. He enjoys playing guitar, surfing and staying abreast of the latest in tech.

Microsoft has no shortage of productivity apps, but one of its most genuinely useful tools is also one of the easiest to miss. If you subscribe to Microsoft 365, you already have access to Microsoft Planner, a lightweight project organizer tucked inside 365 suite. It is straightforward for personal projects and structured enough for small teams, which is why it ends up being more helpful than people expect.

Planner is not meant to replace heavy project-management platforms like Asana or Trello. It focuses on clear, visual boards that make it easy to track tasks, deadlines, and progress at a glance. Whether you are coordinating a work project or simply trying to keep your own tasks from piling up, Planner offers a simple way to get organized, and you probably already have it installed.

The basics of how Microsoft Planner works

Microsoft Planner is Microsoft’s take on simple, visual task management. It uses kanban-style boards built around buckets, cards, labels, and assignments, designed to help see what needs attention and what can wait. Each task can include notes, checklists, due dates, files, and comments, so everything you need stays in one place. It feels familiar if you have used Trello or any other board-based tool, but Planner is streamlined in a way that makes it hard to overthink. You can build a board in seconds and start organizing your work right away.

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The best part is that Planner lives inside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Every board is tied to a group, so permissions, file sharing, and notifications work the way you expect. You can pull a Planner tab into Teams, open tasks directly from Outlook, or view everything in the Planner hub without needing another login. This tight integration is its biggest strength. It is a focused tool that does one thing well: turn your tasks into a clear plan you can follow.

Planner is useful for organizing projects because it has the structure and workflow that the average user needs, without the heavy overhead you get with tools like Asana. Tasks sit on clean, simple boards that work a lot like Trello, and moving work forward is as easy as dragging a card. Labels, buckets, priorities, and checklists help break larger projects into smaller steps, but you never feel buried in menus or configuration options. It gives you just enough control to stay organized while keeping everything approachable for people who want a fast way to plan a project.

Those same qualities make Planner an effective tool for collaboration. Team members can see assignments, updates, and comments right on the board, and everything syncs instantly inside Microsoft 365. Trello and Asana offer more advanced automation and workflow customization, but Planner wins on clarity and ease, especially if your team already lives in Teams or Outlook. Everyone works from the same board, files stay attached to the right tasks, and notifications keep communication tight. It is a simple system that fits neatly into the apps many organizations already use every day.

When Planner may not be the right tool

Planner has a lot going for it, but it is not built for complex or long-term project planning. You won’t find the deep automation, custom fields, detailed reporting, or workflow rules that tools like Asana and ClickUp offer. The app is simple by design, which is great for small projects but can feel restrictive if you are trying to manage a large program or anything with complicated dependencies. Planner also lacks a true timeline or Gantt-style view, so mapping out work across weeks or months takes more effort than it should.

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You may also run into limitations around control and customization. Permissions are tied to Microsoft 365 groups, so you cannot fine-tune access for individual users the way you can in tools like Asana or ClickUp. If you want certain people to see a board but not edit it, or give contributors access to only specific buckets, Planner will not give you that level of control. Integrations outside the Microsoft ecosystem are minimal, and recurring tasks still feel underdeveloped. If you need heavy reporting, detailed automation, or strict project governance, you will feel these shortcomings. It is a solid fit for everyday task tracking, just not a full project-management suite.

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Microsoft Planner won’t replace the full project-management heavyweights, but that isn’t what it is built for. Its strength comes from keeping things simple and easy to understand, which is exactly what most people need for day-to-day work. If you already use Microsoft 365, Planner fits naturally into your workflow and gives you a straightforward way to organize tasks without adding another tool to manage.

It handles personal projects, shared tasks, and small team work with very little setup, and it is more capable than it looks at first glance. If you have been overlooking Planner, it is worth digging in to see how it can help increase your productivity and your team’s.