Tips for Success

Best practices for getting the most out of Tasks & Issues.

Keep Titles Clear and Actionable

Write issue titles that describe the specific work to be done.

Good: "Review Q3 budget with finance team"

Bad: "Budget stuff"

A clear title helps everyone understand what needs to happen without opening the issue.

Use Priorities Consistently

Reserve High priority for urgent, blocking items. Most work should be Medium priority to maintain focus on what's truly critical.

Priority	When to Use
High	Blocking other work, urgent deadlines, critical bugs
Medium	Standard work items, most tasks
Low	Nice-to-have, can wait, backlog items

If everything is high priority, nothing is.

Assign Owners

Every issue should have an assignee. This ensures accountability and makes it easy to know who to contact about progress.

Unassigned issues tend to slip through the cracks. If you're not sure who should own something, assign it to yourself temporarily and discuss with your team.

Set Realistic Due Dates

Only set due dates when there's a genuine deadline. Arbitrary due dates create noise and reduce trust in the system.

Good reasons for due dates:

External commitments (client deliverables, launches)
Dependencies (another team needs this)
Compliance requirements

Bad reasons for due dates:

"It would be nice to finish this week"
"I want to see progress"

Use Tags for Cross-cutting Concerns

Tags work well for things that span multiple issues:

Tag Type	Examples
Feature areas	Authentication, Dashboard, API, Billing
Sprint or release	Sprint 23, v2.0, Q1-2024
Type of work	Bug, Enhancement, Tech Debt, Research
Team or department	Frontend, Backend, Design, QA

Tags make it easy to see all related work across your project.

Link to Milestones

For project work, always link issues to the relevant milestone step. This connects day-to-day tasks to your larger project goals.

Benefits of milestone linking:

See progress on milestone steps in real-time
Filter issues by milestone to focus on project work
Identify gaps in your plan (milestones with no issues)

Review Regularly

Check your issues list at least weekly:

Update statuses - Mark completed items as done
Close finished work - Don't let done items linger
Identify blockers - Surface problems early
Reassess priorities - Adjust as needs change
Clean up stale items - Archive or close abandoned work

A clean, up-to-date issue list builds trust with your team and stakeholders.

Use Sub-issues for Complex Work

When an issue represents a large piece of work, break it into sub-issues:

Each sub-issue should be completable independently
Sub-issues help track progress on complex tasks
Easier to assign different parts to different people

Write Good Descriptions

A good description saves time for everyone:

Context - Why does this matter?
Acceptance criteria - How will we know it's done?
Relevant links - Related documents, designs, or discussions
Technical notes - Any constraints or considerations

You don't need a novel, but enough detail that someone else could pick it up.