Create a Delegation Tracker in Tana for Ongoing Tasks

Table of Contents

Start with a blank daily node for control

If you’re trying to keep track of who’s doing what inside Tana without it becoming a chaotic mess of repeating tasks and unfiltered updates, the best place to start is your daily node. I always begin with a blank daily page — you can set this up in your sidebar as a pinned search or use the built-in calendar. Either way, do not overcomplicate this yet. The goal is just to have one place where delegation updates live.

Create a tag first, something simple like #Delegated or #HandOff. I used to name mine things like #FollowUpTask or #WaitingOnJack, but those get too specific too fast. Keep it flexible until your workflow stabilizes.

Now, inside your daily node, use supertags. Each item should represent a real task or request you’ve asked someone to do. For example:

– Draft Q2 product roadmap for hotline — @Erica #Delegated 🔄
– IT: unblock Notion login bug — @Daniel #Delegated ➕

What’s important here is you include the @mention and the #Delegated tag. Without the tag, you’ll lose searchability later.

I almost always forget to include context on these entries if I’m rushing, so I use a Fields template inside the #Delegated supertag. Here’s the minimal set I’d recommend:

The fewer fields you use, the more likely you are to actually fill them in 🙂 Keep that in mind.

Create a synced view for all ongoing tasks

Once the daily node starts collecting delegated tasks, the next pain point becomes figuring out what’s ongoing without opening every past day manually. This is where templates go to die if you don’t filter properly.

What works for me is setting up a saved search with the following logic:

– Type: Delegated (based on your supertag)
– Status: Is not Done
– Has a due date: Optional, but I filter to only show ones with a due date if I want something more actionable

Save this view inside your sidebar and call it “Ongoing Delegations” or “Still Waiting”… whatever makes emotional sense to you. I used to name mine “Hot Tasks” and then let it grow into a graveyard of old stuff I never followed up on. So now I’m boring and literal with my labels.

Here’s where it gets kind of cool. You can enable grouped views by Person or Status. If you group by Assignee, you instantly get a dashboard of who owes you what. If you’re brave enough, you can even share this node with team members so they see their delegated tasks live (just be ready for an awkward Slack message when you get the status wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).

Use nested tasks for parallel or background work

Tana’s support for inline content is deceptively useful when it comes to delegation. Let’s say you’ve handed off a task to fix your forms not syncing in Airtable — but five tiny things need checking before they can even do that. If you treat all five as separate delegated items, it’s overwhelming. Instead, you can nest them under the main delegated card.

Like this:

– [ ] Clean up Airtable sync issue → #Delegated @Rachel
– [ ] Check if Zap fired on form submission
– [ ] Audit token access in Airtable view
– [ ] Test with dummy data

Only the parent task gets the #Delegated tag. So when you load your saved view of ongoing tasks, you don’t flood it with subitems — but you still have the context neatly tucked away. If you ever need to expose one of the subtasks as a full-fledged delegated task, just right-click it and turn it into a full node.

Nested tasks also help protect you from distractions. There’s something weirdly calming about opening a task and seeing its little to-dos hiding inside instead of jamming everything at the top level like a Trello board gone rogue 😛

Create check in reminders using Tana’s calendar

This is the part I used to forget — actually following up. If you’ve got a clean Delegation supertag but you never reopen the items, you’re just dumping tasks into the void.

Tana has a simple way to fix this: right-click any task and use the “Show in calendar” option. Drag it to next Monday or whenever makes sense to check in. You don’t need to change its due date — just drop the node onto that day so it comes back into view later. Then, when you open your daily node on that future date, boom — there it is again, waiting for your attention.

This works better for me than setting up reminders. My issue with automated reminders is they always show up at the wrong time. But a small block inside my calendar node? Feels less intrusive. More like, “Hey, remember this thing?” instead of “WHY HAVEN’T YOU MESSAGED JACK YET?”

One caveat — if you manually move these reminders, you will forget where they went. I speak from experience. If you plan to reschedule a lot of delegation check-ins, consider tagging them with something like #Recheck so you can run a search later for any follow-ups you lost.

Add Slack links or message URLs for reference

Delegation almost always starts in Slack. Someone pings you, you forward it, and then four days later you forget where the original thread even was. Tana can’t pull messages directly from Slack (yet?), but the workaround is surprisingly human-friendly:

Right-click any Slack message, “Copy message link,” then paste it into the Notes field inside your Delegated node. If you’re really trying to be organized, drop it in a custom “Source” field. I don’t — I just paste it right in with some context like:

> Slack: “Can you ask Rachel about this?” – Emily @ 10:23am Tue

The benefit of using the real Slack link is you can click back to check if the original task has changed. Sometimes people quietly edit their messages or drop follow-ups you didn’t see. Instead of backscrolling through threads at 11pm, you just tap the URL and catch up.

Also, be honest — how many tasks have you delegated where the actual ask is just, “Ping @Chris and see what’s up with this?” Having that Slack breadcrumb trail matters.

Use filters to see only your own outgoing items

Eventually your Tana will fill up with tasks that look like delegation, but aren’t yours. Teammates will add their items, or you’ll import ones assigned to you. Loving collaboration is great; accidentally following up on someone else’s responsibilities is less fun.

The trick here is to add a new field to your Delegation supertag: Created By. Tana automatically makes the current user the default.

Now, any saved search you make can be filtered:
– Delegated items
– Status not Done
– Created By is you

And ta-da — only the stuff you’ve actually assigned will show up. You can build alternate views too, like:
– Delegated to others by you
– Delegated to you by others
– Stuck tasks where status = Blocked

This has saved me from a bunch of embarrassing “Hey, did you ever—” messages where the other person goes, “That wasn’t your task.” 🙂

Embed summary blocks in meeting notes

If you do weekly check-ins or team syncs, embedding your delegation status directly into the meeting note page is glorious. Let’s say you have a node called “Weekly Sync 5-12” — open that, type /embed, then search for your Ongoing Delegations view.

Instant dashboard. You’ll see live cards that update status in real time. I use this during Zoom calls when we’re doing updates. Instead of screen sharing Notion or a planner, I just scroll through the embed and update tasks inline.

One hiccup — if you’ve got filters in your original view, the embedded version respects those. But if you change them mid-call, the embed won’t always refresh unless you reload the pane.

Not a dealbreaker, but be ready to silently curse Tana’s view caching while everyone stares at your screen. It helps to remind people, “This might be cached,” before they freak out.

Quick capture new assignments without breaking context

My last piece of advice: use the Quick Add as often as humanly possible when delegating during live calls. If you wait to type into your daily node, there’s a good chance you’ll forget by the end of the meeting.

The easiest format I use is:

> /add Delegated Ask Sam about Zapier error by Tues

If you’ve prebuilt your delegation supertag with suggested fields, the Quick Add will show a fast selector for person, date, and status. If not, it still works — just adds raw text, and you can clean it up later.

This is particularly handy when you’re in other Partials or panes. Like if you’re reading an old node and someone mentions new work, but you don’t want to jump context. Just type /add and keep rolling.

The real secret to delegation in Tana isn’t templates or filters — it’s flow. The less resistance there is between hearing a request and capturing it usefully, the fewer tasks fall through the cracks.