How to use Upbase's Spotlight

Managing tasks across multiple projects can be overwhelming, especially when you're handling several ongoing priorities.

Typically, you'd manage your priorities by going to each project and manually checking what needs attention. But as your projects grow, this becomes inefficient and time-consuming. Constantly jumping between projects can make it hard to stay organized, with important tasks getting buried beneath less critical ones.

Even if you have hundreds or thousands of tasks, only a handful truly require your attention at any given time, whether over days or weeks.

That's where Spotlight comes in. It offers a centralized hub where you can pin your most important tasks from any project, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.

With Spotlight, you can easily track, prioritize, and organize key tasks, helping you stay focused and productive without the hassle of navigating multiple projects.

Additionally, you can create an Inbox section to quickly capture your tasks as they come to mind.

Notes:

• Spotlight is a Premium feature.
• Not available for guests.

Customize your Spotlight page

The Spotlight menu is right below the Schedule on the left sidebar.

By default, Spotlight comes with five sections:

• Inbox: A space for a quick brain dump where you can capture tasks and ideas before categorizing them later. This helps reduce mental clutter and stay organized. We highly recommend keeping this section.
• Upcoming: A section for critical tasks you need to focus on in the near future.
• Urgent: Tasks that require immediate attention.
• In progress: Tasks you're currently working on.
• Completed: Tasks you've finished.

You can fully customize your Spotlight page by reordering, adding, removing, or renaming sections to suit your workflow. Here are some ideas:

• This month: Important tasks for the month.
• Next week: Tasks to work on next week.
• This week: Focus for the current week.
• To reply: Emails, messages, or calls that need a response.
• Waiting on: Tasks pending action from others.
• Goals: Track quarterly, monthly, or weekly goals.

Popular Workflows for Inspiration

• Status: Next, In Progress, Waiting on Others, Done.
• Time-based: This Month, Next Week, This Week, Today, Completed.
• Weekly Planning: Upcoming, Next Week, This Week, Completed.
• Daily Planning: Today, Tomorrow, Upcoming, Completed.
• Category: Personal, Work, Health, Completed.
• Assigned To: Me, Team Member 1, Team Member 2, Completed.
• Type of Work: Product, Marketing, Customer Support, Completed.
• Personal and Professional: Personal Tasks, Work Tasks, Completed.

Add tasks to Spotlight

You can add new tasks directly on the Spotlight page using the "Add Task" button or add existing tasks from the task details page.

Another option is to click the ellipsis icon on a task card and select the Spotlight dropdown menu.

Automatically add tasks to Spotlight with Automations

You can use Automations to automatically add tasks to your Spotlight when something happens in a project.

Example:

• When you move a task to “In Progress” in Project A
• The task is automatically added to “In Progress” in your Spotlight

This helps you keep important tasks in view without manually adding them to Spotlight.

Once added, you will see a Spotlight indicator on the card.

Remove tasks from Spotlight

To remove a task from Spotlight, simply click the "Remove" icon on the task card. Keep in mind that this won't delete the task; it will only remove it from your Spotlight view.

You can also remove tasks from Spotlight by clearing the selected section in the task details view.