Tasks are the execution layer of your work. They connect initiatives to daily action, and understanding status and priority helps you focus on what matters most.
- Status – tells you where work is in its lifecycle (To Do, Doing, Blocked, Done, Dropped)
- Priority – tells you how strongly you should pull it next when time is limited (Critical, High, Medium, Low, Very Low)
Overview
Task Status
The current place of work in its lifecycle – from planning to completion
Task Priority
How urgently a task should be addressed when resources are constrained
The Relationship Between Status and Priority
Status answers: “Where is this work?”Priority answers: “How important is it?”
Task Status
Task status is the story of where work really is. Used well, it keeps you and your team aligned on what’s moving, what’s stuck, and what’s done.Why Status Matters
Clarity in standups and check-ins
Clarity in standups and check-ins
You can quickly answer “What’s in flight?” and “What’s stuck?” without digging through multiple tools or asking for constant updates.
Less micro-management
Less micro-management
Leads and stakeholders can see progress from status changes instead of asking for constant updates. Status becomes a communication tool.
Better planning and re-prioritization
Better planning and re-prioritization
Knowing how many tasks are in Doing or Blocked helps you decide what to start (or not start) next. You can spot bottlenecks before they become problems.
Cleaner history
Cleaner history
Using Done and Dropped properly keeps backlogs readable over time. You can see what was completed versus what was intentionally cancelled.
Status Levels
📋 To Do
Work that is agreed but not started
- New tasks that just came in
- Items queued for the next sprint or cycle
- Ideas that have enough context to be actionable
🔄 Doing
Work that is actively being worked on
- Currently being picked up or in progress
- Expected to move within the current day or two
- Should be discussed in standups if it lingers too long
⏸️ Blocked
Work that cannot move forward right now
- Waiting on another team, decision, or review
- Blocked by an incident or missing information
- Dependent on an upstream change that hasn’t landed yet
✅ Done
Work that is truly complete
- Acceptance criteria are met
- Code is merged and deployed as agreed for your team
- Any necessary follow-ups (docs, communication) are finished
Only mark tasks as Done when they’re truly complete. If something still requires more work, keep it in Doing or create follow-up tasks.
🗑️ Dropped
Work you’ve intentionally decided not to do
- Scope changes made an item obsolete
- You tried something and decided not to continue
- A competing initiative or task replaced this work
This helps keep history accurate without pretending everything “finished”. Dropped tasks provide valuable context about decisions made.
Status Workflow
1
Create tasks into To Do
As work is discovered or planned, create tasks in To Do status. This is your backlog of agreed-upon work.
2
Move to Doing when work starts
When someone picks up a task, move it to Doing. This signals active work and helps track work-in-progress limits.
3
Mark Blocked when obstacles arise
If progress depends on something else, move it to Blocked and document the reason. This invites help and makes dependencies visible.
4
Mark Done when truly complete
When the work is finished and meets acceptance criteria, move it to Done. This closes the loop and keeps your active work visible.
5
Use Dropped for intentional cancellations
If you decide not to do a task, move it to Dropped instead of deleting it. This preserves decision history.
Status Best Practices
During standups and check-ins
During standups and check-ins
- Start by scanning Blocked tasks:
- “What needs unblocking today?”
- “Who can help remove these blockers?”
- Then look at Doing:
- “What has been in Doing for too long?”
- “Should we split any of these into smaller tasks?”
- Use To Do to decide what to pull next, aligning with priorities.
Avoiding 'everything is Doing'
Avoiding 'everything is Doing'
Instead of:
- 10 tasks all in Doing with no clear progress
- Limit the number of Doing tasks per engineer
- Keep future work in To Do until there is capacity
- Move stalled items into Blocked with a clear reason
For planning and retros
For planning and retros
Use the distribution of To Do / Doing / Blocked / Done / Dropped to:
- Spot patterns (e.g. many tasks getting Dropped late in the cycle)
- Understand whether work is being over-started
- Learn which dependencies frequently cause Blocked status
Task Priority
Task priorities tell your team what should move first when time and attention are limited. Used consistently, they prevent everything from feeling “urgent” and make trade-offs explicit.Why Priorities Matter
Aligns the team on what's truly important
Aligns the team on what's truly important
Engineers don’t have to guess which of 10 tasks to do next. Priority provides clear guidance on what matters most.
Helps with realistic planning
Helps with realistic planning
When time is tight, you can drop or move Low items without derailing outcomes. Priorities make trade-offs explicit and defensible.
Supports clear stakeholder conversations
Supports clear stakeholder conversations
You can point to a set of High items and say “these are the commitments.” This creates accountability and sets expectations.
Reduces decision fatigue
Reduces decision fatigue
A small, meaningful set of priorities avoids endless sorting and re-sorting. You spend less time deciding what to do and more time doing it.
Priority Levels
mpath uses a 5-level priority system (1-5, where 1 is highest priority):🔴 Critical (P1)
Reserve for a small set of work that truly needs to move now
- Critical work to hit a near-term deadline
- Tasks blocking other teams or initiatives
- Incident follow-ups that meaningfully reduce risk
🟠 High (P2)
Important work that should move soon
- Work tied to current commitments and initiatives
- Tasks that impact near-term outcomes
- Important follow-ups that should happen this cycle
🟡 Medium (P3)
Important but not immediately urgent
- Regular feature work tied to initiatives
- Enhancements that improve user experience or productivity
- Follow-ups that should happen this cycle but not necessarily today
These are often your default tasks for the current sprint or week when High priority items are under control.
🟢 Low (P4)
Valuable but easily deferred
- Nice-to-have improvements
- Experiments or ideas you might explore later
- Maintenance tasks that matter but won’t hurt if delayed
⚪ Very Low (P5)
Nice-to-have work with minimal urgency
- Future exploration ideas
- Long-term improvements
- Tasks that can wait indefinitely without impact
Use Very Low as a parking lot for ideas, not a graveyard. Review regularly and either promote or drop them.
Priority Comparison
Lower numbers = higher priority:| Priority | Value | Label | When to Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | 1 | P1 | Must move now to hit commitments |
| High | 2 | P2 | Important work for current cycle |
| Medium | 3 | P3 | Important but not urgent |
| Low | 4 | P4 | Valuable but easily deferred |
| Very Low | 5 | P5 | Nice-to-have, minimal urgency |
Using Priority in Practice
1
During planning
- Start from initiatives and outcomes
- For each task, ask:
- “Does this directly impact our current commitments?”
- “What happens if we don’t do this this cycle?”
- Assign:
- Critical to the few tasks that must move to hit those commitments
- High to important work for the current cycle
- Medium to the rest of the planned work
- Low to nice-to-haves and future ideas
- Very Low to exploration and long-term improvements
2
During execution
When someone has capacity:
- Look for Critical tasks in To Do first
- If there are none, pull a High that aligns with current initiatives
- Only pull Medium when High/Critical are under control
- Only pull Low or Very Low when higher priorities are handled
- If it is more important than existing Critical items, mark it Critical and consider lowering or dropping something else
- If not, start it as High, Medium, or Low and communicate clearly about timing
3
When priorities change
- Revisit priorities weekly or whenever plans shift
- Explicitly downgrade or drop items instead of leaving them marked Critical forever
- Use these changes as input into conversations about capacity vs. demand
Priority Best Practices
Limit Critical and High
Limit Critical and High
If everything is Critical or High, nothing is. Keep these categories small and meaningful. Typically:
- 1-3 Critical tasks per person or team
- 3-5 High tasks per person or team
Pair priority with status
Pair priority with status
Focus on Critical + Doing / To Do first. A task can be Critical but still in To Do – that’s fine, it just means it’s ready to be pulled when capacity opens.
Be explicit when you downgrade
Be explicit when you downgrade
Communicate to stakeholders when a task moves from Critical → High or High → Medium. This maintains trust and sets expectations.
Use Low/Very Low as a parking lot, not a graveyard
Use Low/Very Low as a parking lot, not a graveyard
Review Low and Very Low items regularly and either promote or drop them. Don’t let them accumulate indefinitely.
Combining Status and Priority
The real power comes from using status and priority together. Here’s how they work in combination:Priority × Status Matrix
| Status | Critical | High | Medium | Low | Very Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| To Do | Pull immediately | Pull soon | Pull when capacity | Pull if time allows | Review periodically |
| Doing | Monitor closely | Track progress | Normal tracking | Low urgency | Minimal tracking |
| Blocked | Unblock urgently | Unblock soon | Unblock when possible | Unblock if needed | Can wait |
| Done | Celebrate wins | Acknowledge completion | Standard completion | Quiet completion | Archive |
| Dropped | Document why | Note cancellation | Standard drop | Quiet drop | Cleanup |
Example Workflows
Example: Quarterly initiative planning
Example: Quarterly initiative planning
Initiative: “Improve sign-up conversion”
- Critical priority tasks:
- A/B test new pricing page
- Fix a major bug in the signup flow
- High priority tasks:
- Improve form validation messages
- Add a confirmation email tweak
- Medium priority tasks:
- Refactor related module for clarity
- Low priority tasks:
- Explore a new experiment idea for later
Example: Production incident follow-up
Example: Production incident follow-up
- Critical:
- Add missing alert for the failure path → Doing
- Patch the root cause in the hot path → Doing
- High:
- Document incident response process → To Do
- Medium:
- Refactor related module for clarity → To Do
- Low:
- Write a blogpost about the incident → To Do
Example: Healthy daily workflow
Example: Healthy daily workflow
- Morning standup: Review Blocked tasks first (regardless of priority) – unblock what you can
- Start of day: Pull Critical tasks from To Do into Doing
- During work: Move tasks through Doing → Done as you complete them
- End of day: Review Doing tasks – if something has been stuck, move to Blocked with a reason
- Weekly review: Revisit priorities – downgrade tasks that are no longer critical, promote tasks that became urgent
Quick Reference
Status Quick Reference
| Status | Icon | Meaning | When to Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| To Do | 📋 | Planned but not started | New tasks, queued work |
| Doing | 🔄 | Actively being worked on | Someone is working on it now |
| Blocked | ⏸️ | Cannot move forward | Waiting on something else |
| Done | ✅ | Truly complete | Acceptance criteria met |
| Dropped | 🗑️ | Intentionally cancelled | Decided not to do |
Priority Quick Reference
| Priority | Value | Label | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | 1 | P1 | Must move now |
| High | 2 | P2 | Important, move soon |
| Medium | 3 | P3 | Important but not urgent |
| Low | 4 | P4 | Valuable but deferrable |
| Very Low | 5 | P5 | Nice-to-have |
Best Practices Summary
Pair status with priority for a full picture of what to do and when. Status shows progress; priority shows importance.
Prefer Blocked over silent stagnation. Moving a task to Blocked invites help and makes dependencies visible. It’s better than letting tasks sit in Doing without progress.