This guide
Is tailored for: solo Etsy sellers, new shop owners, and sellers working with one or two others (like a VA or business partner)
And covers: how to set up Tasks, start organizing your work, and build habits that keep your shop running smoothly
Getting started
Your "General" team
When you first open Tasks, you'll already have a team called General. In Alura, a Team is how you organize different areas of your shop work — tasks always belong to a team, and each team gets its own workflow, labels, and templates.
If you're a solo seller or just getting started, the General team is all you need. You can rename it to something that feels right — your shop name, "My Shop", or leave it as-is. One team is enough to manage everything when you're working alone.
To customize your team, go to Settings → Teams → General → General and update the name, icon, and color.
Top tip: Don't overthink your team structure at the start. The General team is perfectly fine for everything. You can always create additional teams later as your shop grows.
Configure your workflow
Every team comes with default statuses that tasks move through as work progresses. You can customize these to match how you actually work.
Go to Settings → Teams → General → Workflow to set up your statuses.
Statuses are grouped into categories that Alura uses to track progress:
Category | What it means | Example statuses |
Backlog | Ideas and someday tasks | Ideas, Someday |
Unstarted | Ready to work on but not yet begun | To Do, Up Next |
Started | Actively being worked on | In Progress, Needs Photos, Needs SEO |
Completed | Done | Done, Published |
Canceled | Won't do | Won't Do, Dropped |
You can create as many statuses as you need within each category. Drag to reorder them.
Here's a simple workflow for a solo Etsy seller:
To Do → In Progress → Done
Or something more specific for listing work:
Idea → Drafting → Needs Photos → Needs SEO → Ready to List → Live
Set up labels
Labels are color-coded tags you attach to tasks for quick categorization. Create them in Settings → Teams → General → Labels.
Suggested starter labels for Etsy sellers:
Label | Color | Use for |
SEO | Blue | Keyword research, title/tag optimization |
Photos | Purple | Product photography tasks |
Pricing | Orange | Price adjustments, sale planning |
Holiday | Red | Seasonal and holiday prep |
Restock | Green | Inventory and restocking |
Customer | Yellow | Customer-related follow-ups |
Labels are flexible — use whatever makes sense for your shop. You can archive labels you stop using and create new ones anytime.
Choose an estimate mode (optional)
If you want to get a sense of how big tasks are before diving in, you can enable estimates in Settings → Teams → General → General.
Choose from:
T-shirt sizing (XS, S, M, L, XL) — simple and intuitive
Linear (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…) — straightforward number scale
Fibonacci (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13…) — emphasizes that bigger tasks are harder to predict
Exponential — for power users
Our recommendation for most sellers: T-shirt sizing. It's fast, doesn't require overthinking, and gives you a rough sense of effort at a glance.
Or leave estimates disabled entirely — they're completely optional.
Creating and managing tasks
Start by creating tasks
Tasks are the core of everything. A task is a single piece of work — "Optimize tags for bestselling mug", "Respond to custom order request", "Plan Valentine's Day collection."
Don't overthink it. Tasks are designed to be created in seconds. The more you capture, the less you'll forget.
Each task can have:
Title — what needs to be done
Description — details, notes, reference links (rich text with formatting)
Status — where it is in your workflow
Priority — None, Low, Medium, High, or Urgent
Labels — categorize it (SEO, Photos, Holiday, etc.)
Due date — when it needs to be done (supports smart dates like "next Monday")
Assignee — who's responsible (yourself, or a teammate)
Estimate — how big is this task (if you've enabled estimates)
Top tip: You don't need to fill in every field. A title and a status are enough to get started. Add details as you go.
Link tasks to your Etsy records
One of the most powerful features for Etsy sellers: you can link any task directly to your Etsy listings, orders, customers, or shop. This means when you're looking at a task like "Retake photos for ceramic planter," you can see exactly which listing it's about — and jump to it.
Use record links to connect tasks to:
Listings — the specific product the work relates to
Orders — a customer order that needs attention
Customers — a buyer you need to follow up with
Shops — for shop-level tasks
Break big work into sub-tasks
When a task is too large to tackle in one go, break it into sub-tasks. The original task becomes the "parent."
Example:
Parent task: Launch new earring collection
Sub-task: Design 5 new earring styles
Sub-task: Order materials
Sub-task: Photograph products
Sub-task: Write listings with SEO keywords
Sub-task: Set pricing and shipping
Sub-task: Publish and promote
You can track sub-task progress from the parent task, and optionally enable auto-close so the parent automatically completes when all sub-tasks are done (configurable in your team's Workflow settings).
Use task relations
Beyond parent/sub-task relationships, you can link tasks to each other:
Blocked by / Blocking — "I can't do this until that's done" (e.g., can't list products until photos are taken)
Related to — tasks that are connected but independent
Duplicate of — when you realize two tasks are the same thing
This helps you understand dependencies without needing to keep it all in your head.
Here's an example workflow using tasks
Begin by creating all potential and known work as tasks — even larger pieces of work
Use Estimates (like T-shirt sizes) to flag which tasks are bigger undertakings
Add known steps as sub-tasks
Create a single Saved View that shows all tasks, filtering out sub-tasks so you only see parent tasks
This gives you a consolidated view of all the work happening in your shop.
As tasks grow in complexity and you add more sub-tasks, the parent task naturally becomes a container for a larger piece of work — no extra setup needed.
Building good habits
Set up recurring tasks
Many Etsy shop tasks happen on a regular schedule. Instead of remembering to create them each time, set up recurring tasks that auto-generate on a cadence.
Examples of recurring tasks for Etsy sellers:
Task | Frequency |
Review shop stats and adjust strategy | Weekly |
Check inventory levels | Weekly |
Refresh seasonal keywords | Monthly |
Review and respond to new reviews | Weekly |
Audit shipping prices | Monthly |
Plan next month's promotions | Monthly |
Renew expiring listings | As needed |
Set these up in Settings → Teams → General → Recurring, or create them directly when making a new task.
Create templates for repeating work
If you find yourself creating similar tasks over and over, save time with templates. A template pre-fills the title, status, priority, labels, due date, and even auto-creates sub-tasks.
Example template: "New Listing Checklist"
Title pattern: New Listing: {product name} Priority: Medium Labels: SEO, Photos Sub-task templates:
Research keywords
Write title and tags
Write description
Take product photos
Edit and upload photos
Set pricing and shipping
Publish listing
Now every time you have a new product to list, apply the template and you've got a ready-made checklist.
Manage templates in Settings → Teams → General → Templates.
Pick the right view for you
Tasks offers three ways to look at your work:
View | Best for |
Kanban board | Visual people who want to see tasks flow through columns (by status, priority, assignee, etc.) |
Table | Spreadsheet lovers who want to scan lots of tasks at once |
List | A clean, compact list view |
Switch between views anytime. You can also change what the Kanban groups by — status, priority, label, due date, assignee, or estimate.
Save views you use often
Once you've set up filters and a view mode you like, save it as a view so you can switch back to it instantly.
Example saved views:
"This Week" — tasks due this week, sorted by priority
"SEO Work" — all tasks with the SEO label
"Urgent" — high and urgent priority tasks only
"Completed This Month" — recently finished tasks for review
Working with a small team
If you're working with a VA, business partner, or a small team:
Invite and assign roles
Add team members in Settings → Teams → General → Members.
Role | What they can do |
Owner | Full control — settings, members, workflow, everything |
Admin | Manage settings, members, labels, templates, workflow |
Member | Create and edit tasks; manage labels/templates only if team policy allows |
Use assignees
Assign tasks to specific people so everyone knows who's responsible for what. Filter by assignee to see each person's workload.
Collaborate with comments
Every task has a comments section with:
Threaded replies — keep conversations organized
@mentions — notify a specific person
Emoji reactions — quick acknowledgments without adding noise
Attachments — share reference images or files directly in comments
Stay informed
Subscribe to tasks you want to follow (even if they're not assigned to you)
Favorite tasks you access frequently for quick navigation
The Activity log on every task shows a full history of who changed what and when — so nothing falls through the cracks
Keyboard shortcuts (for power users)
Once you're comfortable, speed things up:
Shortcut | Action |
| Move to next / previous task |
| Open selected task |
| Close task / go back |
| Copy task ID |
Quick start checklist
Customize your General team (rename, pick an icon, set your workflow statuses)
Add a few labels (SEO, Photos, Holiday, etc.)
Create your first tasks — even just a few to get started
Link a task to one of your Etsy listings
Set up one recurring task (like "Weekly stats review")
Create one template (like "New Listing Checklist")
Try switching between Kanban and Table views
You don't need to set up everything at once. Start simple, and add structure as your shop — and your workload — grows.