By the end of this guide your team will have one place for every project's tasks: a table grouped by project, a board by status, a timeline, and a list of what's due this week. Most of the setup is deciding how your work moves before you build anything.
Key takeaways
Before you start
You need a Probe account; Work Studio is on every plan, Free included. Then do the two things below on paper. They take 15 minutes and they decide whether the tracker gets used.
Map how work moves
Most trackers fail before anyone opens a tool. The team picks software, copies someone else's columns, and two weeks later half the work is back in chat. Write down how a piece of work actually moves from idea to done on your team today.
For most small teams that's four or five stages. A common set is To do, In progress, In review, Done. A design studio might use Brief, Draft, Client review, Delivered. Use the words your team already says out loud. If you can't name a stage in two words, it's probably two stages or none.
Then list your projects. A project is anything with an end: a website refresh, a launch, a hire. Ongoing work, like answering support, belongs somewhere else.
Agree the task rules
A tracker is only as good as its tasks. Three rules do most of the work:
Priority is useful if you keep it to three levels. High, medium and low is enough for a team of five.
Step 1: Start a Document and click Build with AI
Open Work Studio, click New Paper and choose Doc. Name the page what the tracker should be called; ours was "Team projects 3".
Under the title is a row of ways to turn the page into something. Click Build with AI, and a box opens that asks What is it for?
Step 2: Describe your projects and the views you want
Put your stages, task rules and views into one or two sentences. You have up to 600 characters. This is the request we used:
Our team's projects and the work in them. Each task belongs to a project and has an owner, a status (to do, in progress, in review, done), a priority (high, medium, low), a start date and a due date. I want a board of tasks by status, a timeline by start and due date, and a table of everything, grouped by project.
Press Enter. Probe AI opens with the Paper Agent and your request. The card was ready 15 seconds later.
Step 3: Read the proposal, then click Apply
The agent doesn't change anything until you say so. It sends back a card marked Review required, with Apply and Reject, and says in a few lines what it will make. It proposed:
Click Apply. The database is made, and the Document you started from stays right where it was: the agent builds the database alongside it rather than replacing it.
Step 4: Add the work
Add the tasks you already know about. We asked the agent:
Add eight tasks across two projects, "Website refresh" and "Spring launch". Spread them over the four weeks from Monday, November 16, 2026, give each a start and due date, mix the priorities, and put two in progress and one in review. Leave Owner empty; I'll assign people myself.
The card was ready 21 seconds later. It added both projects as options and eight tasks with their dates, spread across the four weeks from November 16 to December 13, 2026, with mixed priorities, two In progress and one In review. After Apply, the table showed them grouped by project. To add one by hand, click New Task under the table.
We left Owner empty on purpose. Owner is a person field, and it offers the active and pending members of the workspace you're in, plus you. To pick your team as owners, build the tracker in a workspace they belong to.
Step 5: See the work three ways
The table, the board and the timeline are three views of the same tasks, not three copies. Change a task in one and it changes everywhere.
Board by status is the one most teams live in. Each column is a stage. Drag a card to move it on. With the split the agent used, that's five tasks in To do, two in In progress and one in In review.
Timeline shows each task on its start day with its date range. Use the arrows and Today to move through the weeks; our eight tasks run from November 16 to December 13, 2026.
Step 6: Add a Due this week view for your check-in
A small team doesn't need status reports. It needs one short meeting a week that looks at what's due and what's stuck. We asked the agent:
In the Team projects database, add a view called "Due this week": a table of tasks that aren't done and are due this week, sorted by due date.
The card was ready 12 seconds later: a table filtered to tasks not Done, due from today through the next week, sorted by due date. After Apply, the agent confirmed all eight tasks were in the database and the view was added.
A date filter takes a fixed date, so move it on each week.
Run a 15-minute weekly check-in
Open Due this week, then Board by status, and go through three questions with the team:
Asana's guide to project tracking splits the same job into three levels: your own tasks, one project, and every project at once (Asana (opens another site)). This tracker covers the same ground: the table grouped by project shows each project's tasks together, and the board shows everything by status.
What it cost
Work Studio is on every Probe plan, Free included. The agent spends credits when it works. For this tracker:
| What we asked | Credits |
|---|---|
| Build the database | 89 |
| Add eight tasks | 44 |
| Add the Due this week view | 36 |
Free comes with 100 credits a month and Lite ($7.99 a month) with 800.
What you end up with
One project tracker database with a table grouped by project, a board by status, a timeline, and a Due this week view. Open any task to give it its own page for notes and files. It's Private until you share it.
It's honest to say what it doesn't do yet. There are no sprints, no time tracking and no automations that move a task by themselves.
Mistakes small teams make
Questions people ask
Can AI set up a project tracker for me?
Yes. In Work Studio, describe your tasks and views to Build with AI, as in this guide, and apply what it proposes. You read the proposal and apply it.
What's the difference between a project and a task?
A project has an end and holds many tasks: "Website refresh". A task is one piece of work with one owner and a date: "Design new homepage".
Do we need a timeline or just a board?
Most small teams work from the board. The timeline earns its place when tasks overlap or one has to finish before another starts.
How many credits does it take?
Building the tracker takes 89 credits, adding eight tasks takes 44, and the Due this week view takes 36.
Can my team work in it with me?
Yes. Click Share in the header to open its sharing options. To pick them as owners, build it in a workspace they're members of.
Do it on Probe
Open Work Studio, start a Doc and click Build with AI. Describe your projects, stages and views in a sentence or two, and apply what the agent proposes.