🌎Projects

Introduction

Projects in Motion are the backbone of organized teamwork. They bring together tasks, deadlines, and milestones into one shared space so you can track progress without juggling spreadsheets or endless emails. Whether you’re planning a campaign, managing a client deliverable, or launching a product, projects help you see the big picture and the small steps at once.

Motion makes projects smarter by blending human planning with AI assistance. You can create regular projects for quick, flexible work, or use workflow templates to standardize repeatable processes. Either way, Motion keeps your projects moving forward with clarity and accountability.

At a Glance

• 🗂️ Understand what a project is in Motion

• 🔄 Learn the difference between regular and workflow projects

• ✅ Track work using project task statuses

• 👀 Explore project views like List, Kanban, and Gantt

• 👥 Assign tasks to teammates and collaborate in context

• 🚧 Spot and manage blockers to keep things on track

• 🚀 Create your first project and add tasks with AI

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Projects

What is a Project in Motion?

A project in Motion is a container for related tasks that share a common goal, deadline, or outcome. It gives you a structured way to group work, track progress, and keep everyone aligned.

Unlike standalone tasks, projects let you:

• Organize tasks into stages (like Planning → Execution → Review).

• Track overall progress with statuses and milestones.

• Collaborate with teammates in one shared space.

• View work at different levels — from the big picture (Gantt view) to day-to-day execution (Kanban or List).

Examples of projects in Motion:

• Launching a new marketing campaign.

• Delivering a client proposal.

• Building and shipping a new product feature.

• Organizing an internal offsite.

💡 Pro tip: If a group of tasks all roll up to a single outcome, put them in a project. If it’s a one-off action, keep it as a standalone task.

Regular vs workflow projects

Regular vs Workflow Projects

In Motion, you can set up projects in two different ways depending on your needs:

Regular Projects — Flexible, One-Off Work A regular project is great for unique or lightweight initiatives. You create the project, add tasks and stages manually, and manage it however you like.

• Best for: client deliverables, one-off campaigns, or personal projects.

• Example: Building a new sales deck for next week’s presentation.

Workflow Projects — Repeatable, Structured Work A workflow project starts from a Project Workflow Template (PWT). These are reusable blueprints that include stages, tasks, and even assignee placeholders. Instead of reinventing the wheel, you launch the project, map roles to real teammates, and Motion builds the structure for you.

• Best for: processes you run often, like onboarding, content production, or product launches.

• Example: A product release checklist with stages for Design, Development, QA, and Launch.

💡 Pro tip: Use regular projects when every step is different. Use workflow projects when you want consistency across multiple runs of the same process.

Project task statuses

Project Task Statuses

Task statuses in Motion help you track where work stands inside a project. Each task can be marked with a status, giving your team an at-a-glance view of progress.

Default statuses in Motion include:

• Not Started → work hasn’t begun yet.

• In Progress → the task is actively being worked on.

• Blocked → something is preventing progress (dependencies, waiting on input).

• Completed → task is finished.

Statuses aren’t just labels — they power Motion’s ability to prioritize and surface what needs attention. For example:

• Blocked tasks show you where projects are stuck.

• Completed tasks roll up into your project’s overall progress.

• In Progress tasks help teammates see ownership at a glance.

Example In a product launch project:

• “Write press release” → In Progress.

• “Legal review” → Blocked (waiting on approval).

• “Publish on website” → Not Started.

• “Design launch banner” → Completed

💡 Pro tip: Use Blocked generously — it’s better to surface blockers early than to let them stall a project silently.

Project views

Project Views in Motion

Projects in Motion aren’t locked into one way of looking at work — you can switch between views depending on how you like to manage progress. Each view pulls from the same project data, so you’re never duplicating effort.

List View

• A straightforward checklist view of all tasks.

• Great for breaking work down and scanning details like deadlines or assignees.

• Best when you want a clear, structured to-do list.

Kanban View

• Organizes tasks into columns by stage or status (e.g., To Do → In Progress → Done).

• Perfect for visualizing flow and spotting bottlenecks.

• Best for teams who like to drag tasks across stages.

Gantt View

• A timeline view showing how tasks overlap and depend on each other.

• Great for planning long projects with multiple milestones.

• Best when deadlines and sequencing matter (like launches or campaigns).

💡 Pro tip: Switch views depending on the conversation. Use List View for detailed task reviews, Kanban for stand-ups, and Gantt when discussing timelines.

Assigning and collaborating

Assigning and Collaborating on Tasks

Projects only move forward when everyone knows what they’re responsible for. In Motion, every task can have an assignee — the teammate (or placeholder role) accountable for completing it.

How it works

1. Open a task inside your project.

2. Use the Assignee field to pick a teammate or placeholder role.

3. Add details like deadlines, duration, or notes so they know exactly what’s expected.

Why it matters

• Tasks without an owner often get lost.

• Assigning roles creates accountability and clarity.

• Placeholders (like “Designer” or “PM”) let you design a project template even if you don’t yet know who will fill the role — when the project launches, Motion maps placeholders to real teammates automatically.

Collaboration features

• Add comments directly on tasks to discuss context.

• Upload files or link docs so everything is in one place.

• Everyone on the project sees updates in real time.

Example In a marketing project:

• “Write blog draft” → Assigned to Sarah.

• “Design header image” → Placeholder role = Designer (mapped later).

• “Publish post” → Assigned to Alex, with notes linking the CMS.

💡 Pro tip: Even if you’re working solo, assign tasks to yourself. It keeps your project organized and ensures Motion schedules your work correctly.

Project workflow template (PWT)

What is a Project Workflow Template and why this matters

Ready to stop reinventing the wheel for every project? Project Workflow Templates (PWTs) let you codify your repeatable processes—so you can spin up new projects with a click, not a rewrite. You’ll design it once (with stages, tasks, assignees, and structure), then let Motion do the heavy lifting every time you reuse it. It saves time, reduces error, and keeps everything consistent and flexible. Plus, anything you tweak in your template automatically carries forward into future projects.

At a glance

• What it is: A reusable blueprint for your projects.

• When to use it: Recurring projects (onboarding, campaigns, product launches).

• How it starts: Start a new project → click New (or New Project) → choose a template (or create one with AI, if available).

• Why it helps: Add tasks, assignees, and dependencies once; reuse every time. Motion auto‑schedules based on your dates.

PWT with AI

Creating Project Workflow Templates with AI

You can now harness the power of AI to create robust and detailed PWT’s in an instant.

To create a PWT using AI simply:

1. Select the + New button located in the upper left-hand corner of your Motion homepage.

2. Select the pink ‘Create with AI’ option located in the center of the modal (this will generate the PWT AI prompts).

3. In the ‘Describe Your Project’ section provide a detailed description of what your intended goal is for the PWT.

4. Additionally, you can upload up to 3 documents that help assist with the project creation.

5. These can be any relevant documents including PDFs, spreadsheets (.csv, .xlsx), text documents (.docx, .txt), or images (.jpeg, .png) that describe your Standard Operating Procedures. Or even documents with sample projects or workflows you currently have in your organization.

6. Once uploaded, select the ‘Generate and Preview’ option. In seconds you will have your detailed PWT ready for use. Make any edits/changes you would like and then save your PWT.

Next steps

• Build templates for every recurring process (onboarding, campaigns, retros).

• See "How to share templates across teams" so processes stay consistent.

• Refine templates as you learn — they grow with you.