---
title: How to turn a conversation into work
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/chat/turn-a-conversation-into-work
description: Hover any message to make it a task, a callback, or a recorded decision, keeping a link back to what was said.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to turn a conversation into work



Hovering a message reveals a small toolbar, and three of its buttons turn talk into something
the business keeps. This is the part of chat no standalone messaging tool does, and it is worth
five minutes of your attention.

On a touchscreen, tap the message row to reveal the same toolbar.

## The green tick: make it a task [#the-green-tick-make-it-a-task]

Creates a task from the message. The **title** is pre-filled from the message's first line and
the **description** from the whole message, and it lands in the channel's department by default.

You still choose the assignee, date and anything else, exactly as with any task, so nothing is
created behind your back. See <Ref to="tasks/create-a-task" />.

The task keeps a link back to the chat message it came from. That link is the valuable half:
whoever picks the task up in a fortnight can read the conversation that caused it, which is
almost always where the real detail is.

Write the first line of a message as a title when you already know it will become work. "Chase
Portside on the lab dip" makes a better task than a sentence that starts "so I was thinking".

The button appears if you can create tasks in that channel's department.

## The coral phone: log a callback [#the-coral-phone-log-a-callback]

Creates a callback, posting a card into the conversation. The first teammate tagged becomes the
caller and the first customer tagged becomes who to call.

So tagging both people in the message before you press it fills the callback in for you. See
<Ref to="chat/mentions" />.

The card is then workable **inside the channel**: **No answer** logs an attempt and keeps it on
the list, **Mark called back** closes it, **Reopen** brings it back, and the pencil edits the
details.

That is what makes a callback different from a task. The team can see somebody has tried three
times without opening anything.

Its action buttons appear only for the people allowed to act on that callback, and a status
change shows for you immediately while others see it on their next reload. See
<Ref to="tasks/callbacks" />.

## The amber gavel: record a decision [#the-amber-gavel-record-a-decision]

Records a decision with the message text pre-filled as the reasoning, and posts a plain
confirmation back into the channel.

This is the one people underuse. A decision reached in a channel at 4pm on a Thursday is
otherwise gone, and reconstructing it a year later is a week's work and a wrong answer. See
<Ref to="decisions/record-a-decision" />.

Pick what it affects from the list: Purchase Order, Supplier, Campaign, Task, Wholesale Account
or Wholesale Order.

The gavel appears for leads and above.

If the confirmation cannot be posted back into the channel, **the decision is still saved** and
you get a warning saying only the announcement did not go out. Nothing is lost.

## Starting a thread about an order [#starting-a-thread-about-an-order]

From the store's recent orders list rather than from chat: the speech-bubble button on an order
row opens a new thread with the order attached as a clickable chip.

That is the fastest route from "this order looks wrong" to the right people looking at it. See
<Ref to="store/orders-and-fulfilment" />.

## What happens if the message is deleted afterwards? [#what-happens-if-the-message-is-deleted-afterwards]

Nothing. A task, callback or decision created from a message survives the message being
deleted.

Note that the text was **copied** at the moment you created it, so later edits to either do not
sync. What the task says is what the message said at the time, which is the honest record.

## Which should you use? [#which-should-you-use]

* Somebody has to **do** something: a task.
* Somebody has to **ring** somebody: a callback.
* Something was **settled**: a decision.

If two apply, use both. A decision about an order and a task to place it are different records
and both are worth having.