# Defining tasks with `#[task]` Tasks, defined with `#[task]`, are the main mechanism of getting work done in RTIC. Tasks can * Be spawned (now or in the future) * Receive messages (message passing) * Prioritized allowing preemptive multitasking * Optionally bind to a hardware interrupt RTIC makes a distinction between “software tasks” and “hardware tasks”. Hardware tasks are tasks that are bound to a specific interrupt vector in the MCU while software tasks are not. This means that if a hardware task is bound to an UART RX interrupt the task will run every time this interrupt triggers, usually when a character is received. In the coming pages we will explore both tasks and the different options available.