diff --git a/examples/Cargo.toml b/examples/Cargo.toml
index c3dc6091518..fe3c90f9a56 100644
--- a/examples/Cargo.toml
+++ b/examples/Cargo.toml
@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@ edition = "2018"
 # If you copy one of the examples into a new project, you should be using
 # [dependencies] instead.
 [dev-dependencies]
-tokio = { version = "0.2.0", path = "../tokio", features = ["full"] }
+tokio = { version = "0.2.0", path = "../tokio", features = ["full", "tracing"] }
+tracing = "0.1"
+tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.2.7", default-features = false, features = ["fmt", "ansi", "env-filter", "chrono", "tracing-log"] }
 tokio-util = { version = "0.3.0", path = "../tokio-util", features = ["full"] }
 bytes = "0.5"
 futures = "0.3.0"
diff --git a/examples/chat.rs b/examples/chat.rs
index b3fb727a2cc..c4b8c6a2afc 100644
--- a/examples/chat.rs
+++ b/examples/chat.rs
@@ -43,6 +43,26 @@ use std::task::{Context, Poll};
 
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
+    use tracing_subscriber::{fmt::format::FmtSpan, EnvFilter};
+    // Configure a `tracing` subscriber that logs traces emitted by the chat
+    // server.
+    tracing_subscriber::fmt()
+        // Filter what traces are displayed based on the RUST_LOG environment
+        // variable.
+        //
+        // Traces emitted by the example code will always be displayed. You
+        // can set `RUST_LOG=tokio=trace` to enable additional traces emitted by
+        // Tokio itself.
+        .with_env_filter(EnvFilter::from_default_env().add_directive("chat=info".parse()?))
+        // Log events when `tracing` spans are created, entered, exited, or
+        // closed. When Tokio's internal tracing support is enabled (as
+        // described above), this can be used to track the lifecycle of spawned
+        // tasks on the Tokio runtime.
+        .with_span_events(FmtSpan::FULL)
+        // Set this subscriber as the default, to collect all traces emitted by
+        // the program.
+        .init();
+
     // Create the shared state. This is how all the peers communicate.
     //
     // The server task will hold a handle to this. For every new client, the
@@ -59,7 +79,7 @@ async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
     // Note that this is the Tokio TcpListener, which is fully async.
     let mut listener = TcpListener::bind(&addr).await?;
 
-    println!("server running on {}", addr);
+    tracing::info!("server running on {}", addr);
 
     loop {
         // Asynchronously wait for an inbound TcpStream.
@@ -70,8 +90,9 @@ async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn Error>> {
 
         // Spawn our handler to be run asynchronously.
         tokio::spawn(async move {
+            tracing::debug!("accepted connection");
             if let Err(e) = process(state, stream, addr).await {
-                println!("an error occurred; error = {:?}", e);
+                tracing::info!("an error occurred; error = {:?}", e);
             }
         });
     }
@@ -200,7 +221,7 @@ async fn process(
         Some(Ok(line)) => line,
         // We didn't get a line so we return early here.
         _ => {
-            println!("Failed to get username from {}. Client disconnected.", addr);
+            tracing::error!("Failed to get username from {}. Client disconnected.", addr);
             return Ok(());
         }
     };
@@ -212,7 +233,7 @@ async fn process(
     {
         let mut state = state.lock().await;
         let msg = format!("{} has joined the chat", username);
-        println!("{}", msg);
+        tracing::info!("{}", msg);
         state.broadcast(addr, &msg).await;
     }
 
@@ -233,9 +254,10 @@ async fn process(
                 peer.lines.send(&msg).await?;
             }
             Err(e) => {
-                println!(
+                tracing::error!(
                     "an error occurred while processing messages for {}; error = {:?}",
-                    username, e
+                    username,
+                    e
                 );
             }
         }
@@ -248,7 +270,7 @@ async fn process(
         state.peers.remove(&addr);
 
         let msg = format!("{} has left the chat", username);
-        println!("{}", msg);
+        tracing::info!("{}", msg);
         state.broadcast(addr, &msg).await;
     }
 
diff --git a/tokio/Cargo.toml b/tokio/Cargo.toml
index e596375d630..969fbcf01c5 100644
--- a/tokio/Cargo.toml
+++ b/tokio/Cargo.toml
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ iovec = { version = "0.1.4", optional = true }
 num_cpus = { version = "1.8.0", optional = true }
 parking_lot = { version = "0.10.0", optional = true } # Not in full
 slab = { version = "0.4.1", optional = true } # Backs `DelayQueue`
+tracing = { version = "0.1.16", default-features = false, features = ["std"], optional = true } # Not in full
 
 [target.'cfg(unix)'.dependencies]
 mio-uds = { version = "0.6.5", optional = true }
diff --git a/tokio/src/macros/cfg.rs b/tokio/src/macros/cfg.rs
index 288f58d2f40..4b77544eb5c 100644
--- a/tokio/src/macros/cfg.rs
+++ b/tokio/src/macros/cfg.rs
@@ -364,6 +364,25 @@ macro_rules! cfg_unstable {
     }
 }
 
+macro_rules! cfg_trace {
+    ($($item:item)*) => {
+        $(
+            #[cfg(feature = "tracing")]
+            #[cfg_attr(docsrs, doc(cfg(feature = "tracing")))]
+            $item
+        )*
+    }
+}
+
+macro_rules! cfg_not_trace {
+    ($($item:item)*) => {
+        $(
+            #[cfg(not(feature = "tracing"))]
+            $item
+        )*
+    }
+}
+
 macro_rules! cfg_coop {
     ($($item:item)*) => {
         $(
diff --git a/tokio/src/task/blocking.rs b/tokio/src/task/blocking.rs
index 4dab333eb9b..ed60f4c4734 100644
--- a/tokio/src/task/blocking.rs
+++ b/tokio/src/task/blocking.rs
@@ -114,6 +114,19 @@ cfg_blocking! {
         F: FnOnce() -> R + Send + 'static,
         R: Send + 'static,
     {
+        #[cfg(feature = "tracing")]
+        let f = {
+            let span = tracing::trace_span!(
+                target: "tokio::task",
+                "task",
+                kind = %"blocking",
+                function = %std::any::type_name::<F>(),
+            );
+            move || {
+                let _g = span.enter();
+                f()
+            }
+        };
         crate::runtime::spawn_blocking(f)
     }
 }
diff --git a/tokio/src/task/local.rs b/tokio/src/task/local.rs
index 2a3a7e1e3ff..3c409edfb90 100644
--- a/tokio/src/task/local.rs
+++ b/tokio/src/task/local.rs
@@ -195,6 +195,7 @@ cfg_rt_util! {
         F: Future + 'static,
         F::Output: 'static,
     {
+        let future = crate::util::trace::task(future, "local");
         CURRENT.with(|maybe_cx| {
             let cx = maybe_cx
                 .expect("`spawn_local` called from outside of a `task::LocalSet`");
@@ -277,6 +278,7 @@ impl LocalSet {
         F: Future + 'static,
         F::Output: 'static,
     {
+        let future = crate::util::trace::task(future, "local");
         let (task, handle) = unsafe { task::joinable_local(future) };
         self.context.tasks.borrow_mut().queue.push_back(task);
         handle
diff --git a/tokio/src/task/spawn.rs b/tokio/src/task/spawn.rs
index fa5ff13b01e..d6e771184f2 100644
--- a/tokio/src/task/spawn.rs
+++ b/tokio/src/task/spawn.rs
@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ doc_rt_core! {
     {
         let spawn_handle = runtime::context::spawn_handle()
         .expect("must be called from the context of Tokio runtime configured with either `basic_scheduler` or `threaded_scheduler`");
+        let task = crate::util::trace::task(task, "task");
         spawn_handle.spawn(task)
     }
 }
diff --git a/tokio/src/util/mod.rs b/tokio/src/util/mod.rs
index 8194dbaf65a..6dda08ca411 100644
--- a/tokio/src/util/mod.rs
+++ b/tokio/src/util/mod.rs
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ cfg_rt_threaded! {
     pub(crate) use try_lock::TryLock;
 }
 
+pub(crate) mod trace;
+
 #[cfg(any(feature = "macros", feature = "stream"))]
 #[cfg_attr(not(feature = "macros"), allow(unreachable_pub))]
 pub use rand::thread_rng_n;
diff --git a/tokio/src/util/trace.rs b/tokio/src/util/trace.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d8c6120d97c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tokio/src/util/trace.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+cfg_trace! {
+    cfg_rt_core! {
+        use std::future::Future;
+        use std::pin::Pin;
+        use std::task::{Context, Poll};
+        use pin_project_lite::pin_project;
+
+        use tracing::Span;
+
+        pin_project! {
+            /// A future that has been instrumented with a `tracing` span.
+            #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
+            pub(crate) struct Instrumented<T> {
+                #[pin]
+                inner: T,
+                span: Span,
+            }
+        }
+
+        impl<T: Future> Future for Instrumented<T> {
+            type Output = T::Output;
+
+            fn poll(self: Pin<&mut Self>, cx: &mut Context<'_>) -> Poll<Self::Output> {
+                let this = self.project();
+                let _enter = this.span.enter();
+                this.inner.poll(cx)
+            }
+        }
+
+        impl<T> Instrumented<T> {
+            pub(crate) fn new(inner: T, span: Span) -> Self {
+                Self { inner, span }
+            }
+        }
+
+        #[inline]
+        pub(crate) fn task<F>(task: F, kind: &'static str) -> Instrumented<F> {
+            let span = tracing::trace_span!(
+                target: "tokio::task",
+                "task",
+                %kind,
+                future = %std::any::type_name::<F>(),
+            );
+            Instrumented::new(task, span)
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+cfg_not_trace! {
+    cfg_rt_core! {
+        #[inline]
+        pub(crate) fn task<F>(task: F, _: &'static str) -> F {
+            // nop
+            task
+        }
+    }
+}