Make your Week Easier

Posted on 05 November 2007 by Ed Robinson

Try this, it takes 10 minutes and will make your week easier

Many of us spend half our work-week simply following up with people. This week, try using ActionThis to help. Choose 5 things you’re waiting on from other people – these might be emails you’re waiting for a reply, or assignments due this week.

Now assign each of these to the people you’re waiting on as ActionThis action items. Let ActionThis keep track of these for you. It doesn’t matter if the recipient isn’t already a member of ActionThis, they will be prompted to sign up.

When I send an action item to someone for the first time, I usually choose an action item that people are already aware of, so it acts as a reminder to something they’ve already agreed. I usually keep my action items short – a subject line and a due date, but the choice is yours – the more unambiguous information you give people – the more likely they will complete it on time.

Here are the five I sent out today, I’ll let you know the results next week.

• Remember to set up a time to speak on the phone, I’m available Monday 12pm,1pm or 2pm to Tim W, due Monday
• Schedule two days vacation for each of the team as a thank you for shipping, to Derek W, due Tuesday
• Update Schwizzler Text. To Aaron S due Monday
• Provide sketches for the IdeaLog article. To Mark D, due Monday
• Get the Forums up and running. To DerekW, due Wednesday

With ActionThis, I can track the status of these items from the “My Follow up” tab in the dashboard, or set up a custom report view to email me the status every day.

Ed Robinson, CEO ActionThis

Filed under: General