Never let important tasks fall through the cracks again!

How do you prevent important tasks falling through the cracks? This is bound to happen in many situations.

• When you have too much on your mind,
• When you work with people who are not in the same office and who are busy themselves
• When the task requires to go back and forth to be completed.

How to make sure to easily follow up with assigned tasks or to keep track of tasks you have been assigned?
- Was the task accepted?- What is the status on this task?
- When the task is done, do you have a way to approve the task?

Assigning tasks can be a simple thing and in some cases, when everything goes well, you probably do not give it much thought. It might be as simple as just ask Joanna, your co-worker, sitting next to you:
"Hey Joanna I would need your help with entering all these new products, with their prices in the system. Do you have some time for it, this week?"
Joanna to say: "sure, give me the spec book I’ll take care of it".

Then you move to the next thing you need to do to for the launch of this new product line. A few days later, Joanna who’s very reliable, let’s you know that all the new products are all entered with prices. Wonderful. But things almost never happens this way. This can only happen if Joanna is not very busy, if she’s reliable, if the tasks is very straightforward, if you’re not very busy either and if she’s sitting right next to you. A lot of ifs and even more buts!

If Joanna is very busy, there’s the risk she might forget about the task or not have the time to do it on time. So, you will need to check on her during the week to verify what is the status of the task. You’ll probably need a system, a reminder of some kind not to forget to do that.. If the task is complex, there will likely be some back and forth between your feedback and adjustments needed until the task is completed. If Joanna is not next to you in the same office, you will need another way to communicate with her. Phone? Email? Chat, Messages?

So how to assign tasks in the following situation?

1. You don’t know if your co-worker has time for the task.
2. The task is complex and will require adjustments.
3. Your co-worker is not in the same office.

In this scenario, you were dealing with only one project and one co-worker. How can you handle assigning and tracking tasks when:

• You’re dealing with several projects simultaneously.
• You’re working with multiple coworkers.

An effective workflow to deal with these issues is crucial.
A shareable system that allows to quickly create, assign and keeping track of tasks is an important element. This in itself will definitely help especially if combined with the ability to organize all your tasks in different projects that are accessible to everybody in the team. This addresses dealing with several projects simultaneously and having people working in different locations. Also, with such a shareable system no need for time consuming phone calls, emails or text. Everybody can access created and assigned tasks. Another advantage is that the tasks are all consolidated in one centralized system. This eliminates a lot of the risks associated with missing the communication important information, at the source. This would typically happen if you failed to forward information you got from an email to everybody else in the team.

Another important element for the flow is the ability to track multiple tasks in one place.

1. Tasks that are assigned to you.
2. Tasks you assigned to other co-workers.
3. What are your priorities for the day at a glance.

This is one of the great benefit of Sam9000 personal dashboard. It is particularly effective because it does show you only your scheduled tasks, allowing you to always know where you should focus.
And lastly you need a way to communicate effectively the status on these tasks.

1. Did you accept the task?
2. Are the assigned tasks accepted?
3. Is the task started?
4. Is the tasks done?
5. Does the task need to be approved.
6. Do you have all information to complete the task ?

Once the assigned tasks are done by your co-worker you also need a way to either approve or not the task. Below you can see that you even have an option to inform your co-worker that you’re reviewing their work. No ambiguity.

In conclusion having a access to a software that provides an effective flow to manage the challenges of collaborating on a multiple tasks, in multiple projects, will make a huge difference in your daily experience. It will allow you to finally focus on working and completing tasks instead of worrying about the ones you might have missed. You will also spend less time chasing after status reports on tasks you delegated or information to complete yours.

This system will always have your back by having:

• Effective tools to create, assign or accept tasks.
• Effective communicating tools to inform on progress.
  
• Effective collaborative tools for iterative tasks.
• All the tasks well organized by project.
• All the task accessible to anyone in the team, everywhere, all the time.