As a manager, I found two really simple things that made me and my team so much more productive
1. Set deadlines
2. Look at the deadlines every week
Setting a deadline is powerful because it makes you and your team really think about what needs to happen for that work to get finished.
People default to "yes" when you ask them if they can do something for you.
But that's bad.
When you ask someone (or yourself!) if they can get something done by Friday, they think a little harder about:
• the work that is on their plate
• how much effort the thing will take
• if they can actually get it done
And they are more likely to give you a realistic answer.
Deadlines are always negotiable!
But having the deadline gives you a natural date to check in on progress and adjust if necessary.
And this is where #2 comes in:
Make it really easy to bump into your deadlines - put them somewhere that you and your team can't forget about them, at least not for long.
For my 1:1s, we
• capture action items in every meeting
• agree on a deadline
• surface them in every 1:1 doc until they are done
If you're looking at the deadlines, you are 20x more likely to finish them, according to Science™️
There's other benefits of tracking things this way, for instance:
Figure out who is taking more action items from your regular meetings. If you are a manager and you are always taking all the action items, it might be a sign you could practice delegating.
Anyways:
1. Set Deadlines
2. Look at the Deadlines
It works (for me!)
Here's the Notion template I use to make this easy:
benrobertsonio.gumroad.com/l/accountability-meeting-template