The rate of corporate activity has been increasing vertiginously in the last years. Consequently, the number of tasks has also increased with a speed, if not the same, even higher. On the other hand, the deadlines are significantly reduced, which makes the scene more chaotic. This can be especially traumatic for companies just starting to grow. In this blog posts you will discover the key points and how to manage your pending tasks.
Additionally, according to statistics, 80% of employees spend about half of their work week doing rework due to internal communication failures, while around 50% of team leaders say that finishing a task within the deadlines is their biggest challenge. For this reason, it has become necessary to have tools that help automate the management, organization, monitoring and execution processes of each of these tasks, in other words, a pending tasks manager, also known as project management, is necessary.
The use of these tools are to track tasks and projects, and also to coordinate individual tasks or teamwork. Among these tools, the most effective, without a doubt, are the apps.
The apps
Most of the apps designed for this purpose are available for both desktop and mobile devices, and are characterized by organizing tasks into different lists (also known as to – do lists) that are updated in real time on daily or weekly cycles according to the users’ requirements.
For all of the above, these apps work like an agenda that informs the user what to do day after day or week after week. Thus optimizing one of the most valuable resources of companies: time. In the same way, they offer intelligent and personalized suggestions.
The four benefits it offers are
- Clearly define the objectives of the company and its different areas.
- Evaluate the results, which improves the productivity and performance of the staff.
- Guarantees to use the right resources at the right time.
- Define where each employee’s responsibility begins and ends.
However, the main advantage of these apps is that they offer the possibility of sharing the tasks lists online, which allows not only to see them at any time, but also that more than one user has access to them.
It’s also worth highlighting the possibility of changing the items order, in case of any eventuality that requires it. They also allow you to create lists of different kinds, thus in the same app it is possible to have a list of corporate nature, another of household items, another of academic issues etc. In the same way, they allow you to attach files such as photos, videos and texts.
The classification of tasks should be in priority order and taking due datesas a base, which in turn allows one to focus on specific tasks; in some cases, however, we can classify them according to difficulty level. In addition, the apps generate alerts and reminders that allow users to keep track of tasks, whether daily or weekly, and many of them even integrate with Outlook, google Drive and Dropbox, which allows to centralize administrative activity.
Recommendations
Notice that the best time to elaborate a to – do list, always is as far in advance as possible. On the other hand, it is important that these lists are flexible and easy to manage and for this same reason it is recommended to include a maximum of three elements and, if it’s necessary to include more than three items, it’s advised to have only one big task making sure that the other tasks on the list are small or medium size so that they don’t take up too much time.
However, these apps are not the only option to manage pending tasks. Excel offers a spreadsheet that allows not only tracking, but prioritizing tasks and monitoring their progress in percentages. Along the same lines, drawing up a flowchart with the pending tasks, together with the deadline and those responsibles, is also extremely useful for checking progress and making improvements on the road.
The to – do lists also work much better by following these recommendations:
Write everyt hing down
The main recommendation is: write everything down as soon as possible. That’s why is extremely useful to be able to use a mobile app that’s avaliable at any time and place.
Manage different lists clearly differentiated
It’s also important to ensure that the different lists managed have a clear differentiation in order to avoid confusion. It is also recommended to classify these lists according to the priority of the items included in each of them.
Section each list
Divide each list into sections, according to each item’s priority and both the work type and activity flow.
Give priority to actions and use verbs
It seems meaningless, but starting each item with a verb makes it easy to identify the action to do.
The most important thing doesn’t have to be the first to do: it’s better to “warm up” by doing small tasks before moving onto bigger pending tasks that require more time.
Divide a big task into several small ones
This allows you to progress on a very big or complex task over several days instead of running against time. Many times, this division can make a big difference.
Disable notifications
Although they are extremely useful, notifications can often become distracting. It is for this reason that many apps have the “Do Not Disturb” function.
Pay attention to late tasks
It’s important to determine the reasons why certain tasks have not yet been completed. This significantly helps to increase productivity.
It’s also recommended including metrics and dates in each task, in order to guarantee that their execution is more efficient. It’s also possible to determine the time and resources required and allows a clearer vision of the action plan to execute them in order to meet these metrics and/or objectives.
On the other hand, for the purpose of managing or administrating tasks, multitasking methods are not the best option, because, instead of performing several tasks, only it’s possible to advance just a little on each one of them, in addition to losing valuable time and suffering a decrease in productivity. The ideal is to work exclusively in carrying out a single task until you finish it before continuing with another. By not having distractions, the risk of making mistakes is significantly reduced.
Practices and methods
Woth to point that the way of organize and prioritize items in a to – do list, depends on the user’s job and position. However, there are certain practices common to all cases, among which are:
The Eisenhower decision matrix
Also known as the matrix of what is important and what is urgent, it stipulates the distribution of tasks into four quadrants based on their importance. By applying this matrix, it’s possible to decide what to do immediately (what is urgent) what should be part of a future plan (what is important that is not urgent) what to delegate (what is not important but urgent) and what to dismiss (what is neither important or urgent). It is a very valuable method to prioritize tasks, improve decision making and maintain order at work.
The ABCDE method
Assigning a grade to each task, organizing them in order of priority, is also very useful. Following this method, the most important tasks will have the letter A; those that follow in importance value the letter B and so on until the letter D, which corresponds to the tasks to delegate; and the letter E, the tasks least important on the list and that can also be dismissed.
Fragmentation
The fragments are specific activities. They can be individual tasks, part of a whole process, or a set of tasks with no links to each other. These fragments must fuse into focused blocks of constant action.
The Kanban method
Created by a team of experts from the Japanese company Toyota, this method bases on the Just in Time (JIT) technique aimed at increasing productivity and efficiency, following the premise that an action begins only when another necessarily linked has ended, in a chain reaction. It is applicable for both individual and collective work.
The GTD method
It owes its name to the acronym for Getting Things Done (make it happen). It bases on a fairly simple principle: prevent tasks from piling up. After specifying them in an organization system, it is necessary to start by doing those that take no more than two minutes, then define how long it will take to perform each of the following tasks and perform them; as new tasks arise, they must be included in the list, which must also be reviewed daily. If possible, time the time it takes to perform each task should for a better activities’ organization.
Also read: Demand Planning and its actual role in companies
Similarly, it is advisable to keep track of the start and end date of each task. This minimizes the risk of leaving something unfinished in case an emergency arises or there is a priorities change.
If these dates are not clear, it’s necessary to ask for confirmation in order to be able to schedule the realization of the task and also know when a high volume of work is comming, and when there will be availability for other activities. It’s also important to include the entire work team so that everyone knows their availability, together with the tasks’ progress.
In addition to the apps, there’s also software that can be effective in managing the tasks to be carried out.
According to estimates, by using software to manage tasks, a company can save up to 498 hours of work per year in addition to being much more effective than the Excel spreadsheets. There is software also offering the possibility of creating teams, inviting members to register on the platform and assigning tasks specifying who is in charge of carrying them out and the deadlines.
Important aspects
It is important to point out that, depending on each particular case, some task management tools work better than others. For this reason, when implementing a task management app or software, the following factors should are important:
- The sector to which the company belongs.
- The business model.
- The type of work (independent, remote or face – to – face).
- The size of the work team.
- The precise characteristics to satisfy the needs of the company.
Additionally, it’s very useful to pay attention to tasks that can be advanced by carrying out others. The speed with which progress is made in the execution of tasks and the percentage of priority tasks.
Take a look at tasks that require transport such as visits, training and corporate events as they require more time. In addition to these activities, it should also be kept in mind that there are more complex tasks that require other activities to be carried out, such as presentations and talks, for the same reason, also imply an additional investment of time.
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