How to set tasks
How to increase the likelihood that tasks will be completed on time, just right, and without ruining relationships.
Characteristics of such tasks:
- Non-burning deadline. For some tasks, “non-burning” is a day, for some it's a month. We may not be involved in our colleagues' processes and may not know something, so it's better to clarify if our deadline is realistic.
- With a precise deadline. "ASAP" is not a deadline. “I ****ed up and everything should have been done yesterday” is not a deadline either. The deadline is “before 12:00pm CET on November 30th”.
- Fully clear. For text, volume and emphasis requirements; for design, references and color scheme; etc. If you want an answer, it makes sense to ask a question - just dropping some information into a chat room is not a question.
- Discussing. At the beginning of large processes, it's better to have a call discussing the main points and steps with those who will be involved, and then do a text summary of the conversation. Text without conversation is often only confusing, conversation without text is forgettable. It's good if the organization has some sort of regular meetings of the decision makers for this purpose.
- Distributing areas of responsibility and breaking down large tasks into smaller ones: “Let's prepare a text by the beginning of the month” is a task doomed to failure: it's not clear who should do what, and the beginning of the month for some people is the first day, for others - by the 15th. “Let's prepare the text by the 30th: by the 20th I'll collect the factual information, send it to you for approval, you'll write back by the 25th to let me know if there are any comments, and there will be a few days left for final editing - I'll take care of that” - a task in which it's clear who should do what and when. The second person's task automatically becomes the second person's task, and they are responsible for it.
💡 I also suggest to be guided by the rule of saving others' time, not your own.: by doing so, you will often save your own time.
If you throw some insufficiently clear request into the chat, it's very likely to be misunderstood and you'll either have to explain everything anyway, or redo/request to redo the work. It's better to explain and talk through everything at once (maybe even a quick call).
Following these rules is not a panacea, of course, but it can definitely increase the efficiency of processes.
