Imagine this: you’re throwing a party. Being the diligent planner you are, you meticulously plan out every detail in order to make the event a success. You make sure there’s enough food for everyone, you rearrange your furniture so the guests have room to move around, and you drop off your kids with the babysitter so you don’t have to worry about them. Then, after the party, you realize you over-budgeted and now you’ve got a month’s worth of perishable food sitting in the fridge. Turns out, only 50% of invitees showed up.
RSVP: Not just for events
How could this happen? Yikes – you did not send an RSVP. This means invitees didn’t feel obligated to respond to your invitation and you just counted on everyone to come.
While this example is perhaps somewhat obvious (“of course you send out an RSVP with invitations!”), many people have plenty of equivalent scenarios where they depend on others to do something without keeping track of it. If you’re not careful, unfulfilled commitments can pile up, cause stress, or disrupt your plans.
How to track commitments
So, here’s a simple tip: instead of only using a to do app for managing your own tasks, use it to track others’ as well. One way to do this is to keep a separate list.
A more sophisticated way would be to add commitments to their related project lists, then add a label to them like #waiting.If your task manager allows for it, clicking on this label will help you quickly see what’s still pending and what you might need to remind people about.
If you can, add deadlines to these tasks, so you get a heads-up when it’s time to check in.
Don’t just track – follow up as well
Tracking these commitments is only half the battle, though. You also have to follow up on these tasks. By doing this, you show people you’re serious about what needs to get done and it will command respect. In teams, it helps build a shared sense of responsibility, keeping everyone on track.
With 2080, your Waiting For list is generated automatically simply by assigning tasks to someone other than yourself. That way you can easily see not just what you’re waiting for, but who you’re waiting on and you can easily reassign to do’s without having to deal with the hassle of adding or removing tags.
By combining this feature with the due date & reminder feature, staying on top of these things becomes super easy as you’ll have 2080 nudging you to remind other people as needed to keep them accountable.
