As an Entrepreneur or an early member of a fast-growing startup, one has to manage dozens of tasks. Some of these tasks are specialised, like Product or Project Management activities, Sales related activities, etc. However, a bunch of tasks are purely ad-hoc, low value, but important. These tasks are important and you can’t miss them. They may not be urgent, but they need to be eventually completed anyhow.
Take an example — recently our HR had to leave our company due to some medical reasons. We hired a new Senior member in our HR Team as a replacement. Now the thing is that this senior member had to collect an office laptop for herself from our office. Our office is currently shut down due to COVID-19 and we are all working remotely. So, another employee of ours who stays near to the office helped get this done.
As a company process, we have to enter the allocated asset details (the laptop in this case) on our internal asset management system. Since our previous HR abruptly left due to medical reasons, the duty of this fell on me and my Co-founder. Since my Cofounder looks at the HR Team, she now has a “hanging” task where she is supposed to:
- Learn how this Asset management system works.
- Call up the new HR for the laptop serial number and photograph.
- Enter the details on the Asset management system.
It is neither an urgent nor an important task and hence it was delegated to HR. However, if this task is not completed, it is a problem. But now, this task is in the hands of a Founder, who has better things to do, and so, this gets heavily deprioritized.
We all have faced such situations where we are forced to do low-value tasks which definitely need to be completed, otherwise, they may eventually create some issues.
Specialised Product and Project Management tools like JIRA, Asana, etc., cannot be used for such ad-hoc tasks. Todo lists are almost always not the best option because — come on, we all procrastinate. In such situations, what’s the best solution?
A solution that gives constant reminders — “PLEASE DO THIS!”. A solution like this will help you delegate tasks effectively and help you follow up with your team members in a completely automated manner.
We implemented a simple internal solution that allows team members to create such tasks and delegate them to the concerned person. Now, till this task is completed, the concerned person will get periodic email reminders for completion. This way, they won’t forget it. Further, when the task due date is approaching, a reminder will be sent to the person who has created this task.
It saves so much of our time in manual follow-ups! My team uses this solution to delegate a bunch of tasks internally, and automate follow-ups. Here are some examples:
- My Customer Success Head wanted each of our Team Heads to create some new use-cases of our solution. So, they created a task for 5 of us.
- I saw one of our live implementations had some bugs in the UI. I wanted my Operations Head to take that up with his team and get it fixed. So, I created a task for him.
- When I am hiring new Salespeople, I am supposed to participate in the screening test evaluation. My Recruiter creates tasks for me to do the same. I got a reminder at 9 PM in the night when I was free. I got that done within 15 min and the next morning she was able to schedule interviews.
- My HR wanted me to review an offer letter which she had to send to a new hire. She created a task for me. I got a reminder on Saturday morning and I immediately got that done.
- My Operations Head wanted the Product Manager to create some tutorial videos for our Product. Now, this isn’t an urgent activity, but this eventually needs to be done. So, he created a task for the PM and he doesn’t have to constantly follow up for closure.
For each of these tasks, the person to whom the task is delegated will get automated follow-ups. They can enter a mutually convenient deadline and till the task is completed, they will get email reminders for the same. So, the person who has assigned the task need not follow up with them and check and save their time.
These tasks are all important, but not urgent. So, they have to be eventually completed. Putting them on Todo lists is sure to be a bad thing to do, because every time you delegate a task to someone, they too have their priority list. So, they will put this task at the very bottom. It will also go down in your own Todo list. So, the task never gets done.
By using an automated reminder/follow-up system, both people are constantly reminded of the task, and it eventually gets done. Think of this as a virtual “Assistant/Secretary” who follow-up on your behalf to your team members on the tasks that you have delegated to them.
As I am writing this article, I got a reminder for a task that is overdue for me!
We feel that this problem statement of delegating tasks and following up for closure, is a big problem for entrepreneurs, and therefore, we plan to open up this internal tool for everyone.
If you are someone who is facing a similar problem of wasted time on internal follow-ups, do sign-up for Early Access: https://remindlyy.com/
