Our weekly Level 10 Meeting is starting to drag because our to-do list has grown to over twenty items, and many of them are repeatedly carried over from week to week because they require input from multiple leaders. How do we clean up this to-do clutter and restore our ninety percent completion rate?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A bloated to-do list is a symptom of poor discipline and a lack of clear ownership. When a to-do is carried over week after week, it ceases to be a short-term action item and becomes a source of drag on your leadership team.

To clean up this clutter, you must enforce the rule that a to-do is a seven-day commitment.

First, review your list and identify any item that has been on the board for more than two weeks. These must be dealt with immediately. If a to-do cannot be completed within seven days, it is either too large and needs to be broken down, or it is actually an issue that belongs back on the Issues List.

Second, enforce single ownership. A to-do cannot be owned by two people or the whole team. One leader must own the accountability for crossing the finish line. If they need input from others, that is their responsibility to coordinate outside the meeting.

Third, delete any nice-to-have tasks that do not directly move the needle on your quarterly Rocks or weekly scorecard metrics.

Keep your weekly to-do list lean, typically between five and fifteen items. By maintaining a tight, high-velocity list, you restore the momentum of your Level 10 Meeting™ and rebuild the accountability necessary to hit your goals.