We are consistently hitting only seventy percent to-do completion because our weekly tasks are written as massive, multi-step projects rather than quick action items. How do we coach our team to write true weekly to-dos during our Level 10 Meeting™?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A weekly to-do is a commitment to complete a specific action within the next seven days. When your completion rate consistently drops below ninety percent, it is usually because your to-dos are actually mini-Rocks in disguise. Asking a leader to "write the new client onboarding manual" in one week is a recipe for failure and dropped balls.

To fix this, the facilitator must enforce a strict definition of a weekly to-do during the IDS® portion of your Level 10 Meeting™. Every to-do must be written as a bite-sized, single-action verb that can realistically be completed in less than two hours. Instead of "onboard new software," the to-do should be "schedule thirty-minute demo with vendor."

When an issue is solved and an action item is generated, the facilitator must listen carefully to how the to-do is phrased. If a team member suggests a massive task, the facilitator should immediately challenge them to break it down. Ask them what specific first step they can absolutely guarantee will be finished by next Tuesday.

Write that single first step down as the to-do. Once that is done, the next logical step can be assigned in the following week's meeting. This maintains momentum and keeps your team in a constant rhythm of execution. By shrinking the scope of your weekly tasks, you will quickly push your overall completion rate past the ninety percent target and eliminate the frustration of rolling unfinished items forward.