Our Level 10 Meeting To-Dos are frequently phrased as vague concepts or open-ended projects, which leads to confusion and excuses the following week. What specific rules must the Integrator enforce to write airtight seven-day To-Dos?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A To-Do that is poorly written in the room is guaranteed to fail in the field. When your To-Do list contains vague entries like review marketing plan or client retention strategy, accountability evaporates. Seven days later, the owner will argue they met the standard because they spent ten minutes thinking about the topic, while the rest of the team expected a finished operational document.

To eliminate ambiguity, every single To-Do generated during IDS must satisfy three non-negotiable criteria before the meeting moves forward:
- Single seat ownership: Exactly one name goes on the To-Do. Never assign a task to two people or a department. If two executives need to collaborate, assign one owner responsible for delivering the output.
- Binary completion criteria: The task must be framed as a completed action, not an ongoing process. Use clear action verbs: Draft, email, publish, schedule, or sign. Anyone looking at the task seven days later must be able to verify whether it is 100 percent done or not done.
- Strict seven-day scope: If a task cannot be completed within seven days, it is a project or a Rock, not a To-Do. Break the effort down to the single milestone that must occur before the next Level 10 Meeting.

The Integrator holds the pen. Before moving to the next issue, read the To-Do aloud and ask the owner: Can you get this specific action done by next week? Only when they say yes do you record it.