Our weekly to-do completion rate is constantly hovering around sixty percent because the tasks we capture during IDS® are too broad, vague, or require multiple weeks to complete. How do we scope and write our weekly to-dos so they are realistic and actually get done within seven days?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Low to-do completion is rarely an execution problem; it is usually a definition problem. When your weekly completion rate sits below the ninety percent target, it is because your team is writing mini-projects instead of true weekly tasks. A to-do must be something that can easily be completed in the next seven days.

To fix this, your Integrator must ruthlessly audit how to-dos are written during the IDS® portion of your Level 10 Meeting™. Apply these three strict rules before any to-do is added to the list:

- Every to-do must have exactly one owner. If two people are responsible, nobody is responsible.
- Every to-do must start with a specific action verb like call, email, draft, or buy. Avoid vague verbs like look into, analyze, or process.
- If a task takes more than one week, break it down. Do not write create new marketing plan. Write draft the first three pages of the marketing plan.

During the weekly to-do review, if a task is not done, do not accept a status update or story. It is either done or not done. If it is not done two weeks in a row, it must immediately be pushed to the Issues List to identify the real bottleneck.