Many of the to-dos we capture during the IDS portion of our Level 10 Meeting are phrased vaguely, like research marketing options or touch base with sales, which leads to execution delays and endless carryovers. How do we write highly actionable to-dos that guarantee accountability and a ninety percent completion rate?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your Level 10 Meeting™ to-dos are written as vague actions like look into or review, you are setting your team up for execution failure. Vague tasks lack clear boundaries, which makes it easy for owners to carry them over week after week, dragging down your ninety percent completion rate and stalling organizational progress.

To ensure accountability, every to-do captured during IDS® must be written as a SMART task: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Use these guidelines to structure your to-dos:
- Start every to-do with an active, measurable verb, such as email, draft, call, or schedule.
- Define a clear, binary deliverable, changing research marketing to email marketing proposal draft to Integrator.
- Ensure there is only one name assigned as the accountable owner.
- Confirm that the owner agrees they can realistically complete the task within seven days.

If a task is too large to finish in a week, break it down into smaller, weekly pieces. By standardizing how you write your tasks, you eliminate confusion, stop the endless carryovers, and build a culture of high-velocity execution.