THE PROACTIME METHOD 5

5. Transform non actionable tasks into specific, actionable tasks

Tasks are often noted as shortcuts. The level of abstraction of our wording should be adapted to our skill level. A bookkeeper could just write "update books". He perfectly knows what it means and how to proceed. « Phone Paul » may be concrete if we know precisely what it implies. « Inform Paul about the renegotiated tariffs »is more explicit. Before giving the call we may have, for example, to organize a meeting with our manager or to analyze customer statistics.

Our phrasing can be too abstract and when faced with the planned task to do we may realize that we do not know exactly how to proceed or that we have not all resources at hand to accomplish them.

PROACTIME recommends to privilege concrete wordings. The question: « What is it about? » might help to find the right words.

Brainwork implies the risk to select an inappropriate level of abstraction. It is easy to supervise the work of a mason. We can observe how he proceeds and verify the result. Manual work can be optimized since it is concrete. Brainwork, on the other hand, cannot be checked directly. We can only verify the output and to a certain extent the input. Hence managing brainworkers is more difficult than managing manual workers.

Several techniques exist to render tasks concrete and actionable. We can just note the result to achieve and in parenthesis the main action to accomplish to get there. PROACTIME advises to break down complex tasks into short concrete action cycles of 15 minutes. The context menus of the Dashboard and the tabs Free your mind and File your actions offer this option.

We may have to apply a detailed task analysis to make our actions actionable. On tab Analyze / Prepare your actions we define the process of an action, the sequence of the steps to follow to accomplish it. Furthermore we study the resources we shall need to execute it. Some are already available, others have to be created. Resources, then, will be linked to the action in order to access them on the Dashboard at execution time. The tab also enables us to select the type of the task, its added value, if we want to filter our tasks on the corresponding tables and only list tasks of a chosen type.

Duration is another characteristic of tasks. In PROACTIME the duration represents the time needed to accomplish a task. It is related to the production phase and excludes the time invested in organizing and preparing tasks. As mentioned before and in contrast to projects, tasks are not completed but accomplished in one single blow. When we are accomplishing a task we are competing with ourselves. This gives us a sense of achievement. As in many areas of competition, time can be a measure of performance.

PROACTIME limits the duration of tasks to two hours but recommends proceeding by production cycles of 15 minutes to avoid the negative impact of interruptions. Of course when we are in the flow we can extend that duration. It also depends on our attention span.

When we select a duration of more than two hours, PROACTIME transforms the task into a session. Sessions are meetings, appointments, calls, in other words tasks which imply several participants. Sessions are usually scheduled and protected from external interruptions. We can select this category of action even for complex tasks we accomplish alone. It may be a trick to be not disturbed.

If a task is accomplished over several days it is considered to be a project in PROACTIME. Projects are completed and not accomplished in one blow. On tab Free your mind you can file tasks as projects by drag&drop on the corresponding icon. You can also enter tasks as project actions by drag&drop on the appropriate icon. When you click on that icon you reach tab Action > Project of menu ACT > Actions where you can integrate these tasks in the chosen project. This is the bottom-up approach. In menu ACT > Project the top-down approach is also available. Just click on the icon Project to get there.

If we have to work on a task for a longer span of time, PROACTIME gives us the possibility to transform it into a metaproject in which we shall be able to integrate projects and project actions.

In conclusion, the more concrete the wording is, the more likely the task is actionable. Sometimes we have to zoom in and to use the microscope to get at the most concrete and detailed level.