Planning by time or by tasks?

241 • Carry out each task, that is to say either work on the task yourself or delegate it to another user, • Last thing at the end of the day’s work, empty that day’s timebox and return all unclosed tasks into the week’s timebox. 4. Repeat the same process each week and each month for the respective timeboxes. Tip: Do not confuse Agenda and Timebox The idea of timebox is independent from that of an agenda. Certain tasks, such as meetings, must be done on a precise date. So they cannot be managed by the timebox system but by an agenda. The ideal is to put the minimum of things on the agenda and to put there only tasks that have a fixed date. The timebox system is more flexible and more efficient for dealing with multiple tasks. So start by entering all the tasks required by project. These could have been entered by another user and assigned to you. It is important to code in all of the tasks that are buzzing around in your head, just to get them off your mind. A task could be: • work to be done, • a short objective, medium or long term, • a complex project that has not yet been broken into tasks. A project or an objective over several days can be summarized in a single task. You do not have to detail each operation if the actions to be done are sufficiently clear to you. You have to empty your Tasks periodically. To do that, use the menu Project → Project → Tasks. Assign a timebox and a context to each task. This operation should not take more than a few minutes because you are not dealing with the tasks themselves, just classifying them. Figure 19.12: Timebox for tasks to be done today Then click on the button at the top right Plannify Timebox. This procedure lets you select the tasks for the day from those in the timebox for the week. This operation gives you an overview of the medium term tasks and objectives and makes you review them there at least once a day. It is then that you would decide to allocate a part of your time that day to certain tasks based on your priorities. Since the tasks are sorted by priority, it is sufficient to take the first from the list, up to the number of hours in your day. That will only take a minute, because the selection is not taken from every task you know about in the future, but just from those selected for the current week. Once the timebox has been completed you can start your daily work on the tasks. For each task you can start work on it, delegate it, close it, or cancel it. At the end of the day you empty the timebox using the button at the top right Empty Timebox. All the tasks that have not been done are sent back to the weekly timebox to sit in amongst the tasks that will be planned next morning. Do the same each week and each month using the same principles, but just using the appropriate timeboxes for those periods. Some convincing results After a few days of carefully practising this method, users have reported the following improvements: • a reduction in the number of tasks and objectives that were forgotten, • a reduction in stress because people felt more in control of their situation, 242 • a change of the priorities in the types of tasks carried out daily, • more notice taken of the urgency and importance of tasks and objectives in the long-term organization of time, • better management of task delegation and the selection of which tasks were better to delegate, Finally, it is important to note this system is totally integrated with Open ERP’s project management function. Staff can use the system or not depending on their own needs. The system is complementary to the project management function that handles team organization and company-wide planning. 243 Part VI Manage your Warehouse and Get your Manufacturing done