Meeting sections
To-Dos
The seven-day commitments made in last week's meeting, reviewed done or not done.
In EOS®: the To-Do List
To-Dos is the seven-day To-Do List a Level 10 Meeting® works through. The EOS Toolbox™
A to-do is a seven-day commitment: something one person agreed to finish before the next meeting. The gate takes five minutes and asks one question per item, done or not done. A healthy crew clears about ninety percent of them every week.
What a to-do carries#
- Task
- One action, phrased so that done is unambiguous. "Send the proposal to Acme" is a to-do. "Progress the Acme deal" is not.
- Owner
- One person, as with everything else.
- Due date
- Usually next week's meeting.
- Priority
- A letter, A to E. Sorts the list when it gets long, and tells the crew what to pick up first.
- Notes
- Context, links, and progress updates.
The ABCDE method#
Priority uses Brian Tracy’s ABCDE method, from Eat That Frog!
Every to-do gets a letter, and the letter is a decision about what happens to it.
| Letter | Label | Means |
|---|---|---|
| A | Must do | Heaviest consequence first. |
| B | Should do | Only after every A. |
| C | Nice to do | No consequence today. |
| D | Delegate | Buys back A-task time. Setting it asks who should own the to-do instead. |
| E | Eliminate | No longer serves a purpose. Setting it offers to cancel the to-do. |
Statuses#
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Done | Finished. Comes off the active list. |
| Not done | Still open. Carries into next week, and stays visible until it is finished or dropped. |
| Cancelled | Deliberately dropped. Use it rather than quietly deleting: the crew agreed to this, so the crew should see it un-agreed. |
Crew to-dos and personal to-dos#
A to-do belongs to a crew, or to nobody. One with no crew is private to you: it shows in your own list and in no meeting. That is where the things you need to remember but the leadership team does not need to hear about should go.
Converting#
Most to-dos are born in the meeting, out of the issues list. Solving an issue almost always ends with somebody agreeing to do something, and that agreement is a to-do rather than a note in the minutes. Convert the issue and it arrives here with its title and detail attached.
It works the other way too. A to-do that turns out to be a quarter's work is a rock, and one that cannot be done until something else is decided is an issue.
Filtering the list#
Filter by crew, by owner and by status, and search the text. During a flight the list defaults to what the crew committed to last week, which is exactly the set the gate is there to review.
Your own to-dos across every crew are collected in the dashboard, so you never have to open four crews to find out what you owe people. Press Cmd / Ctrl + K to jump straight there.