Let me ask you a question. Do you trust yourself? 100%? Are so well disciplined you remember everything you need to do, and do it? Are you sure, you’ve never blown a deadline or pushed some small task thinking „I’ll do it next week.“? If you answered any of the questions with „no“ then, however good you are, you can become even better when using weekly reporting tool.
Use Weekdone Team Compass for team weekly planning & reporting
Not only for the office.
Weekly reporting is a management technique a lot of managers use and often it’s met with contempt by the employees.
For it may seem like a useless time-consuming activity that takes time away from your week.
In reality, when done right, it’s not only useful but can benefit you both in the office and everyday life.
The habit of weekly reporting.
Constant reporting gives your mind a sense of stability and satisfaction. It’s satisfying to mark things done at the end of the week and it’s good to start your week with fresh written down goals. Don’t forgot, people who write their goals down, get done a lot more.
Automated, not time consuming.
Reporting is a lot easier when automated.
The easiest way to create a habit of reporting is to use a weekly reporting software like Weekdone Team Compass. It makes sure team members fill in their reports and it becomes a weekly habit.
Weekdone uses PPP – Plans, Progress, Problems methodology for reporting.
If you need a sample template file to download for your status report, you actually need just these 3 words: Plans, Progress and Problems. That’s your sample template. Nothing more, nothing less.
Add the 3 words of PPP as headings, and under each list by bullet points the items. Use whatever tool you’re comfortable with: e-mail, Google Docs, Excel or a specialized nifty tool like Weekdone status reports.
Weekly format has been proven to be the most effective reporting period for our clients. Or as Scott Wolfe Jr – CEO of zlien, said: “Weekdone puts your team in the habit of going in each week and updating what you are working on.”
Benefits of reporting.
Benefits of reporting are many.
- More efficiency: at Weekdone we have a rule not to list more than 5-7 plans per week. This approach helps you prioritize and focus on the task that matters the most. Secondly, in case the reports are transparent they hold you accountable and make sure you are
- More time: Having the reports in front of your manager and other team members eliminates all the pointless status update emails and meetings. You save a lot of time explaining what you do and can concentrate on the important part of your work.
- More appreciation: Reporting help you to communicate with your busy boss. You can suggest improvements and get help when you have a problem. What is more, you can get that valuable feedback and praise.
- It is easy. The most effective and simple method for reporting is PPP – Progress, Plans, Problems. Used by the likes of Skype, Ebay and Facebook. It is as easy as ABC.
An example.
Here is an example weekly team status report generated by Weekdone Team Compass (it’s free to try, so give it a go). The cool part of Team Compass is how it has compiled personal single person reports into a company report while adding a nice visual team dashboard and weekly progress charts
To make status reporting even easier, these reports are generated automatically each week and sent to managers email, or view them in the app’s browser!