Procedure

The Weekly Checkpoint procedure is intended to:

  • review tasks from the previous  week, and any issues which arise
  • plan tasks for the upcoming week

Planning Tasks for the Coming Week

So as to easily find the tasks for the week, you should label the tasks with the Week number of the week you have your checkpoint. Your specific week period runs between checkpoints, i.e. if your checkpoint is on Wednesday, you should plan tasks from Wednesday to Wednesday. You select week number like this:

In particular, where you will be needing input / feedback / support from either other people in the company or other partners this should be clearly indicated in the task.

You should ensure that tasks are created:

  • for all upcoming activities
  • for all upcoming events in the week
  • for all upcoming dissemination opportunities

Reviewing Tasks from the Past Week

To review tasks from the past week you should:

  • check the status of the task – has it been started / completed / submitted for review / blocked
  • if the task is continuing into another week, make sure that the description or comments is updated with the status
  • if any administrative information needs to be added (such as invoice numbers / booking references etc, make sure these are added
  • if tasks are being closed, make sure a link to the final product is included in the description (not the comments)

Running the Checkpoint

Tabs to Prepare

For the checkpoint meeting, you should prepare two filters under ‘My Tasks’ :

  • the first should show all tasks for the current week and for the previous week: for this you can use the ‘My Weekly Tasks’ View, and update the filter show the correct weeks
  • the second should show all blocked tasks: for this you can use the ‘My Blocked Tasks’ View

If you are presenting any dissemination material, deliverables, website updates etc, you should also have these open in separate tabs before the meeting.

It will be your job to share your screen and show these during the meeting.

Agenda of the Meeting

Meeting Agenda is as following:

  • What happened last week:
    • quick overview of last week’s tasks using Zoho
    • demoing any work done
  • Tasks for this week:
    • quick overview of this week’s tasks and events using Zoho
    • any resources needed from the company or from partners
    • any anticipated issues/risks/problems
  • Review of Blocked Tasks – check of all tasks which are blocked and how to unblock them
  • Availability for Next Week – when will you be working for the next week
  • Any other business (only items that can be discussed in less than 5 mins – if longer you need to schedule specific meeting)

FAQ

You should include any tasks you expect to work on during the week. You do not need to ‘micro-plan’ tasks – so as a rule thumb, include tasks that will take you longer than 2 hours to complete. You do not need to include tasks such as ‘answering e-mail’ – unless there is a special e-mail, but meetings should always be included.

When you are planning if you forsee a task will take longer than a week, you should divide it into sub-tasks which last no longer than a week.

You should never remove the old label, but you can add new Week Numbers to a task if it takes longer than planned.. If the task is  stretching more than one week, add a comment in the task with the progress since last week.

Check this website: Weeknumber.net | Which week is it?