Build the action tracker

By the end of this task, you will be able to turn a flat list of promises into a sequenced tracker with owners, dates and dependencies — one that keeps running while you are away.

Your situation

You have a register. A register is not a plan. It tells you what was promised; it does not tell you what has to happen first, or what happens on the Monday you are not there.

The recovery runs ninety days. One date inside it is immovable: findings to the customer on 30 April. Everything else works back from that.

Nestor Wilke asked for weekly numbers, not a report at the end. That is a rhythm, not a task, and it has to be in the tracker as one repeating block rather than thirteen copies of the same row.

Files you'll use

How to read the prompts

Each prompt below is one block you can copy whole. The # lines are labels, not instructions — they mark where the prompt stops setting the goal and starts giving the context, the sources, and the expectations. Copying them along with the prompt does no harm.

Those four moves, in that order, are what makes a prompt work. Use the same shape when you write your own.

Steps

1. Open Excel and reference your commitment register.

2. Build the tracker.

   goal

   Turn these commitments into a ninety-day action tracker.

   context

   The recovery runs from the middle of March to the middle of June, with findings due to the customer on 30 April.

   sources

   My operations commitment list.

   expectations

   One row per action, with the owner, the start, the due date, and the commitment it comes from. Group the rows into the three phases the transcript describes rather than inventing your own.

3. Find what cannot run in parallel. A flat list always looks achievable.

   goal

   Tell me which of these actions depend on another one finishing first.

   context

   I have built the list flat and I know at least some of it cannot run in parallel. Findings on 30 April is the fixed point everything works back from.

   sources

   The tracker as it stands.

   expectations

   List each dependency as one sentence saying which action waits on which, and why. Then name the two actions that most put 30 April at risk if they slip.

4. Add the weekly rhythm, and make it survive your absence.

   goal

   Add the weekly rhythm to this tracker.

   context

   The customer was promised weekly numbers, not a report at the end. Whatever I build has to survive me being away for a week.

   sources

   The tracker.

   expectations

   Say what has to happen every week, who does it if I am not there, and what the deadline is inside each week. Keep it to one repeating block, not thirteen separate ones.

5. Move to Outlook and hand it over.

   goal

   Draft the email that sends this tracker to the people on it.

   context

   Recipients are the depot manager, the regional operations director, and the sales manager. Two of them have never seen this tracker and one of them made the promises that created it.

   sources

   The tracker.

   expectations

   Under 150 words. Say what the tracker is, what each person owns, what the first deadline is, and where the file lives. One ask at the end, not three.

6. Save the tracker somewhere the other three can open it. A tracker only you can see is a private to-do list.

Check your work

• Every row has an owner who is a person, not a team.
• Every row traces back to a commitment in the register.
• The dependencies on 30 April are named.
• The weekly block says who runs it when you are away.
• The email asks for one thing.

Stretch prompts

Starting out — get the rows:

Turn this list of commitments into a table with one row per
action, an owner, a start date and a due date.

Comfortable — pressure-test the dates:

Assume the findings date of 30 April cannot move. Work backwards
and tell me the latest date each preceding action can start.
Flag anything that should already have begun.

Confident — plan for it going wrong:

For the two actions most likely to slip, write the one-line
contingency and the trigger that tells me to use it. Say who
decides, and what I tell the customer if it happens.