Question

Internal Practice management

  • 13 September 2021
  • 7 replies
  • 187 views

Userlevel 1

Two things:
1. I’m looking for information on managing my firms’ non-client matters.

I know there is a video on setting up different Sales, HR, Finance, etc. Divisions and jobs out of that - that is the video/resources I’m interested in.

 

(Note I’m not looking for “Effectively managing your firm’s internal operations” - this is a great webinar on setting OKRs and helping your practice grow by focusing on the right things)

  1. I am not not using the To-Dos very well - I'm not triaging my email to “trust myself” to go into To-Dos as there is a lot there to clean out - how do you manage with this?

(Also I know there is a good video on this as well - if someone could share that would be amazing).

 

Thanks!

 

 

 


7 replies

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Internal matters

We use a combination of hidden and private contacts to tag and tailor access for our internal practice things like HR related content or potential sales.  We then give people access as is needed (or not depending on the situation).  We also have an external communications software (Slack), where we keep some private chats about situations between management before they go into “permanent record” in Karbon.

We also use some additional software (like pipedrive for sales) to progress jobs as such but some of the workflow and automation can be used in Karbon to render some of these additional apps unnecessary.

 

Triage

It’s the curse of inbox to do list!  There is absolutely no reason why the triage can’t be cleared down to NIL every morning and I think you need to get into the habit of doing that then moving to your to do list instead.

Sure the 400 items on your to do list can get a bit daunting/demotivating and there is a knack to managing the to do list (using the different views like client summary or moving things till another time) but clearing your inbox to make sure the lines of communication are cleared and continuing is very important for any firm.

I approach it like:

  1. Quick scan of the subject lines to see if any are spam/unnecessary notifications and either clear them or mark them as low priority to remove them from the list
  2. Quick read through the messages to see what they relate to.
    1. If they are for someone else, I’ll either contribute to the discussion or just @ mention and clear the item
    2. If it relates to some work that I am going to do later on or tomorrow, assign it to the work item and make sure I check the timeline later when I am ready to start the work.
    3. If it requires a longer read or an action, add to the todo list for some other time (even if I cam going to do it later the same day)

Having that Flower of Happiness that says your inbox is clear and moving away from the triage being the workspace is important and I would strongly suggest you make the jump.

Userlevel 7
Badge +13

Best Practices for T0-Dos video link.   

https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/1524382-best-practices-for-to-do?wvideo=i57ypj74nh

There are also some great articles about T0-Dos as well.

https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/2623633-learn-how-karbon-works-to-do-lists

Userlevel 7
Badge +13

There are also some great articles about T0-Dos as well.

https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/2623633-learn-how-karbon-works-to-do-lists

This link has been added to the previous answer so they are both together.

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

There are also some great articles about T0-Dos as well.

https://help.karbonhq.com/en/articles/2623633-learn-how-karbon-works-to-do-lists

@DianeK can you edit your original post to include these links so that if the author marks your post as the best answer they are included for future community members coming to get this information?

Badge

Hi Scott,

I created a client group for our firm name and made sub clients - Firm Name HR, Firm Name Operations, Firm Name Marketing, etc.  Then I am able to make the sub-clients private or only share with the person responsible for the tasks, i.e Operations Manager has access to Firm Name Operations, but no other team members do.

This has helped me create to-do’s and work for firm projects under the right heading and be able to clear out my triage and have a place for things to land and to keep notes when I think of them.  Then when I get to the block of time in my calendar to focus on that work item, I have action items ready to go.

We are a small firm, but when I have a lot of tasks for a certain sub-client like HR, Operations or Marketing, I have a good idea of who I need to hire and what their job would be.

Hope this is a helpful example.

Valerie

Founder & Chief Bean Counter

Reveal Business Solutions, LLC

Using Views in To Do is the only way to manage the soul crushing number of items in there. I use To Do only for emails and notes assigned to me. I created a saved view that filters out tasks and work items, leaving only the items that came through emails or notifications. I make sure to attach every item in my To Do list to a client, then I sort my list by client. That allows me to work on one client at a time.

I also have a saved view that sorts items by Due Date. I assign a due date to every item (email and note) in my To Do list to keep me accountable.

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Using Views in To Do is the only way to manage the soul crushing number of items in there. I use To Do only for emails and notes assigned to me. I created a saved view that filters out tasks and work items, leaving only the items that came through emails or notifications. I make sure to attach every item in my To Do list to a client, then I sort my list by client. That allows me to work on one client at a time.

I also have a saved view that sorts items by Due Date. I assign a due date to every item (email and note) in my To Do list to keep me accountable.

I agree that the to-do function is best used to keep track of tasks, emails, and notes. Filter out the work items and anything “Planned” or “Complete”

Here is how I have my filters setup:

And my settings in the top right corner:

 

I have found that this setup really helps me stay on top of my tasks.

To track work items, use a kanban work dashboard.

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