How do you guys keep track of tasks at work that are on the back burner and don't belong to someone?

All the stuff that falls through the cracks, how do you track it? Ensure it gets finished?

Example, during a lull in work, I designed a new safety cage for testing things that spin very fast.  Sent design up the chain.  Haven't heard back except for a brief "I like it! Can we have it sit like _____?"  Now it's in limbo.

Part of the problem is getting someone to sign off on it, as it's a low priority compared to the other things we have going on.  I don't want to have to handwalk things through every stage of the process, but sometimes it feels like I have to if it doesn't directly have an effect on products going out the door.

We use Monday. 

All tasks belong to someone - whether they know it, own it, and expect to do anything with it is a different matter. But every task should belong to someone.

There are lots of project management tools out there, some good and some bad. We've tried a lot of them. For us, we always come back to Asana. We use it to track backlog and active projects, and you can assign tasks and subtasks in there to coworkers with lots of views/comments. It does what we need it to do. I think there are free versions to use as well for small teams. 

I use Trello (owned by Atlassian, who also owns Jira). I also use it at home to track my car projects, house projects, life projects, etc.

Johnboyjjb said:

All tasks belong to someone...

This. The only way to ensure a task gets completed is to assign it to somebody and have them give it an ECD. Otherwise it simply will not get done.

Typically if its not a high priority to my boss then its really not a high priority to me.  

Anything that I work on like your test cage that I can't get traction on, I squirrel it away on my employee network drive, then in 2 weeks or 2 years when someone asks about it - here ya go.

I'm old school. I write a list every Friday afternoon to refresh my brain and prep for the next week. Some things stay on the list for weeks or even a few months

Jira 

Every organization is different, yet identical. We have a ERP system that supposedly tracks/drives everything, but it seems that nothing happens unless I send a Teams/email/text... or all of the above. The fun is when folks ask if you reviewed and released "x,y,z" for manufacturing,  and I pull up the meeting with everyone on the invite list. "Yes, Bob, you were there when it happened."

If it doesn't belong to someone, it belongs to YOU.

Calendar is your friend. Give yourself appointments and reminders to follow up.  Two weeks later, a month, whatever.  If the project still exists, then it's still in your schedule.  
 

People who work for me are used to me saying "No Sepfors".  There seems to be a cultural desire to please (among men in the South).  If I ask "Did you finish that job?" the answer is always the same... "Yep.  All done".

..."sepfor that corner in the back".

Nope. That's a sepfor.  The correct answer is "No. Not quite. I'm gonna need about an hour to finish that corner in the back".

If there is a "sepfor", then the project isn't finished, and it's still on my list.

My wife keeps track of it.

Every 6 months or so, I get to hear about all the crap I forgot to do.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

We used to Jira Jira at my old job. It's sort of like the Macarena only less fun and more repetitive. We joked that the programmer on that app hot paid by the click. LOL

Mr_Asa said:

All the stuff that falls through the cracks, how do you track it? Ensure it gets finished?

Example, during a lull in work, I designed a new safety cage for testing things that spin very fast.  Sent design up the chain.  Haven't heard back except for a brief "I like it! Can we have it sit like _____?"  Now it's in limbo.

Part of the problem is getting someone to sign off on it, as it's a low priority compared to the other things we have going on.  I don't want to have to handwalk things through every stage of the process, but sometimes it feels like I have to if it doesn't directly have an effect on products going out the door.

The "task" as I see it is "Getting somone to sign off on it". From where I am sitting and what little I know about your corporate structure, this is still firmly on your plate until it gets the "go/no go treatment.

I used to have a monthly "puppy killing" meeting where staff on the team would put forth ideas for new projects or activities for the department. The goal was to try and kill as many before we had to start feeding them time and money.

tester (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

We used to Jira Jira at my old job. It's sort of like the Macarena only less fun and more repetitive. We joked that the programmer on that app hot paid by the click. LOL

This resonates 

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

Totally. Oh the hours I spend in Jira daily. I'll need a new mouse by the end of the year with all of the clicks. 

What tasks? I don't see any. 

I'm assuming this is an unfunded effort - you're not buying a new thing from some service provider to make this happen, at least at first. I like the free tier of Trello. If you're a Microsoft shop, ooh boy, Microsoft likes throwing different ideas about there... I'd suggest messing with Planner or To-Do if you're standing up a system for yourself. It integrates with the rest of Microsoft, so it will tell people what you've assigned them remind them, and even surface tasks when they have an upcoming meeting with you. Microsoft Loop is pretty new, and it looks like it'd be good if you're wanting to put all of a project's documentation together and assign people, or want to record meeting notes and assign tasks in the same place.

I use Trello to run my company and we track everything with it from service calls to vacation days. Everything we do gets a card with the date the card was created, and that card works its way down to board as needed. We have some projects that run months from start to finish. My memory isn't that good so having somewhere searchable that you can track projects is important. 

A new work order goes in the first column and is given a date so the card will show on the calendar. As that WO progresses, it moves. If it needs to be quoted, it goes in the To Be Quoted column. If it needs parts, it goes in that column. When the parts are received, it moves there. Every step of the way it is updated with notes and pictures. Eventually, it makes it to Completed where my Admin invoices it and archives it. 

While we don't assign people to the tasks on the board, it is possible to do so with alerts if something sits too long. 

Screenshot.

Mr_Asa said:  All the stuff that falls through the cracks, how do you track it? Ensure it gets finished?

 

I manage engineers.  I spend time every week making sure this doesn't happen.   My least favorite answer is "That's not my job". 

I've also found that sharing checklists with other people helps.

When I find they have checked something off the list that isn't quite done, I say "Nope.  Uncheck that. It's not quite finished. It still needs to be on your list".

People hate things hanging on their checklists. This seems to motivate other people to follow through. 

edwardh80 said:

I'm old school. I write a list every Friday afternoon to refresh my brain and prep for the next week. Some things stay on the list for weeks or even a few months

This is what I did.  I'd print out the list and keep it posted in front of my desk on the wall so it was always there in front of me.  I regularly had 20 or 30 active projects that were anywhere between initial design and final install and startup, and unless I had their names right there on the wall I couldn't keep track of them all.  I also kept manila folders for each project in a rack on my desk where I could easily access them.

We use google docs at work.  There are only 5 of us, so we wear multiple hats.  We have an excel (well, Sheets) Spreadsheet with color-coded columns.  We list all of our to-dos.  Just today I had a few spare minutes, and one of the things on Jeanne's list was "stuff envelopes thank you letters."  So I went over and stuffed envelopes for her.  Last week we had an event and I listed things like sweep and mop the lobby, set out 30 chairs, etc.  Abby and Alexandra crossed that off my list for me.

It's nice, too, if the boss gives me a to-do item and she notices I haven't crossed it off, she just posts a comment in the Sheet and it sends me a notification.  Usually something like "you useless pile of E36 M3... why isn't this done yet?"  That's her sense of humor.