4 Ways to Keep Track of Your Action Items In Hive

Sometimes, the attempt to keep track of action items can feel like almost as much work as doing the tasks listed in the items, resulting in missed deadlines, misunderstandings, and misery. Thankfully, Hive has some practical ways to manage all of your action items with ease.

1. A matrix

The action matrix is a great way to stay organized and streamlined by pairing action items down to their bare essentials: the frequency, triggers, duration, and team members. The matrix shows not only what the action is but who’s doing it, how long it will take, and what spurs on that action item.

A matrix is helpful to keep track of action items because you can keep track of projects both large and small.

By tracking recurring action items, things that happen yearly, like birthdays or work anniversaries, can be tracked with the same precision as quarterly meetings, monthly round tables, or other repeated events. That way, nothing gets lost in the fray, and you can set reminders for yourself months in advance that allow you time to prepare for important milestones and meetings.

2. Action card histories

Another great way to keep track of your actions items is to view the action card’s history and see how the action card has changed. This is especially helpful if you’re returning from a vacation or you work different hours than your teammates with whom you’re collaborating on specific projects.

Here, you can see the complete history of when actions or sub-actions have been altered or created and when tasks may be assigned, completed, or shifted to another coworker. If timelines have been adjusted, certain action items are pending approval, or attachments have been added, you can also see all these changes in the action card history, all without lengthy conversations or time-consuming meetings.

3. Automatically add due dates

If you feel overwhelmed by juggling due dates and deadlines, it can feel like more pop up every time you complete an action item. The best way to control your action items is to ensure that the deadlines aren’t uncertain by creating automatic deadlines that correspond to your company’s workflow.

This way, if you think of a task that needs to be done, you don’t need to put it on your to-do list and make an action item out of it later. You have the freedom to make an action card at any time for any project in the future, and you can set up when an action card starts and when the deadline is.

You can also apply an action template to an action card with deadlines built-in. For instance, if your company workflow is such that it takes one week to research a project, three days to assemble a slide deck, and another two days to prepare the presentation, you can apply that workflow to an action card of your choosing. This takes the guesswork out of scheduling and keeps all team members in the know.

4. Create dependencies

If you’ve ever had to pause your end of a project while you’re waiting for a teammate to complete their portion, you know how irritating it can be to live with the uncertainty of not knowing when you can go back to work. Sometimes, communication may be muddled in that process and cause unnecessary tension between otherwise friendly coworkers. That’s where dependencies come in.

Dependencies is a feature in Hive’s workspace that can be added to an action card. It signifies when you’re waiting on a certain portion of the project to be completed, and once it is, the action item begins, notifying everyone who’s attached to it.

Hive is the world’s first democratically built productivity platform. Learn how we can help you, here.