My biggest challenge right now. Follow-ups.

Last 2 weeks in my project were pretty challenging. Reason - 'Follow-ups". I hated the job of following up with someone to find out if they had done their job.

I hated it because I felt I was knocking into their privacy.

I hated it because I felt it was not under my control anymore.

And I hated it because it makes you feel like a beggar.

The more and more I hated it, the more and more I realized that it was inevitable. I had to do it. It is unavoidable. Now, I had this big task of doing something that I hated. Whenever I faced situations like this, there is one thought which keeps me kicking - "If 'I' could learn and write SQL, then I can do anything". SQL is something that I hated a lot. I used to score "Single digit numbers" in my training tests. But today SQL is my career. And I do it passionately. So I decided to apply the same philosophy to follow-ups too. Turn something that I hate, to something that I have to do it passionately...

Vidaathu Karuppu (A Tamil phrase for "an omen that never leaves your back")

Treat it as an omen that will always sit on your back. You just have to be-friend it. Once you start perceiving it as an "always existing" to-do, you will start designing permanent solutions for it. My very first hour in my day is a "Follow-ups" calendar item. I send reminders to all my "follow-up contacts" or give them a call to find out.

Sending a PENDING Status Mail

I send an email with the Subject line as PENDING. It is little bit rude, but I find it working.

Fix an interval and keep reminding

Fix up an interval like 1-2 days or 3-6 hours or any limit depending on the criticality of the process and keep reminding.

Highlight the impact and also the benefit of finishing on time

Make sure you highlight the impact of the delay to them. Also highlight the benefit of finishing it on time.

I use one of these techniques to get my followups closed. But I still struggle, because it needs a lot of patience.