Listed Status Report: Fill & Download for Free

NOTE: The original question that this was an answer to did not have "in college" at the end.---The primary change you need to make to your thinking is that activity is not necessarily production.That notion is left over from the manufacturing era, when almost all front-line productive activity involved the direct building of products; therefore, if someone was engaging in the activity of their job, they were building a unit of whatever the factory was producing. This is no longer true at many "knowledge working" companies.For example, there are many activities you can engage in during your workday (that aren't considered outright slacking) which do not directly contribute towards useful output. Writing status reports, organizing things, creating organizational systems, recording things multiple times, going to meetings, and replying to low-priority communications are all examples of this. Worst of all, there is no correlation between the time or level of effort that any of these activities takes and the degree to which it contributes (or doesn't contribute) to real, value-creating output. That is, a particular activity may be very difficult and may take a lot of time, and it could very well be one of the most useless things you could be doing.To avoid these activities, try the following:Identify a goal that contributes directly to useful output (e.g. shipping a product to actual users, making a sale, etc)List the steps necessary to reach this goal. Make sure the steps are listed sequentially and that each step is actually necessary to achieve the next one. Eliminate "nice-to-have" steps or "targets of opportunity."Do those steps, and postpone everything else. If some other tasks starts nagging on you, just put it off and tell yourself that you can do that after you finish the sequence of steps. Don't ignore it, just postpone it. Tell yourself that you are going to do it later.Once you do this, you'll end up achieving real results much faster because you won't be wasting time on unnecessary intervening tasks, and you will force yourself to ignore the unimportant things that weren't on the list.After you do this, you will be flush with the excitement of having produced something real, and you should do it again. Identify the next "real results" goal, make a list, and pound out the steps. You will find that the things you are skipping aren't really that important, and you can just keep on postponing them. Your boss or whoever else would care about them will often offer only mild criticism (e.g. they'd like you to fill out your weekly status reports), since at the same time you are clearly delivering actual results at high speed. I have personally experienced this both as a boss who managed someone like this (I would write him glowing performance reviews and fill in the "areas for improvement" with boring things like the status reports he wasn't always diligent in filling out) and as someone who achieved fairly high levels of personal (and team) throughput by implementing strategies like this.Good luck!

There are some other good answers here, but keep in mind a project is defined as “an individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned and designed to achieve a particular aim”For example, you may have projects to do around the house. My wife is the product manager and keeps the list up to date.However, most supervisors and manager are not trained in the “ways” of formal project management and, like most people, just toss terms around that really don’t apply (or are misused)Asking you to write a report is not really a project. Maybe they can get away with it if its going to take 3 weeks and requires a research phase…Again, it was pointed out that a project itself is often comprised of dozens or hundreds of individual tasks, depending on how you break it down.In official PMI (Project Management Institute) jargon, we have a tool called a work breakdown structure that breaks any project down into small units of work called “work packages”There will be dozen of reports, for example, that are generated throughout the life of the project. Even the relatively small product development projects I run have weekly status reports, design reviews, performance reports (testing) and perhaps a lessons learned report. None of those reports are “projects”, but just a small part of one project (going back to my earlier example).Since you were good enough to read this, here is a Dilbert as a reward!

In 1975 I was assigned to the 1/19th Infantry Battalion, 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, HI. Although I was an Infantryman (11B MOS) I was detached from my line unit to Battalion HQ as I had another Secondary MOS in Administration (71L).Under Army Regulations, when someone left for a Leave it was necessary to sign out on the approved Leave form prior to departure. On weekends or other after duty times the forms were sent to the Battalion HQ where the NCO assigned as Charge-of-Quarters managed the sign-out process.One young Private reported to HQ to sign out but the CQ did not find his approved leave in the file. This was not entirely unusual and, as the CQ knew that a leave had been approved by the young man’s Unit Commander, he let him go saying they’d take care of the paperwork when he returned from leave. Tragically he died in an accident while on leave.As one of my regular tasks at Battalion included preparing the Duty Status Report, and as it was especially necessary in this case before the soldier’s family was notified of the death - and before they received Death Benefits - I noted his status as “Present for Duty to Approved Leave to Deceased” and sent this to the soldier’s Company Commander for his signature. While waiting for the form to be signed and returned I also began preparations for the letter that was going to be signed by the Battalion Commander and sent to his family.Instead of signing the form the Company Commander came to Battalion and informed me that this man did not have an approved leave because he did not sign out as required. He further told me that though the man had requested the leave he, as the CO, never approved it. Accordingly, he instructed me to change my status report to “Present for Duty to AWOL to Deceased” which would have resulted in the soldier’s family receiving nothing and being informed that their son was in violation of Army Regulations at the time of his death. I was totally shocked as I knew this was untrue, and I informed the Captain of that fact and that I refused to change my Report.In anger, the Captain ordered me to accompany him to the Battalion Commander’s office to answer for my “insubordination” and face whatever penalty the Colonel deemed appropriate. I did so and explained to the Colonel what had actually happened, that the man’s First Sergeant would verify that the Leave had in fact been approved by the Captain, and that the man’s name was still on the Company HQ’s Duty Status Board noting that he was on Leave, something the 1SG would not had done unless he had personally seen the approved form. The Colonel seemed to side with me and I was dismissed to continue preparing my report and the notification letter. At the same time the 1SG looked into the Company Commander’s waste basket - and found the leave form, signed by him, and then crumpled up and thrown out. He brought the form to Battalion and gave this to the Colonel. While he and I waited outside the office we could hear the Colonel speaking to the Captain in anger but, after a while, he came out of his office, looked at us, and then stated that while the form had in fact been approved the young man still violated regulations by leaving without signing out as required. I was then ordered - again - to change my report noting that this Private died while AWOL.Now I was the angry one and, although just a Junior NCO (3-striper at the time), I gave the Colonel a “one finger salute” and went back to my office and slammed the door, ignoring the Colonel’s order to stop.When the Colonel - and most of his Battalion Officers - came into my office I was ready for them, although I thought I could still end up in Leavenworth. Before the Colonel could say a word I laid out on my desk a stack of Leave Forms that, since I was responsible for Duty Status Reports, had been sent to me for filing. As I went through them I sorted out a number that had not been “properly” handled.“This form is for the Commander of Company C. He is currently on Leave but has not signed out as required by Regulations. I will prepare the AWOL Report on him, Sir. This one is for the First Sergeant of the Combat Support Company. He is currently on leave also but has not signed out. I will report him as AWOL, Sir, as required.” Altogether I found perhaps a dozen others that were technically AWOL to include one of the Colonel’s Staff Officers.The Colonel looked at me, realized how serious I was, and then turned to his officers and said, “How did you people let me get into this mess?” He then turned to me and said, “Sergeant Keith, prepare your report and the letter, noting that this young man was on approved leave at the time of his death.” I responded by saying, “Yes, Sir. Already done.” He then ordered the Captain to return to his office with him where, I expect, the Captain was reamed a new one.A few months later the Colonel - a Lieutenant Colonel actually - was promoted to Full Colonel and reassigned to Division HQ. When I had occasion to go to Division HQ I tried to avoid running into him as I still thought I was on the sh-t list with him but one day I did run into him and he told me to come into his office and close the door. This is what he said: “Sergeant Keith, although you might have handled that situation better, you were right and I was wrong. I apologize.”My respect for this man has never left me to this day.