Call the vendor early in the morning. If you reach them early in the day, they can spend the rest of the day working their bureaucracy to get you the answer or result you need. If you call them at the end of the day, then your request gets forgotten by morning. (They haven't read this book.)
Log that you've called the vendor in your organizer. The log may prove useful when things go really wrong.
Always leave voice mail. You need to leave proof that you called. Without leaving a message, it's the same as not calling. You don't have to be original each time. Simply say, 'This is [your name here]. Please call me at [your phone number]. I need [status update/whatever] about [project]. Thank you.' If you don't give a reason for calling, you'll end up playing phone tag. If you say what you need, the vendor can work on it whether or not they are able to reach you. However, be brief and leave your phone number at the beginning of the message, not the end.
Related to this, the order isn't 'in' until a shipper's tracking number and/or delivery date is provided.
I've been stung many times by vendors (and purchasing departments) that were late to ship something. 'Oh, I'd been sitting on this order for a week because there's a form you need to fax me.' Why didn't they tell me? Don't these people work on commission? Have they found some magical business model where
The wrong question to ask, and I know this because I used it unsuccessfully for years, is, 'Do you need anything else from me?' Silly me. I thought that a highly motivated salesperson would take this opportunity to finish the deal so he could get commission. No, the real problem is that not all roadblocks involve me. Maybe a credit approval needs to be finished or a design needs to receive an internal sign-off. Technically, those involve someone from the purchasing department, not me. People don't want to feel that they are making work for you, so they are polite and answer no to this question. In reality, if I know of the roadblocks that aren't in my control, at least I can manage them—i.e., I can start calling the purchasing department to make sure they clear the roadblock.
Therefore, when it seems like everything is done, I ask the magic question: 'Can you tell me what date it will arrive?' Suddenly it clicks in the salesperson's brain to tell me that I really am done or to list the roadblocks: the product isn't available until next spring, or that while I've filled out the credit application, he hasn't submitted it to his finance department. These are both real examples.
Once I get a delivery date, the question changes to, 'Can you give me a tracking number?' That's the real proof that the order hasn't hit any snags. For important projects, I call every day until I receive a tracking number. I always call in the morning, and I always leave a polite message if I'm transferred to someone's voice mail.
Summary
The day is spent working based on the plan. Mark completed items with an X and items moved to the next day with a hyphen.
Toward the end of the day, manage any incomplete items so that the people who made the requests are not surprised to learn of the delay.
By the end of the day, all items have been managed, meaning they have either been completed or somehow worked into future days. The point is, rather than going home feeling like you still have a huge burden, you can go home feeling that all tasks have been managed. You can go home with a smile, knowing that you did today's work. Tomorrow's work will tend to itself.
If you finish early, reward yourself. You can do a personal project, get caught up on work-related reading, clean/organize your office, get ahead on tomorrow's tasks, and so on. If you have a flexible work environment, you can go home early.
When new tasks are given to you during the day, you can schedule them for tomorrow or reshuffle today's plan to fit them in. If you consistently get new tasks throughout the day that have to be done 'right now,' you can allocate a certain amount of interruption time each day when you create your plan.
Personal tasks can be managed using the same system. By using one system for both work and nonwork tasks, you get more practice at using The Cycle, you have only one system to carry around, and you benefit from not forgetting the nonwork stuff that makes your life better.
The system you use isn't as important as having a system. That is, The Cycle System works for me—if you have a different system that works for you, use it. However, if you are reading this book,
