Every now and then I begin to feel like I’m getting bogged down in minor things and I don’t feel very productive. Often times I feel like I’m working hard, I just don’t have anything to show for it. At times like this I reach for a tool that my former Chief Warrant Officer CW2 Morgan taught me, F2P2. It stands for:

• Follow up
• Follow through
• Progress
• Production

By measuring myself using this simple tool I am able to refocus my efforts and frame what I need to do in simple steps.

Follow up simply means to periodically check back with those whose work you are waiting on to complete your own work. The frequency needed will depend on the person and the environment. In high performing teams or high optempo environments, 24 hours between nudges should be sufficient. In less performant teams or more relaxed environments, 48 or even 72 hours may provide better results.

Follow through speaks to honoring your commitments. If a task is assigned to you, or you sign up to do a thing, you should stick with it until the work is done. Building a repuatation as someone who gets the job done requires a long history of reliably completing your tasks.

Progress means making slow and steady contiuous improvement towards the goal.

Production this addresses how many tasks you are completing. If you are constantly following up on the same few tasks, you might be making slight progress, but you aren’t being very productive.