Jory MacKay on September 17, 2024 How to create better action items (with free templates)
🎁 Bonus Material: Free Action Items Template
There’s nothing worse than leaving a productive meeting and then… crickets.
While there’s no denying that transferring plans into action is notoriously hard (with some studies showing that, on average, we only complete 66% of our assigned tasks), the culprit isn’t always just a lack of time or feeling overwhelmed — but poorly managed action items.
A well-crafted action item perfectly combines the what, when, who, and why of a task to bridge the gap between what you say you want to do and seeing real results.
Without them, there’s a good chance your great ideas will disappear in the wind or be deprioritized as soon as an urgent task arises.
If you’re tired of having the same meeting or conversation without anything to show for it (or are a manager who wants to improve their team’s productivity), this guide and our free action items cheat sheet template is for you.
Jump to section:
What are action items?
An action item is a specific piece of work, often arising from a meeting, that is assigned to someone to complete. Action items are the building blocks of great projects, underpinning the tasks, milestones, and deliverables that ultimately help achieve the project goal.
Effective action items aren’t complex — but they do need to contain four critical components:
- What? A description of the action to be completed.
- Why? Some context explaining how the action aligns with the project or business’ wider goals.
- When? A clear timeframe of when the action must be completed by.
- Who? An owner who will take responsibility for completing the action.
Action items are used across all areas of business, but are very common in the world of project management — especially at key points such as kick off or status update meetings.
This is because for projects to progress effectively, they require actions to be completed by different people at different times, each of which contributes to the project’s success.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you’re working on a six-month project with the objective of creating a new software product. There will be hundreds of action items to complete throughout the project — from designers creating wireframes during the design phase to developers translating those details into code to team leaders training support staff on how the new features work.
If project managers and team leads don’t set, manage, and track these action items effectively, teams quickly become confused, risking conflict, delays, overspend, scope creep, and poor quality.
The biggest benefits of getting action items right
But, get your action items right and you’ll see a range of great benefits, including:
- Builds team effectiveness and momentum (especially after meetings). Whether it’s a project kickoff, sprint planning session, or project status update, project meetings can create many great ideas. But without proper action items to define and track the next steps, those ideas often get forgotten once you’re back in the thick of it.
- Helps keep projects organized and to plan. Action items are the lowest building block of a project, detailing the specific tasks that need to be completed. Having control of your actions helps ensure your project progresses to plan.
- Keeps teammates accountable for their work. When work gets busy, it’s easy to forget the next item on your to-do list. Structured and specific action items help keep team members accountable, ensuring they deliver on time and to a high quality.
- Breaks down large projects and goals into actionable chunks. Projects are large endeavors, sometimes taking multiple years to complete. Alongside deliverables, milestones, and tasks, action items help break projects down into the incremental steps that will get you to the finish line.
- Provides a record of what needs to be done. Good projects need to show they have control, and action items provide a record of what has been done in the past and what will get done in the future.
- Creates alignment across the team. Clearly documented action items help team members stay aligned across the project. If there’s ambiguity flying around, team members may end up duplicating work, or worse, completing work that conflicts with one another.
The simplest way to create better action items
Like many things in project management, the best way to create great action items is to follow a defined process.
To help keep it simple, here’s an 8-step guide to planning, assigning, and managing action items:
1. Understand your action writing approach
Before you begin writing action items, you need to understand the level of support your team needs. This ensures the structure, style, and rhythm of your actions will boost your team’s effectiveness rather than bog everyone down.
- For mature teams. For high-performing teams, short, snappy action items will save you time and create autonomy for team members.
- For newer teams. If your team is more junior, detailed action items provide guidance, support, and structure, and increase your chance of success.
Real-life example:
Jack’s a Project Manager for Quantum, a provider of data dashboarding software. Jack is preparing for a kick-off meeting with a new client and is planning his action item approach. Having met the client briefly, he knows they’re new to data dashboards, so he’ll need to provide detailed actions that will be reviewed weekly to help keep the project moving.
Pro tip: Create custom fields in your project management tool for your action item structure. Every team is different, which means your needs may not fit into the standard fields and forms in your project management tool.
With Planio, you can create and add custom fields for specific issue types — including everything from lists to custom text
2. Summarize what needs to be done (the what)
The foundational part of any action item is clearly defining what must be done. This gets everyone aligned as to the outcome of the action, removing ambiguity and setting a target to work towards.
- Link actions to tasks. As a project manager, tasks and actions invariably cross over. Take a look at the Planio Guide to Task Management for tips and advice on how to create and manage tasks.
- Use S.M.A.R.T. The more detailed the “what” of your action item, the harder it is to go wrong. Check each action against the SMART criteria to ensure it’s specific, measurable, and achievable.
Real-life example:
As Jack prepares for the kick-off meeting, he considers the actions he’ll need the client to complete after the meeting. This will include the client gathering requirements from their business stakeholders to help Jack with the build. Jack drafts the following action item:
“Engage business stakeholders and capture their data dashboard requirements.”
3. Provide context for why this task matters (the why)
Projects are fast-moving endeavors and, at times, it can be difficult to keep up with the latest developments. For this reason, it’s helpful to add context to your action items, explaining why the team is completing them or what they will help achieve.
Here are three different ways you can provide more context to your action items:
- Milestones and Objectives. Link your action item to project milestones or project objectives within your plan, showing how that action will help the team tick off a short-term goal.
- Risks. If the carrot doesn’t work, try using the stick. Demonstrate the potential risks to your project if the action item isn’t completed.
- Strategy. If it’s a fairly large action item, you can even link it to the project or product strategy. This provides the ultimate alignment but can sometimes be too big picture, so use it wisely.
Real-life example:
As Jack’s client is new to building data dashboards, he wants to provide context so that they understand why it’s important to capture business requirements. He updates his action item accordingly:
“To help Quantum design the best solution, engage business stakeholders and capture their data dashboard requirements.”
4. Set a priority level and due date (the when)
Everything must fall into place at the right time, this includes your action items. Setting a due date is essential so that everyone knows when an action needs completing.
As projects get busy, it’s also a best practice to assign a priority level to your action items, ensuring the most critical actions get the focus they need.
- Know your project schedule inside out. To help you set your due dates, make sure you’re clear on your higher-level project schedule. Knowing when key milestones must be completed can help you plan the underpinning actions.
- Practice proper prioritization techniques. If your action items are stacking up, you need to know which ones are the most important. For linear projects, the critical path method is a great way to identify the tasks that impact your timeline. For all other types of projects, check out Planio’s Feature Prioritization guide.
Real-life example:
To stay on plan and create the first iteration, Jack needs to begin the build phase in around two weeks’ time. Alongside gathering requirements, he’ll also ask the client to suggest a color scheme, pick a font, and provide a logo, but these actions are less important.
With that in mind, Jack updates his action item with a due date:
“To help Quantum design the best solution, engage business stakeholders and capture their data dashboard requirements by 15th May. (Priority #1)”
5. Assign the task to a team member (the who)
The last piece of the action item puzzle is assigning the task to an owner. Where possible, actions should be assigned to an individual, as it ensures the highest level of accountability. But, if you’re working at a broader level, you can assign actions to teams or stakeholder groups, too.
- Balance the workload. Assigning action items is a delicate job, as each adds to someone’s to-do list. Consider resource allocation techniques and be mindful of team workloads when assigning action items.
- Seek out subject-matter experts. When assigning action items, you always want to assign them to the people with the right expertise as it limits the risk of the action item being delayed or the quality of the delivery being poor.
Real-life example:
At the end of the kick-off meeting, Jack agrees that the client team is best placed to complete the requirements gathering action. Sarah works as a Business Analyst and has experience of capturing requirements from stakeholders, so is the natural choice.
Jack updates and assigns the action:
“To help Quantum design the best solution, Sarah is to engage business stakeholders and capture their data dashboard requirements by 15th May. (Priority #1)”
6. Document the actions in your project management system
To avoid actions getting forgotten about, you need to document and share them. While we’ll provide some great action item templates later on, the best place to store them is within your project management system. This helps keep everything in one place and makes actions easier to track moving forwards.
Here are some tips on how to use Planio to capture and track action items:
- Create an “action item” tracker. Trackers are custom issue types in Planio. By creating an action item tracker, you can automatically add all of your custom fields and workflows to each action item — without having to add them in manually.
- Add custom fields based on your team’s process. You know your team best. Add custom fields to capture relevant information, context, and data beyond the standard who, what, when, and why.
- Set up workflows to help automate action items. Workflows define how specific people can update their tasks to make sure everyone is following the proper process. Use this to ensure that action items are completed how you would expect.
- Use time estimates and track time spent working on action items. Resource management is all about good estimating. Use Planio to set an estimated time for each action item — and then track the actual time spent using Planio’s built-in time tracker.
- Set deadlines to keep everyone on track. Finally, ensure that each task has a reasonable deadline and priority to keep everyone on the same track and aligned on the project’s schedule.
Real-life example:
After the meeting, Jack uploads the actions from the kick-off meeting into his project management software, including the what, why, when, and who of each one. He invites the clients into the project management software so that everyone can collaborate on the project in one place.
7. Provide support to the action owner
Where many project managers go wrong is that they don’t support the action owner once the action is assigned. They only check in on the due-date, by which point it’s too late to solve any problems or provide clarifications.
- Try to maintain a servant leader approach. Once you’ve assigned your action items, take a servant leader approach to ensure action owners have everything they need to complete their tasks. This increases your chances of staying on track.
- Use one-to-one meetings and asynchronous communication. Staying in touch with action owners can take many forms. For those that need more support, use one-to-one meetings. For more independent workers, asynchronous communication helps you stay in touch without micromanaging.
Without a well-crafted action item your great ideas will disappear in the wind.
Real-life example:
A few days after the kick-off meeting, Jack reaches out to Sarah to ask how she’s progressing with capturing the business requirements. Sarah has some clarification questions she plans to raise at the next meeting. Instead of waiting, Jack schedules a quick phone call later that day to ensure more progress can be made ahead of the meeting.
8. Mark the action complete and go again
Great news! You’ve created, assigned, and managed your action items through to their completion. While it’s easy to just tick items off your to-do list, make sure you aren’t too hasty and take the time to properly support the team and validate tasks have been completed correctly.
- Maintain psychological safety. When bringing the team back together to discuss action items, it can be easy to succumb to the pressure and just say something is complete. Make sure you build a safe culture that’s safe for people to speak up if they’re struggling to complete an action.
- Keep the momentum up. Projects are relentless at times, with completed actions immediately creating follow-on actions. Focus on keeping the team motivation and inspiration up as you cycle through multiple rounds of actions.
Real-life example:
Jack gets the client teams together to review their progress. Sarah has done a fantastic job with the business requirements, providing Jack what he needs to get started with the build. Jack now asks the clients to focus on the color scheme, font, and logo actions he suggested previously, setting due dates and assigning action owners accordingly.
Action item templates and examples to get you started
To help bring the world of action items to life, let’s look at some examples of action item formats for different projects and project phases.
There’s nothing worse than leaving a productive meeting and then… crickets.
Marketing project — Design phase:
Action items can be kept simple, providing the core information on what, why, when and who that we’ve discussed in this guide. If it’s a small project or high-performing team, sometimes you can even skip the ‘why’.
- Format: XX to complete YY by ZZ date.
- Action item example: Sally to complete the product mood board by 20th October.
Software development project — Testing phase:
For technical projects, action items may be linked to other items such as bugs, issue numbers, or project references.
- Format. To resolve XX, YY to complete ZZ ready for ABC date/event.
- Action item example. To resolve issue #043, Philippe to investigate API code quality ready for tomorrow's daily stand up (12th April).
Construction project — Build phase:
If you want to highlight the priority of an action, you can provide additional information on the consequences of it being missed or its priority versus other actions.
- Format. XX to complete YY, by XX date to be ready for ABC. This is XX priority because of YY.
- Action item example. Construct Ltd to complete a site health and safety assessment by 15th July, to be ready for regulator validation on the 21st July. This is Priority #1 as if it’s not completed on time, it will risk the team’s ability to work on the site safely.
Final tip: Avoid these common mistakes when using action items
When we’re in a rush to get things done, tasks can easily get forgotten. Having a defined actions process helps ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
But even when you have a process in place, make sure you keep an eye out for these common action item mistakes:
- Assigning overly vague items. When it comes to the “what” of your items, follow the SMART format to avoid them being vague as this creates confusion, delays and poor outcomes.
- Setting unrealistic deadlines. If you don’t give the action owner enough time, they’ll miss deadlines. Or worse, end up taking shortcuts that reduce the quality of your project deliverables.
- Not supporting action owners. As the project manager or team leader, you shouldn’t just assign an action and then step back. Take a servant leader approach and support the action owner throughout the process.
- Failing to document. Projects are busy places, so make sure you document and share your agreed actions. If you don’t, people will forget what they need to do, leading to delays and misalignment.
To maximize the effectiveness of your action items, use tools like Planio to plan, document, and manage your action items effectively. Not only will this save you time, but it’ll help the entire team stay on the same page, and give them the support they need to complete their actions and deliver great project outcomes!
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