The Done Ratio

The Done Ratio measures the proportion of your ideas that get implemented. It is based on the actual number of ideas that can be ticked off as completed by the agreed date.Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of it before, I made it up walking back to the office from lunch the other day.My estimate, based on approximately zero quantitative research, would be that the average Done Ratio sits at about 50%. From my observation, most business owners have no shortage of good ideas, but they struggle to get the time, energy and discipline to implement them and realise the benefits.Here are some hacks to help you improve your Done Ratio:

• Don’t have a due date. Then they’re always open, sort of like being not out in cricket.
• Don’t have any ideas, which kind of works because you’re too busy anyway
• Trust your “revealed preferences” – if you don’t get to it, it can’t have been very important
• Only have simple ideas that are easy to implement

Actually they’re not really hacks, they’re cheats.Some better ideas:

• Have a small number of great ideas
• Be disciplined about prioritising them in your year, your week and your day
• Make your commitments visible
• Have an electronic reminder system

We’re now using software that has lifted our Done Ratio by about 25% (and we were already pretty good). The software is a great tool, but it only works because:

• We have a planning framework that goes from vision to tasks
• We know what our three Most Important Goals (MIGs) are
• Our tasks relate to our goals
• Our performance against the tasks is visible to everyone

Think about your Done Ratio. Imagine what life would look like if you doubled it.Done.