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As I’ve previously mentioned, there are two ways for a manager to keep track of your productivity. One is to see how much time you spend working (see my previous article on using time tracking sheets). But the way a really good manager measures you is by the quality and quantity of the work you do rather than how many hours you spend working every day.

If you’re a telecommuter, you miss those casual hallway chats with your manager that helps him keep at top-of-mind what you’re working on and what you’re producing. So the best solution is to simply use a status report that you send him at the beginning or end of every week.

Tasks & Activities:

Your status report should show the tasks and activities you’re working on, broken up into 3 parts:

1. What you’ve completed in the last week
2. What you’re currently working on
3. What you plan to work on

This gives your manager the opportunity to have a weekly reminder of what you’ve accomplished and what you’re working on. It also gives him the opportunity to see what you plan to work on next week so he can ask you to change your plans if he has some urgent new task he needs completed or priorities have recently changed.

Priorities:

Speaking of priorities, it’s always good for you to list the priority of the activities you plan to work on. You can break item #3 above into two sections. There are the activities you plan to work on next week (e.g. your top priorities). And the activities that remain on your plate but you don’t expect to get to in the next week that will have to be put off for later. If you like, you can list each task with a HIGH, MED, or LOW priority so your boss can really see where your focus is and he can give you feedback to adjust it if things have changed for him.

Issues & Problems:

In addition to the section showing your tasks and activities, you should have another section showing issues, concerns, roadblocks, or areas where you need your manager’s help. Don’t be afraid to tell your manager about problems. If he doesn’t know, he can’t help you. Even if he can’t help you, he can prepare his management, reset expectations or schedules, or notify your peers who are depending on your work. Don’t use this section for whining or complaining. Only list facts, that cause (or you suspect down the road will cause) problems with your project or task, or cause you to miss a deadline, etc. If you have personal issues with a co-worker not pulling their weight for instance, save that for your next one-on-one phone call with your manager.

Administrative:

Lastly, you can add a short section at the bottom of your status report listing administrative details such as reminding your boss of the upcoming vacation you’re planning on taking, the conference you’ll soon be attending, or even the upcoming deadlines on projects that you’re working on.

By sending your boss a weekly status report, you keep your activities and accomplishments at the top of his mind. And he gets visibility into what you’re working on so he can adjust your priorities if he needs to, or confirm that they match his own priorities. As a telecommuter this activity is vitally important to help you stay connected with your manager and keep him in the loop. You don’t have to wait for him to ask you to send a status report, you can just start sending them to him each week – he will find them valuable even if he never thought of asking you for them before.

Sample Status Report

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