How we moved from tracking tasks in chat threads to one clear system that brings the whole team together, and what that could mean for your company.
How many times have you asked your team, “Where are you at?” and then waited for the answer? At ReemLink we asked that question every day, until we decided to let the system answer it.
We are a software company. We help businesses organize and automate their work. Yet inside our own team we faced the same problem many of our clients face: how do we hand out tasks, and how do we know what stage each piece of work has reached?
This is the story of the change we made to ourselves first.
What our day looked like before ReemLink Tasks
Tasks were handed out in chats and WhatsApp messages. Each of us received a task in a message, followed it up on our own, and told the manager what we had done when asked.
The manager reached out to us throughout the day to piece together the full picture: what had each person done? Where had they stopped? What was finished? How far along was the project?
This way of working led to problems that many teams will recognize:
- Scattered tasks: work was spread across many chats and hard to find again.
- Status by asking: knowing where things stood depended on questions and answers, not on a clear view in front of the manager.
- Constant interruptions: people were interrupted to explain what they had done instead of carrying on with their work.
- No single source: there was no one place that brought together tasks, projects and what had been completed.
The decision: build our own tool
Instead of bending the way we work to fit an off-the-shelf product, we chose to build a task management app made for our company and sized to our needs. We called it ReemLink Tasks.
What work looks like now
The manager now assigns tasks from one place, follows them, and sees what each person on the team is working on. At the end of the day, every team member submits a report of what they completed, whether tasks or projects.
The end-of-day report
One of the things that has helped us most in ReemLink Tasks is that every team member closes the day with a report of what they achieved. The benefit reaches everyone:
- The manager knows what was accomplished without having to ask.
- The team member has a record of their own effort.
- The company builds a clear history of the work that it can always refer back to.
What actually changed?
- 1Clarity: everything became explicit and visible, to the team and to the manager.
- 2Following up instead of chasing: the manager sees the status of the work directly, so there is no need to ask about it.
- 3Knowing what is expected: every team member knows their tasks and responsibilities without digging through messages.
- 4Ease: managing the work became much simpler and faster than it used to be.
What does this mean for your company?
Not every company needs a huge system. Sometimes the answer is a small tool designed around the size of your problem. If your team manages its tasks over WhatsApp and chats, and your manager spends part of their day asking how the work is going, this may be the right place to start.
And it is exactly what we do for our clients: we analyse how they work, then build custom systems and workflow automation that fit their needs.
