41. Horizontal and Vertical Action Management

It’s likely that you have more internal commitments than you are aware of. From answering emails to taking out the trash, from making a presentation to seeing an aging parent, all of these are on your mind at any given moment. Every time you fail to do one of these or leave one unfinished, it stays on your mind and adds to your stress level. Why? Basically, because of three things: You haven’t clarified exactly what the intended outcome is. You haven’t decided what the very next physical action step is. You haven’t put reminders on the outcome and the action required in a system you trust.

You need to control commitments, projects and actions horizontally and vertically. Horizontal management means keeping track of all the things and activities that you need to do – go to the drug store, visit your aunt, have lunch with a friend, water the plants, finish a paper, shine shoes, buy stamps, and others. In fact, you may be surprised at the volume of things you need to deal with in just one day.

You need to have a system to help you keep track of most of these things, supply the right information when you need it, and to allow you to shift focus from one thing to the next, quickly and easily. Vertical management or vertical control means being able to think up and down the track of various individual projects and commitments. This is project planning in its broad sense. It’s focusing in on a single endeavor, situation or person, and fleshing out the details, priorities and sequence of actions required to handle it.

jobs and careers several times for continual growth Aside from work, you are probably trying to do several other personal A highly centralized company may need to provide similar types of rewards across business units and variable pay linked to overall company performance. By contrast, a virtual organization, in which there are few boundaries between the company, suppliers and customers, may be able to offer more flexible rewards.