Approvals in one place, not scattered across Slack

A head of marketing approves a lot of small things. A follow-up email, a LinkedIn post, a landing page, a change to a sign-up form. Each one is quick to approve. Finding it is the slow part.

The request is in a Slack thread from Tuesday, a direct message from this morning, and an email with "quick look?" in the subject. You answer the loud ones first. The quiet ones wait, and the work behind them waits too.

Why Slack pings are a poor approval system

• There is no single list. You cannot ask "what is waiting on me?" and get an answer.
• The thing to approve and the thing that explains it are often in different places.
• A thumbs-up emoji is not a record. Later, nobody is sure what was approved or whether the final version matches.
• The person asking cannot tell if you have seen it, so they ping again.

What an approval needs to be quick

Most approvals are slow because you have to go and gather the context before you can decide. If the request carries what you need, the decision takes seconds.

• What it is and what it will do, in one line.
• The actual content: the email text, the post, the page.
• The details that matter, such as who it goes to, from which address, and when.
• A clear way to say yes, say not now, or ask for more detail.

Keep one list and work it down

Whatever tools you use, the habit that helps most is a single place where everything waiting on you is visible, oldest first. You open it, clear it, and close it. You stop carrying the list in your head.

How Levric does it

Home in Levric has a "Waiting on you" list. Each item is a card that says what needs your OK, for example sending a webinar follow-up email to its registrants, with the To, From, Subject and When all on the card. A LinkedIn post card shows the post text and the time it will go out. Each card shows when it expires and gives you Not now and Details alongside the yes.

Chief prepares the work, but nothing goes out until a person approves it. The card is the approval, so the record of who said yes and what they said yes to is already there.