Signal & ScienceAcademy

Course 5 · Lesson 3 of 7

Mark work honestly: in progress or done

Mark a task done when execution finishes, and tell completed work that is awaiting measurement apart from work with a recorded result.

Lesson 3 of 7 in Run the Week
  1. 1Start with this week's move
  2. 2Know what done looks like
  3. 3Mark work honestly: in progress or done
  4. 4Move around the Marketing Plan
  5. 5Log a task outcome
  6. 6Read What changed and remember your decisions
  7. 7Review suggested changes before applying them

Why this matters

Done and measured are two different states, and the app keeps them separate on purpose. Marking a task done closes Execute for that task, and it also starts Measure: a measurable task's baseline is captured at that moment (or counts from zero once a published URL is saved on the task). Marking done days late shifts the baseline and the window; marking done early measures work that has not shipped. Blurred states are how a plan fills with done work that has no result.

When to use it

The moment you finish executing a task. Also midweek, when you want an honest picture of what has actually shipped.

Before you start

  • The work is genuinely finished (the post is published, the email is sent, the onboarding is live).
  • You know whether the task has a measurement contract (see Know what done looks like).

Do this

  1. 1Mark the task's checkbox. The execution state changes the moment you check it. (On a draft plan, an owner's or manager's first task action also activates the plan; an editor's activation goes to an owner or manager as an approval request.)
  2. 2Notice that a manual task stays un-dimmed while it awaits its number ("Task completed. Result still needed."). That is the done-but-no-result state. Integration-backed tasks fade like other completed work and show "Task completed. Measurement pending." while the product checks the result. The system is telling you the truth: execution finished, measurement hasn't.
  3. 3Check "YOUR PROGRESS SO FAR" on the plan to see how many results are tracked and which steps of the loop are complete.
  4. 4If the task is measurable, leave it alone until the window is ready. Logging early invents data (see Log a task outcome).
  5. 5If the task has no measurement contract, the done state is the whole story: completion proof only. Don't go looking for a metric that doesn't exist.

What you should see

Completed manual tasks awaiting a result stay un-dimmed; integration-backed tasks show that measurement is pending. "YOUR PROGRESS SO FAR" tracks the loop, not outcome proof.

How to judge it

You can look at the plan and say, for every completed task, whether it is completed and measured, completed but awaiting measurement, or completed without measurable proof. If you can't tell, the task isn't marked clearly.

What it does not mean

Done does not mean worked. Completion is execution, not proof that a business outcome improved, and a plan full of checkmarks is a shipping record, not a results record. An un-dimmed completed task has not gone wrong either: it is waiting for its number. And "YOUR PROGRESS SO FAR" tracks your progress through the loop, not marketing performance.

Try it in Signal & Science

Open the Marketing Plan, mark one finished task done, and check whether it is awaiting measurement.

Open in Signal & Science

Put it to work

Know what to do next.Know whether it worked.

Signal & Science keeps the evidence, the plan, and the results in one place, so each lesson here becomes a working habit in your own workspace.

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