How to build a task tracking system for consultants with Foco

Independent consultants or small firms often juggle multiple clients, projects, and phases (diagnosis, implementation, follow-up) at once. Keeping track of each task without mixing deadlines or priorities is essential to meet commitments and avoid oversights. Foco is designed for this: it lets you group tasks by 'work' (client or project) and view them all at once or filter by one, with flexible views tailored to each consulting phase.

Step 1: Create a work for each client or project

In Foco, each client or project is a 'work' with a name and color. For example: 'Retail Consulting - Company X' (blue) or 'Digital Transformation Project - Client Y' (green). When you create a task, you simply select its work, and it will automatically appear with that color in all views. This prevents mixing tasks from different clients in a single generic list.

Step 2: Organize tasks by consulting phase

• Diagnosis: tasks like 'Initial client meeting', 'Data analysis', or 'Preliminary report delivery'. Use tags like #diagnosis or #meetings to filter them later.
• Implementation: 'Client team training', 'Solution development', or 'Pilot tests'. Useful tags: #implementation, #development, or #followup.
• Follow-up: 'Monthly metric review', 'Post-implementation adjustments', or 'Final report'. Tags like #followup or #closure help identify them quickly.

Tags are unlimited and color-coded, so you can create a visual system (e.g., #urgent in red, #meetings in yellow). In Kanban view, you can customize columns to reflect your methodology (e.g., 'To analyze', 'In progress', 'Client validation', 'Closed').

Step 3: Use views based on the time of day

• Panorama: ideal for starting the day. Shows all tasks from all works (clients or projects) in one screen, each with its work’s color. This gives you a quick overview of what’s pending across all fronts.
• Focus Mode: when you need to concentrate on one client or project, you enter its work, and the dashboard filters only its tasks. Useful for deep work sessions or client meetings.
• List View: groups tasks by date (Today, This week, Later, No date) and includes a collapsible section for completed tasks. Perfect for weekly planning or reviewing progress.
• Kanban View: customizable columns to reflect your workflow (e.g., 'Pending', 'Under review', 'Approved'). On desktop, you drag tasks between columns; on mobile, you use tabs.
• Calendar View: displays tasks and synchronized events from Google Calendar or Outlook in a weekly or monthly view. Useful for seeing deadlines and meetings in context.

Step 4: Capture tasks on the go

In consulting, ideas or pending tasks often arise during meetings, calls, or commutes. With Foco, you can dictate tasks by voice: say 'Follow-up meeting with Client X next Tuesday at 10, urgent priority, tag #followup', and the app transcribes the text, detects the date, time, priority, and tag, and creates the task with the audio attached. If you dictate multiple tasks in a row (e.g., 'Call supplier A, send report to Client B, prepare presentation for meeting'), the Burst feature separates them live and shows you the list to review before saving them all at once.

Step 5: Collaborate with clients or team members

Invite clients or colleagues to a specific work via email. Only accepted members can view and edit tasks for that work. You can also assign tasks to others (e.g., 'Client X, review draft report') or share a specific task via a public link, without granting access to the rest of Foco. This is useful for delegating or keeping clients informed without cluttering their inbox.

Why Foco outperforms generic alternatives

Many consultants use note-taking apps, spreadsheets, or task managers designed for a single project. The issue is that these tools aren’t built to separate contexts (clients, projects, phases) or to visualize everything at once or filter by one. For example:

• In a spreadsheet, mixing tasks from different clients in one tab leads to errors or duplicates. Separating them into tabs forces you to jump between them, and there’s no global view.
• In note-taking apps, tasks from multiple clients end up in an endless list without structure by phase or priority. There are no colors, unlimited tags, or views like Kanban or Calendar.
• In project management tools for large teams, the learning curve is steep, and they’re often optimized for a single project, not multiple ones at once.

Foco solves this with independent but connected works, flexible views, and features like voice capture or controlled collaboration. It also syncs events from Google Calendar or Outlook to show meetings and tasks in one calendar, something generic alternatives don’t offer without complex integrations.

Practical example: a day in the life of a consultant using Foco

• Morning: check Panorama to see all pending tasks (each with its client’s color). Filter by 'Today' in List View and prioritize urgent tasks.
• Midday: enter Focus Mode for the 'Digital Transformation - Client Y' project to prepare for a meeting. Use Kanban View to move tasks between columns ('In progress' to 'Client validation').
• Afternoon: dictate tasks during a commute (e.g., 'Send proposal to Client Z, high priority, tag #diagnosis'). Foco transcribes and creates them automatically.
• End of day: review the Calendar to see tomorrow’s meetings and adjust task deadlines if needed.