You know, sometimes you just find yourself saying the same thing over and over. It’s like a broken record. And that’s pretty much what this “told 4” business is all about for me. It’s not a fancy system, just a way I’ve learned to deal with things, a practice I picked up, a story I guess.
I remember this one specific instance, a real classic “told 4” case. I needed this tiny piece of information, a confirmation on a spec, from a guy in another department. Let’s call him Dave. Seemed simple enough, right? Wrong.
- Told 1: I shot him an email. Nice and clear, subject line and all. Figured that’d do it. Silence for two days.
- Told 2: Okay, maybe he missed it. I sent a follow-up ping on the internal chat. “Hey Dave, just checking on that spec confirmation.” He replied, “Oh yeah, on it!” Great. Except, another day passed, nothing.
- Told 3: I actually picked up the phone. Old school, I know. “Dave, my man, need that spec info, it’s holding things up.” He sounded genuinely surprised, like he’d never heard of it. “Oh, right! Sorry, super swamped. I’ll get it to you by end of day, promise!” End of day came and went. Still zip.
- Told 4: This was it. I had to loop in my manager. My manager then had a chat with his manager, who then, presumably, had a word with Dave. Magically, the confirmation appeared in my inbox within an hour. The whole thing took nearly a week for what should have been a five-minute job. And yeah, I jotted down every step, every date. That’s my routine now.
Why I Bother With This Stuff
Sounds a bit much, right? Keeping tabs like that. But there’s a reason. It all goes back to this place I used to work at, a company we’ll call “Future Solutions.” Spoiler: their solutions were anything but futuristic, and mostly caused more problems.
At Future Solutions, man, it was a circus. Nothing, and I mean nothing, got done unless you hounded people relentlessly. If you didn’t, and something went south, guess who took the fall? Yep, the person who couldn’t prove they’d asked, and asked again, and then probably begged a little.
I learned that lesson the hard way. There was this big project, really important for my career path there, or so I thought. I needed some key data from another team. I asked politely. I followed up with emails. I even scheduled meetings they’d often “reschedule” at the last minute. Every time, I got the usual, “Yeah, yeah, we’re on it, nearly there.” They weren’t. Not even close.
So, when the whole project eventually crashed and burned – and it was a spectacular fire, let me tell you – the blame game started. “He never properly communicated the urgency!” they’d say. “We were waiting on his final input!” All utter nonsense. But I didn’t have a solid log, just my word against theirs. I was younger then, more trusting, less… organized in my despair.
That whole fiasco cost me a significant opportunity. It really knocked me back. I remember sitting in a review meeting, just getting hammered, because I couldn’t pull out a neat little timeline of my “told 1, told 2, told 3, told 4” attempts. It was awful.
So Now, I Just Do This
After I finally got out of Future Solutions, I made a promise to myself: never again. That’s when I started this habit of just quietly noting things down. Every important request, every follow-up, especially when it starts to feel like I’m talking to a particularly dense wall. It’s not about being a pain; it’s about having clarity. It’s about self-preservation, really.
This “told 4” thing, like with Dave and that spec, it’s not about trying to get anyone in trouble. It’s just a marker for me. It means the normal process isn’t working. It means I need to change tactics. And if things do go sideways, well, my notes are there. They speak for themselves, nice and calm.
Honestly, most of the time, it doesn’t even get to “told 4” these days. Maybe people just sense I’m organized, or maybe I’ve just gotten better at communicating upfront. But the practice is there, in the background. It’s a bit of a mental safety net, built from some pretty rubbish experiences. So yeah, “told 4” isn’t just some random number to me. It’s part of the toolkit. It’s just how I roll now, keeps things a bit more sane.
