See every field mark on one sheet

Pick the drawing and the page covering the area you are working, and check the revision indicator beside it before you read anything off the page.

Why: Marks are recorded against a page, not a project, so being on the right page of the right sheet is the whole basis of what follows. The revision matters too, because a snag raised against revision B can be describing a detail that revision C already deleted.

Switch the five overlays on and off, punch pins, plan pins, markups, takeoff measurements and photos, and read the count each one carries for this page. Turn the noisy ones off when you want to look at one kind of mark on its own.

Why: Every trade records into its own tool, so the full picture only exists in somebody's head. Seeing that one stair core carries nine punch pins, two markups and no photos at all tells you in a second what a walk round the building and four separate registers would take an afternoon to say.

Click the exact point on the sheet and drop a plan pin there with the note that makes it actionable. If you put one down in the wrong place, open it and remove it, the page is not a document you have to reissue.

Why: A note that reads crack near the lift lobby sends the next person hunting along forty metres of corridor. A pin sitting on the drawing at the point in question is unambiguous, and it still means the same thing to somebody who was not on the walk with you.

Click a pin to read its detail on the sheet, then take the ones that need chasing into the punch list, where an item carries a priority, an owner and a status through to closure.

Why: The plan room shows you what has been recorded, it is not where work gets closed out. Marks that never become owned items are exactly the ones still sitting on the drawing at handover, with nobody able to say whether they were ever fixed.