Ask any leader what their key functions are, and undoubtedly somewhere in the list you will hear about problem solving and/or setting the vision, the strategies, and the goals for the organization. While these are critical tasks, and ones we will talk about further in another article, there is another piece to this puzzle – priorities.
In our fast-paced environments, you and your team will be faced with a multitude of tasks, projects, objectives, and desires to be completed. Nearly all of these will have a deadline of some sort, and many of them will be the dreaded “as soon as possible” – which is ultimately very vague. As soon as possible as… what? As a single person’s time allows? As other projects allow? Or tomorrow because there’s a client deliverable? As many teams face increasing constraints, you may very well find your team (or yourself) with a laundry list that exceeds the limit of being able to “do it all.” At least, you will not be able to do it all and do it well!
This is where priority management comes in. First and foremost, you must recognize – and help others in your organization realize – that not everything can be top priority. There is a saying you have undoubtedly heard: “If everything is a priority, then nothing is.” Unfortunately, that mentality is often not well followed in the business world. Regardless of how much effort is put in, there are a finite number of hours in a day, and a shorter number of healthy productive hours. This is then coupled with limited resources and conflicting demands on our time. Setting appropriate priorities is not a luxury, it’s a must. You must also let go of perfectionism and learn the balance of good enough for the demands and the time available.
So, let’s talk about the how. How do you determine priority for the team?
Five Questions to Help Determine Priority
When you are faced with a list, you must evaluate the following:
- What is necessary?
- What things in your list are required by law or regulation, standards, external deadlines, etc.? For example, the filing of taxes is required and has a deadline. It is a necessity that requires priority. Completing documentation for HR related activities is a necessary part of business.
- What is urgent?
- What items have the nearest approaching deadlines? If no official deadline is declared, which item carries the greatest urgency for completion? Is that urgency self-imposed or externally imposed?
- What moves us along the path to our vision?
- Does the task in question address a goal or a strategy?
- How long has the item been on the to-do list?
- If it’s been there a while, you must evaluate whether it needs to move in priority, or if it needs to be removed from the list.
- And throughout all of these questions, the overarching one… “why“?
- Why are we doing something? Is it adding value? Why is something urgent?
Triaging Your Priorities
There are numerous tools available to aid you in prioritizing workload. I am personally a proponent of the concept of “relentlessly triage” that I found during a TED Talk given by Dr. Darria Long (you can view the video here). Her triage method is based on emergency room triage:
- Red: Immediately life-threatening
- Yellow: Serious, but not immediately life-threatening
- Green: Minor
- Black: Things you must step away from
The idea is that you constantly reevaluate the list to determine which things need attention NOW (as in, really, truly, house is on fire, right now). Then which things really need attention but can stand by while you deal with the current crisis. Followed by the things you should get done or you want to get done. And then black – the things that you really don’t have time for, and you simply must decline or hand to someone else.
What I love about this approach is that the list is fluid and evolving. Things move between the different stages, and you are always aware of what actually needs attention. You can let go of “I should be doing…” Is that “should” a green item, and there’s a yellow you still have to address? Easy prioritization.
All credit to Darria Long. Seriously, go check out her Ted Talk.
Other Priority Tracking
As I noted, there are other priority management tools out there you can utilize. A popular one is the priority matrix, also known as the Eisenhower Matrix. While the grouping doesn’t align directly with the triage categories I noted above, there are parallels.
I also use a personal daily task / journaling method so every day I know what I’m going to focus on. I tend to follow a general rule of three. Each morning, I evaluate the giant list of priorities (inevitably a combination of emails I have flagged for follow-up, meetings on my calendar, several approaching deadlines, and the background hum of things I want to accomplish). I pick out three things that I want to focus on that day using the triage method noted above combined with questions to determine priority.
- How urgently does something need to be done? Is it due today, and is it critical? (Is it red?)
- How important is it? (Is it yellow?)
- How long has it been lingering on my list. (Is it green, but aging?)
You can view my version of the journaling & task tracking in my templates / printable section, or you can directly download a full-page or half-page version. I don’t utilize colors in my task list, but they are always in my mind.
This isn’t to say that curveballs don’t get thrown into the mix. There have been plenty of days when a “fire drill” comes along well after I had my priorities mapped, but in those cases, I fall back on the relentlessly triage mentality. That fire drill may be a red item that needs to be addressed now, which means the green task I wanted to tackle gets pushed off to tomorrow. The key takeaway it to keep prioritizing so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Speaking of journaling, I touch on why journaling is a good mechanism to help with tenacity here.
A Final Word of Caution
Another factor that I have seen cause burnout and attrition within an organization is what I refer to as “shiny penny syndrome” or the “magic bullet problem.” A new idea comes along, and it garners a lot of excitement and attention because it is pitched as the answer to current challenges. Everyone swings the focus from things that are in progress to the new idea. This frequently means people are given a new set of priorities with new deadlines – and usually without changing or acknowledging the other work in progress. I believe that there is a time and a place to change direction once a course is laid. After all, not every plan can be an absolutely success! However, if you constantly shift priorities and fail to see projects through, you will inevitably cause frustration and fatigue. You must allow (or force) a project to come to completion for the feeling of accomplishment, the opportunity to evaluate the outcomes, and allow for change management to properly settle.
As a leader, you must advocate for your team. Ensure that you are watchful for the shiny penny and speak up on behalf of your team if there are things causing jeopardy. Be wary that you aren’t generating the pennies yourself! Talk with your team about new ideas, discuss how they can fit in, around, or replace other existing work. Be open to feedback and discuss options to help manage the shifting priorities. A voice of dissent would be a good thing here!
Facing a shifting and dynamic list of things to do is a common phenomenon at work and in life. Being able to prioritize and shift priorities are skills that will ultimately help you adapt to life’s rapid changes, and maybe lower your stress in the process.
