Makin' a List and Prioritize Twice
Making and Keeping Priority Job Lists
“What are your priorities?” “Let’s add that to our list of priorities” — I hear it all the time. And it’s just plain foolishness. It doesn’t make any sense to make the word “priority” plural. The very definition of “priority” is, “what is THE most important thing.” How can you have more than one most important thing? It doesn’t make any sense – and yet most of us say and live by this all the time.
We have trouble identifying the most important thing for two reasons. First, we are not always clear on what our goal is in any given moment or season. Second, we think of our tasks like children – and how could we ever pick our favorite one? We can’t. And so, with our tasks, we end up bouncing back and forth between different tasks, distracted and ineffective.
Whether for our own daily work or when setting strategic direction for an organization, we all face the choice of whether we will focus on our work at hand and where we focus our time and energy. There is certainly something to be said for the many things we must maintain and tend to. It is true that it is impossible to have only one thing to address. But multi-tasking is largely a myth – at least for me.
Here are four thoughts to help you make your list and prioritize the most important thing you are working on.
1. Ordering Tasks Requires Thought
It really takes thought to order the tasks by highest priority.
First, we must actually think about what our goal is. Which of the tasks that I have on my list will help me achieve my overall goal? What am I trying to accomplish today? This week? This quarter? This year? How does this task help me get to that goal? It takes time and thought to sit down and reflect on what our overarching goal is.
Secondly, on a much more practical level – I have two steps to manage my task list. Step One, I think about all the things that I must do and write them down by categories (projects, people, organizations, etc.). Then, I slowly go back over that list and try to decide what is the most important thing. This is largely an intuitive exercise for me. I balance thoughts like due dates, strategic value, and monetary impact and keep the balance and trade-offs. Step Two, the real secret sauce, is to set out to complete the top priority (or bring it to the next step in the process) before I let myself move on to the next item.
As a leader, for yourself or for others, whatever method you have, take the time to reflect on your goal, make your list, check it, and commit to working the list from the top priority down.
2. Avoid “Productive Procrastination”
This is when we avoid doing the most important thing because it’s hard or time-consuming or we just don’t want to do it—and fill that time with other, less meaningful tasks. In the end, this “productivity” is not really productive at all. For me, this looks like tending to my email, or checking my personal communications, or starting on another project that I like when I have a looming deadline for another project that is just hard. Those all feel productive, but the reality is as we create other things, we usually create more work to go along with them. Because we are procrastinating from getting the most important thing done, we are creating even more work that is keeping us from getting to the most important thing.
3. Set an Example for Others
By making your list and setting the order of priority and choosing always to start with #1 and work on it until it is done (or to a meaningful stopping point), you set an example for others around you. This will help you, as a leader, to be able to say through the powerful voice of action, “This is how we do things here. This is how we do things on our team. We tackle the most important thing, even if it’s hard, then we move on to the next most important thing.” Holding yourself accountable to defining and working on the most important thing sets a tangible precedent for those around you. It also helps create a culture where this becomes the standard expectation – to always ask, “What is the most important thing that I can be working on?”
4. Review Job Descriptions and Set Priority
To help your team members, take a look at their job descriptions and review or set the priority order. Ask yourself, “If these are the five things this person does, what is the number one thing? What is always the number one thing?” Then order the responsibilities on the job description in order of priority.
Recently, I worked with a dental clinic where we reviewed each job description and clarified that the tasks were always to be done in priority order. If there was an outstanding task of a higher priority, then pause what you’re doing and take care of the more important task, for the good of the overall team.
This can even be an effective way to outline weekly meetings with team members. Go over the items that you have to do, as you list those out, take some time to set the top priority and set the workflow for accomplishing the tasks in the most meaningful way. This simple step helps make it clear for the team: Walking out of this meeting, this is what I am going to tackle. This can certainly be a collaborative conversation, with all team members weighing in on the relative priority of each task.
All of this is designed to help keep ourselves and our team members better aligned to our overall goal and plan. Try it. I bet you will feel the real sense of accomplishment and relief from knocking off the important things on your task list instead of hitting the easy stuff but not making real or meaningful progress toward those items at the top of your list. When we tackle the most important thing and accomplish it, we end up building momentum and can knock some other things out—whereas, when we productively procrastinate, we continually feel the lingering pressure of the most important thing hanging over our heads.