Learn to prioritize

Prepare to prioritize:

In order to prioritize, you need to prepare your priorities and related activities, so that you have a clear picture of what you need to prioritize. Here is one approach to take:

• Identify your priorities and goals - come up with a complete list, by thinking through these questions:

  • What are your personal priorities and goals? i.e. exercise, time with family, hobbies

  • What are your work priorities and goals? i.e. specific projects, improve certain skills

  • What are your manager’s priorities and goals? i.e. cross-group initiatives, business health, team culture

• Write down your deliverables for each priority and goal:

  • What physically needs to be delivered for each priority? i.e. a service, a presentation, a physical good

  • What other deliverables need to be achieved for each priority or goal? i.e. approval, a new soft skill, funding

• Break down each deliverable into smaller pieces, including milestones, actions, and resources.

  • What actions or milestones need to happen and when?

  • What is the order they need to happen in? What are the dependencies?

  • What resources (time, $, people) are needed for each action and milestone?

• Put these into a tracking tool, either your calendar, or project management app, or a mechanism that works for you. Ideally, the key items are on your calendar, blocking your time, so that you have allocated enough time to complete it. It depends on how many actions you have and how many priorities you’re managing. Set up one system and try it for a month to see what works for you.

Prioritize:

If you’ve prepared your priorities and goals down to your milestones, actions, and resources, you’re ready to prioritize. If you don’t have these, complete the preparation exercise above.

You will find that you need to prioritize daily and multiple times a day. To prioritize, I suggest asking yourself three questions:

1. What do I have time for? Do I have 5 minutes or 5 hours to complete something?

2. What resources are available to me, such as time, people, tools, etc.?

3. What action will have the most impact short-term and long-term; the most impact towards reaching your priorities and goals?

When asking yourself, what time and resources are available to you, consider the following:

• How much time do you really have? 5 minutes or 3 hours? and how does that compare to what time is needed for the actions?

• What resources do you have available to you to complete actions:

  • Do you have the mindset to complete the action?

  • Do you have the physical resources, including computer, papers, books, equipment, transportation, etc.?

  • Do you have access to the right people at that time?

  • Do you have the right environment to complete the action? i.e. quiet for phone calls, limited distractions, privacy

When asking yourself, what action will have the most impact towards reaching your priorities, consider the following:

• Of your priorities, which has actions or milestones due next?

• Of your priorities, which has actions or milestones that have a long lead time or dependency that requires you to get started now?

• Of your priorities, which actions can have the most impact at this time?

Sometimes, taking 15 minutes to complete three 5-minute activities, like sending emails or scheduling a meeting can be more impactful than 15 minutes on one activity. Weigh what will have the most impact, but only take a few minutes to prioritize, so you don’t waste that precious time debating.

This prioritization exercise will take longer at first and then it will speed up as you practice. It’s an artform, rather than a perfect science. Some days, you’ll nail it. Other days, you’ll wish you chose something else. But, you’ll learn and get better and better at prioritizing.

Action: Take time to prepare your priorities, deliverables, milestones, actions, and resources - this may take a couple of hours, but it’s worth it.

Take 10 minutes to map out your priorities for the day asking yourself about time, resources, and impact and then get started!

Here’s an example to make it real.

Priorities to milestones, resources, and actions:

• Priority: Build an online training program

• Goal: Launch an online program by October 11th

• Deliverables: an online program that participants can purchase and engage, learn from

• Milestones:

  • 8/17 - complete all written content, including worksheets and online lessons

  • 9/20 - complete all videos, including editing

  • 9/27 - upload all videos to online program, request feedback from participants

  • 10/4 - proofread entire online program, incorporate feedback

  • 10/11 - publish program

• Actions:

  • Write 2 lessons a day, including research, frameworks, worksheets, graphics

  • Create/edit a video for each lesson, incorporating stories

  • Request feedback

  • Proofread entire program end to end

• Resources:

  • Computer, Internet, Camera

  • Time: 90 minutes/lesson

  • People to give feedback

When prioritizing during the day, it helps to know the deliverables, milestones, resources, and actions, to answer what do I have time and resources for and what would make the most impact on my priorities and goals. If I have a 2-hour window available on my calendar, I can choose to exercise or work on the online program. I can see, are there other times in the day to do either? Then, decide how I want to use that time. If I have 30 minutes available, I can evaluate if I want to go on a short walk or spend 30 minutes writing content. If I already have a walk scheduled with friends, I’ll choose to write the online content.

Experiment and see what works for you. It takes practice.

Shifting Priorities:

Our priorities shift, sometimes on our own and sometimes by external factors.

Internal priority shifts:

• New ideas come to you, about work, about your role, about life and they seem worth exploring. This is exciting when it happens, but it can derail you from your previously identified priorities. So, evaluate with caution. Here are some questions to reflect on:

  • Is this potential new priority in alignment with your values? Your purpose? Your long-term vision?

  • Are you interested in this only because this is new and exciting? What does that tell you?

  • Why did you originally establish your old priorities and what’s important that you want to follow through with?

  • How can you prioritize and be true to you, to your commitments, both short-term and long-term?

  • As a result, do you want to add this new priority to your full list of priorities?

  • What can you do to make your old priorities more exciting?

  • Does anything come off of your priority list?

• Values change. You may determine that one priority is more important to you over another. Be aware of this and how it impacts your choices. For example, you may get injured, and recovery and health become more of a priority, including physical therapy. You may choose to spend more time doing physical therapy than one of your other priorities. Being aware of your value changes helps you make choices that will reach your goals and priorities.

External priority shifts:

• Organizational priorities change. Your organization may change their priorities, which may impact your work. As a result, your priorities change and you can follow the preparation process, looking at your priorities and goals, the deliverables, milestones and actions, time and resources.

• Manager priorities change. Similarly, your manager may decide to change your priorities for a specific reason. Follow the same process and look at your priorities and goals, the deliverables, milestones and actions, time and resources.

• Personal life changes. Something may change in your life with relationships, health, others’ health, parenting, job status, or a myriad of other things. Follow the same process, establish your priorities and goals, break it down into deliverables, milestones, actions, estimating time and resources, and add to a tracking tool. Then, you have this data to prioritize on a daily basis.

• World changes. Then, there’s the uncontrollable that may happen, such as a pandemic, natural disaster, or unplanned external events that can quickly shift your priorities. Follow the same process, establish your priorities and goals, break it down into deliverables, milestones, actions, estimating time and resources, and add to a tracking tool. Then, you have this data to prioritize on a daily basis.

Now, continue to prepare your priorities and goals and practice your prioritization on a daily basis.