Managing Competing Priorities When Everything Is Important

I’m guilty, are you? Our email inbox fills up with items that we always intend to “get to later”. Our daily planners have action items both immediate and long range. We make lists and put sticky notes on our desks or other surfaces to remind us of all of the things we need to complete. Add to that, the list of personal commitments and responsibilities or the challenge of doing the “job” at the expense of “building” the business. It’s no wonder that we find ourselves exhausted and frustrated when the list or lists just seem to be getting longer and longer.

The notion of prioritizing tasks, actions and requests is very familiar. Most planners and calendar programs have the capability of assigning a priority to items entered. Unfortunately, during the course of the day, other items and requests come into the picture and the list that was developed so carefully is pushed to the side with an “I’ll come back to this later.” Whether or not the list is completed depends largely on how late the writer is willing to work that evening or what other priority gets sacrificed.

One of the primary concepts of the quality methodology of Lean Manufacturing derives from the Japanese concept of “housekeeping” for the workplace. The approach referred to as the Five S’s is commonly anglicized to the following:

• sort
• straighten
• shine
• standardize
• Sustain

By stepping out of the literal definition of the words, we can see a useful approach to managing priorities that compete for our time.

1. SORT-Create a list of everything that you need or want to do. Try to make it as all inclusive as possible. Look beyond specific daily tasks or deliverables and the ad-hoc requests that come across your desk. As you create your list, be sure to include the actions that will move you toward specific goals that you have for your career or business. Too frequently, we allow the daily to-dos to take over and thus ignore those positive action steps that will have the greatest impact on our future. Sort the list broadly in terms of what it means to things that are important. For example, using the terms “Step”, “Stretch” and “Leap” we might assign “Step” to all of the daily tasks and one-off things that we need to do because they are requirements of our daily responsibilities. “Stretch” might be used to describe the ideas and actions that are needed to accomplish short-term personal or professional goals. Finally, “Leap” refers to the items that will propel us toward much greater accomplishments.

2. STRAIGHTEN-Organize your list. Let’s apply the concept to ‘tidying’ up our To-Do list before filling in our planners. I recently read an approach to regaining and maintaining control of your email inbox. Like the 5 S’s it is an alphabetical catch-phrase, the Four D’s! Simply ask yourself what you would or could do with each item.

Do you:

• DO IT
• DELEGATE IT
• DEFER IT
• DUMP-IT

What are the things you really need to do
personally? Even if you could do it or do it most expediently, who else could you ask? Next, ask your self how many things must be done
right now. When someone calls unexpectedly during the day and asks you to take care of something, how often do you drop everything to respond simply because you assume that it needs to be done right now? If you are unsure of the deadline, ask the requestor or perhaps contact them with some timetable options. Finally, ask yourself if it needs to be
donate at all. If it has been deferred 2 to 3 times, perhaps it is unpleasant or unnecessary. If the task is unpleasant yet important, put it right at the top of your list. Completing the actions that are put off because they are unpleasant give the greatest sense of accomplishment. On the other hand, it is possible that you have things hanging around your to-do list that simply are not important anymore. If they are no longer important, they have no place in your list. Working backwards, get rid of the
Dump It items. You don’t need these unnecessary items cluttering up your actions. If it is a
Defer It, mark it as such and set a time to revisit it. For those marked
delegate, pass it on now and take it off your list as well. What you are left with is a streamlined list of actions that are most important to you and have the opportunity to make the greatest positive impact.

3. SHINE-In housekeeping terms or on the factory floor, this component refers to a tidy, and organized workspace. Think of ways, you can ‘clean up’ you to do list. If you have sticky notes posted around your work space, plus a planner, plus a notepad list, consolidate to a single location. Consider blocking sections of your planner to devote to categories of activities rather than specific activities. If you are a visual person, color coding the blocks will help highlight the times that you make available for “Step”, “Stretch” and “Leap” activities. Don’t forget your personal time. You have steps, stretches and leaps there too.

The ratio of how much time is blocked for each category is up to you. A word of caution, take care not to let the “Steps” cannibalize your calendar and cause you to neglect the decisions and actions that will really move you forward. Priorities compete because they are seldom sequential. They need to be balanced and managed simultaneously. No matter how hard you work, if you try to finish the “Steps” before moving on to the “Stretches”, you will find that more “Steps” have filled in to consume your time and you will not spend any time on the actions that will truly transform your life, career or business.

Next, sort the activities within each category by priority. Use a prioritization process that works for you to rate the importance of each item relative to others in that group. For example, prioritize the “Step” items against other “Step Items”. This is important. The daily tasks and ‘fire drills’ are not more important than the medium and long term actions you need to take. They just seem that way because they are current and at the top of your mind. Giving them constant priority over the things that will develop you or your business shortchanges both. After you have assigned priority to each of the items within a particular group, slot them into the appropriate blocks in your planner.

4. STANDARDIZE-Once you work out the process that works for you to organize, prioritize and action the things that compete for your attention, apply it consistently. Since this is a personal process, you may not feel a need to document it, however, you may want to create a system for logging or designating your decisions and a filing system to archive them.

5. SUSTAIN-This is the most critical yes. Whatever process you develop to decide and manage competing priorities, you need commitment. Like a new year’s resolution, make the commitment and stick to it. If you find the process too time consuming, strip it down. If trying to manage competing priorities over a long time horizon is too cumbersome, use the 5 ‘s to manage what you want to accomplish this month, this week, or just today. Respect the process that you have developed, use it consistently and don’t let the excuses of “I don’t have the time to do it” or “It’s too complicated” allow noise of all of those priorities to drown out what you need and want to do to be successful.