Earlier in my career, my wife and I lived in a small apartment in Queens, New York. At the time, we had two young children. Our two-bedroom apartment was less than 800 sq ft and had a total of three small closets.
We had no room for storage, so any new item we bought or received was scrutinized for size and functionality because space was so limited. To make things fit, we had to get creative, eliminate something, or both.
In contrast, today, we live in a house with a large basement. That basement offers a seemingly unlimited amount of storage space, which fuels our tendency to accumulate stuff. Occasionally, we purge the basement, but inevitably, it fills up again and again! I feel we are not the only ones with this problem.
I find that humans are built to add more stuff to our lives…in our basements and on our “to-do” lists. Without constraints, like a limited number of closets, there is no end to the number of things we can add to our plates. This is especially true in our work lives, with new initiatives, tasks, requests, emails, texts, proposals, reports, and meetings being constantly added. What do we pay attention to? How do we prioritize and manage our workload?
After working with thousands of leaders seeking to optimize their productivity, we’ve compiled the seven most important questions to help you prioritize your work. As long as you watch out for the main pitfalls to prioritization, you’ll be on your way to optimal productivity in no time.
7 QUESTIONS TO PRIORITIZE YOUR WORKLOAD:
1. Does this help accomplish my goals?
Identify your top 3-5 goals, whether they are long or short-term. Make sure you can draw a very clear connection between the new assignment or idea and your goal. If you cannot identify a clear connection, either pause or stop moving forward. Keep in mind that just because you want to do something, if it is not aligned with your top performance goals, then think twice before spending much time on it.
2. Does this matter to my boss?
You need to balance and know the demands of your team, your peers, and your customers. But in the end, your boss’s perspective comes first. Be clear about the expectations (and probe deeper if they’re not clear). Understand her pressures, hopes, and concerns, and keep those top of mind as you prioritize your workload.
3. DOES THIS ALIGN WITH MY JOB DESCRIPTION?
As much as you want to think or play outside of your job duties, ground yourself first with your core job functions. Most jobs can be divided into 4-5 buckets of work. Make sure you are spending the majority of your time fulfilling the primary responsibilities of your position (the major buckets of work).
4. Does this make the organization money and/or reduce costs?
In the end, the organization needs to bring in more than it spends. Consider how the action or idea will impact the financial situation of the organization. Not every project or effort will have an obvious ROI, but projects with more financial impact to the organization should get more attention.
5. DOES THIS HELP MY TEAM BE SUCCESSFUL?
Great leaders foster a healthy team climate Decisions you make can either greatly inspire or disengage your team members, influencing whether they deliver their best every day. Prioritize efforts that create safe, trusting, and open team environments. Spending time to clarify expectations, offering needed resources, and providing feedback are essential for a leader to have a successful team.
6. DOES THIS REQUIRE ME TO STOP OR PAUSE SOMETHING ELSE?
Adding another task, meeting, or project will likely impact your time and your current workload. Compare the new task with everything else on your plate. Challenge yourself to move something off the list if it doesn’t align with your current focus. Identify what you will stop or pause whenever you decide to do something new—or else don’t add it.
7. Does this need to be done at all?
There are so many great ideas that should remain just an idea. Be careful about what gets pushed from the idea stage into the action stage. Also, sometimes current tasks or processes outlive their usefulness. Periodically identify actions that you no longer need or could do differently. We can get into a habit of doing the same thing when we actually should do it differently (or not at all!)
Ensure your energy is spent in the right way
Deciding what to add, change, and pause to your already full life is key to helping you be successful—for today and in the future. Too often you may see your life as an inviting basement ready to be packed with lots of stuff. However, the accumulation of to-dos deserves a prioritization method to ensure your energy is being spent in the right way.
We partner with companies to help them be more productive and keep the prioritization pitfalls in mind to prevent overextending yourself. Being proactive in effectively arranging your energy, attention, and time will benefit you, your team, and your organization!
