Have you ever realized that you were working too hard or that the deliverables were not satisfactory? You know, you’re working on something, and at some point you feel bogged down, rushed, frustrated. And if it’s not you, it’s someone who gives you a file… Not in line with expectations or not delivered on time. It is for these situations that I use a prioritization tool.
Here’s my prioritization tool.
This two-part series begins with prioritization. Prioritizing well contributes to clear expectations.
The second article in the series will help you state your expectations clearly.
I have developed a priority system that works using two best practices:
- Eisenhower’s Matrix (the 34th president of the United States, former general in the army). In short, it’s four dials with the notions of importance and urgency that make it easy to decide what to do with a task (do, laissez-faire, delegate).
- The Agile Philosophy: Impact, Value, and Risk.
The Eisenhower Matrix
What I did in my tool was to add decision criteria that give indicators. Depending on the combination of indicators, you know exactly what to do with the task.
- Important – Urgent : To do
- Not Important – Urgent : To be delegated
- Important – non-urgent : Ideally to delegate if you have the time
- Not important – not urgent : Eliminate or delegate, it’s up to you to judge, regardless of the yellow/green combination. What is certain is that two green indicators are not on your to-do list, unless you make an informed choice.
This tool, a complete Excel file, which places the indicators for you, is available for download in the online training Developing your managerial courage and your ability to delegate.
How do I choose which tasks to delegate?
Here are five criteria for classifying your tasks:
- Impact
- Value
- Delay
- Risk
- Who
1. Impact (significance)
What will be the impact of completing the task? The greater the impact, the greater the task.
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- Are we waiting for you?
- Are you crashing the system by not delivering this task?
As a leader, make sure you’re putting oil into the system. If you block the system by not doing a task, put it at the top of your list, related to its deadline.
To decide whether to put red, yellow or green: green has little or no impact on the others/medium yellow/red will crash the system.
2. Value (significance)
What value is created for the organization by carrying out this task? The more value there is, the more important it is.
The value of a task is related to the satisfaction of customers or people “at the end” of your task. Does this really make a difference to the purpose of the business, to the customers?
• Is this task related to an organizational objective?
• Does it facilitate the success of the organization?
To decide whether to put red, yellow, or green: green has little value to the organization/yellow moderately/red can even hurt the achievement of organizational goals.
3. The deadline (urgency)
What is the actual time frame for doing this task? The closer the deadline, the more urgent the task.
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- Do you tend to assume that tasks are urgent?
- Are you used to validating deadlines?
- Or do you have a habit of revalidating the need when a task has been on your list for a long time?
You might be surprised.
Once, someone asked me to create a tailor-made training service offer. His need was not very clear. He had just had the idea. He wanted something to talk to his partner. It was urgent. Style yesterday, but possible today. 🙂
As I talked, I tried to understand what was at stake. We had to convince a partner, but the need was not clear on what.
On my side my schedule was full, and providing him with something relevant would have taken 4-6 hours and his help. He didn’t have time. Me neither. The timing was not there.
I shared with him that to be more relevant, I would like to take some time. I proposed a time slot the following week. He told me: no problem.
In 5 minutes, we went from an urgent, vague request, on which I would have worked for hours without really results, to an appointment made a few days later.
What it took on my part: having the courage to discuss, propose and find an agreement that was satisfactory for both of us.
A task that is considered “urgent” often tends to disappear.
A task that has been on a list for a while benefits from being revalidated (need, relevance, deadline).
Validate the importance of the task AND the urgency.
To decide whether to put red, yellow or green: green you have more than 25 days / yellow 15-25 days / red 15 days and less. You can adjust the deadlines for your reality!
4. Risk (emergency)
What is the risk associated with this task? The higher the risk, the more urgent it is.
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- What could be lost? An employee? Money? Credibility for the organization?
- Is there a legal risk?
To decide whether to put red, yellow or green: green no risk of losing anything / yellow you have to act and there is time / red you have to be in action without further delay!
5. Who
In the “who” there are two questions. The first is: who could do this task if it wasn’t you, and the second is: who would do the task.
The idea here is to create clarity on your list, and that clarity will serve two purposes:
1- See which tasks could be delegated more easily, to what type of profile.
2- See the tasks you keep because you love them and they are part of your comfort zone. Of course, you can keep tasks that are comfortable, though, if they represent the majority of what you do.
Discover the tools on the comfort zone and organizational change management, which will help you make it easier to accept change in the Manage Change and Transformation online training.
Conclusion
Knowing in a calm way what to do, what not to do or to delegate is essential to good management of your time, value and hours worked!
Take care of yourself, others and respect your time by being more aligned with organizational needs by putting the prioritization tool into practice.