Supercharge Your Ability to Prioritize
With so many demands on our time, it feels like prioritization is the secret sauce of unlocking our productivity. And I’ve seen the demands on clients’ schedules become even more intense with shifts to working from home, virtual schooling, extended work-loads, and asynchronous meetings.
In sessions with clients, I hear them talk themselves through one of two scripts:
“I have so much to do, and I don’t know where to start.”
“I have to get this one thing done today, but I have so many competing commitments.”
These two scripts are a really important part of knowing how to move forward. Each reflects a common way that clients struggle with their priorities. The first script comes from people who have a sense of what they need to do, but they struggle to declare what matters most and move into action. The second script portrays people who know what matters most but feel burdened by the noise of other commitments and demands on their time.
Before we go on, take a moment to get clear about which group you tend to be part of.
Are you feeling overwhelmed with what needs to get done?
Or do you know what needs to get done but struggling to quiet the din of other needs?
Looking deeper, it’s important to understand to what degree they struggle with perfectionism and expect all of their work to be done to the same quality.
So again, take a moment and consider;
Does everything you do need to be done to the same, exacting standard?
Or are you comfortable with good enough for some things and your best effort for others?
To help clients supercharge their prioritization skills, I encourage them to combine two simple tools to create a new list of how much key tasks matter and at what quality. My final recommendation for all of my clients is the same set of tools, but the tools work differently for each group, so it’s important to be clear about which group you’re part of for each tool to be the most effective for you.
Tool #1: A 1-3-5 List
The tool itself is very simple. In essence it is a list of nine items in three categories of importance: one essential item, three important items, and five nice-to-have items.
Simple, right?
The magic comes from adhering to strict definitions for each category and calibrating your sense of success to them.
Essential items matter all by themselves; if you only complete this one goal, your day will have been successful.
A performance conversation with an employee
A final review of a project before it ships to a client
Having a conversation with a loved one to reconnect after an argument
Important items are elements of important goals or ground work for an essential item; completing one or more of these makes your day wildly successful.
Creating a first draft of a project plan
Documenting employee performance concerns for a future conversation
Prepping for a meeting you are leading next week
Nice-to-have items range from things that need to get done and aren’t pressing to things that are fulfilling for their own sake
Scheduling lunch with a close friend
Buying plane tickets for a future vacation
Listening to a podcast recommended by your mentor
The emphasis for each of these categories is how much impact will completing this one task make on your goals and commitments, rather than how long it takes to complete. An essential item may only take a few minutes to do, but they are the few minutes that will matter most that day (i.e., apologizing to a loved one after an argument).
There are no rules on how you capture your 1-3-5. Some of my clients write them on post-it notes, others use paper notebooks with daily entries, and others use digital to-do lists. I personally prefer using a digital to-do list with priority flags (Todoist) because it’s readily accessible on my phone or computer and is easy to update.
There is also no secret formula for creating your 1-3-5. Your best approach at first is to make a basic list of what you need to do and then assign it to one of the three categories. Over time, it will be more clear and easier which category a task belongs to and how to focus your time on that task.
Tool #2: an 80-20 List
I have a lot of clients who struggle with perfectionism or are recovering perfectionists, and for them an 80-20 list (based on the Pareto Principle) sets their to-do list into high gear. The Pareto Principle states that 20 percent of the work results in 80 percent of the impact, and vice versa 80 percent of the work results in 20 percent of the impact.
Applied to a to-do list, it suggests that 80 percent of what we do will be successful if it is good enough, while 20 percent of what we do matters most and deserves our best effort.
For some, this may already be how you approach your work. For others, it may be a real struggle to deliver “good enough” on 80 of their work. For both groups, the magic of this tool happens when you combine it with a 1-3-5. The result is a 1-3-5 / 80-20 list.
Creating a 1-3-5 / 80-20 List
There are a few things happening when we prioritize. First and foremost, we are focusing our intention on what matters most. Second, we are using that intention to focus where we spend our time and attention. And third, we are giving ourselves a way of measuring and celebrating our progress and success.
Part of the reason that my clients find the 1-3-5 tool effective is because it forces them to limit their focus to only nine items and get clear for themselves how important those items really are. With a little practice, they get good at cutting fluff from their lists and only choosing items that deliver the most value to their goals and commitments. Added to the the 80/20 list, helps them define the quality of what they produce and where they can save time and effort on less impactful items.
On any given day, you may have fewer than nine items, but never more. In rare flashes of productivity, you may clear your whole list and start looking at items to add. However, if you are consistently clearing your list or consistently creating a list of only 80 percent items, you most certainly have an opportunity to choose more challenging and important items.
Prioritization at Scale
Hopefully, by now you are clear on what this tool is and how it works for you on a daily to-do list. The next step is to apply the 1-3-5/80-20 in your life at scale, around time and outcomes.
On the level of time that means setting daily, weekly, monthly, or annual goals for yourself and your team. On the level of outcomes that means setting goals for meetings, projects, and relationships.
Imagine what it might look like to define which relationships in your life are essential, important, and nice to have and which of those you should focus an intense 20 percent of your effort versus a good enough 80 percent.
Two Final Thoughts
A natural outcome of more intention prioritization is the need to also de-prioritize anything that doesn’t make your list of priorities. This can be especially difficult for those of us who struggle with giving every task 110% (aka perfectionists). But de-prioritization is part of what creates the space and bandwidth for you to focus on the things that really matter and allow you to get those done.
I encourage you to use this process of creating 1-3-5/80-20 lists to notice which tasks (or projects or relationships) take an outsized effort based on their importance or impact and take this opportunity to de-prioritize them. Let the tasks, goals, projects, and relationships that draw you into them get more of your effort, and the tasks that require you to force yourself to do them get less of you, so you can find more joy and fulfillment in the things you do spend your time on.
Finally, once you make your 1-3-5/80-20 give yourself the permission to really commit to it and let go of everything that isn’t on that list without apology. Other essential, important, and nice-to-have things will come up, and they can make their way onto a future list.