The two ways I prioritise like a computer

Ahoy,

I bet you know how to prioritise but you’re still not doing it…

I know this because I had to keep reminding my boss to do it! More on that in a bit…

As a leader you are responsible for all your normal day to day tasks, as well as your team, and their tasks!

And lets not forget the random little fires that continuously pop up through out the day that you have to put out.

It’s a lot.

And once upon a time, someone told you that you need to prioritise.

I’m sure it sounded like good advice.

But you’ve subconsciously realised something over time…

Everything seems like a priority all the time.

That new thing that pops up unexpectedly takes the new top spot. What was top drops down to number 2. And this cycle completes leaving all your tasks open with your head spinning all over the place!

I use two methods to make sure I’m able to prioritise correctly.

1. The Eisenhower matrix

2. First In First Out (FIFO)

You may have seen the Eisenhower matrix before. It’s a fairly popular tool shared with many professionals.

It’s a fairly easy to follow system that ensures you’re focusing your time on the most important tasks.

As a slight side note: I had a boss at one point who I had to draw this out for them, sometimes twice a day!

They would be caught up doing no end of nonsense that would distract them from the main jobs they needed to do by the end of the day. Often they would have to stay late because they had failed to prioritise the tasks appropriately.

We had a good relationship and so they didn’t take it too badly when I passive aggressively drew this out in their notebook!

Lets look at it from bottom to top.

Really simply, if its not important and doesn’t need doing anytime soon… Just drop it.

If it’s not important but is still urgent… Delegate it. And to add context here, we don’t mean just any task that’s not important, I mean it doesn’t have to be done by you.

For example, doing the weekly update is important, but it might not need to be done to you, therefore you can delegate it and focus on the important work i.e., the work that needs to be done by you.

If it’s important but not urgent… Schedule a time for it.

And finally, if it’s urgent and important (must be done by you) do it now!

Now this is great if you come into work in the morning and all your tasks for the day are written out for you and they all fit nicely in these boxes.

But what about the fires that always pop up?

If you have to receive the task at that moment, i.e., the job is given to you in a call you had to take, then you need to prioritise it in this grid quickly.

If it’s anything other urgent and important then park it for now.

If it is urgent and important and what you’re doing isn’t, then stop what you’re doing and work on the new thing.

But if what you’re doing is also urgent and important, then FIFO.

This is a really simple process, stolen from the world of computer science and operating systems. We work on one job until it’s complete, then the next and so on - Easy.

Focus on what you’re doing. Get it done then move on.

Switching between tasks will slow everything down. So make sure it’s recorded and you have the details. Then come back to it when you’ve finished.

If you decide that this is how you will organise your tasks daily, then you’ll prevent yourself from getting overwhelmed.

You’ve already decided how you’re going to handle fires, so you don’t have to stress deciding where to go next.

I’d encourage you all to give this a go.

Try it for a few days and see how you get on with it. The fact that it actively encourages you to delegate more also empowers your team. Make sure that you’re not just throwing every rubbish job at them because you just cant be bothered. But try to empower with real responsibility.

Let me know how you get on!

I’d love to hear if this is something you’ve used before or if you’re just trying it out for the first time, is it helping?

As always, have a great day!

Reece