A number of my last few posts have focused on thinking big, and a wise reader pointed out that with all of the dreaming and visioning he has been doing at my bequest, he’s falling hopelessly behind in his work. 

Fair point, so grab a cup of something hot, along with a pen and paper, and don’t get too comfortable.  After all, who has time to read blog posts all day, when there’s work to be done!  This one’s short and sweet!

Organize, Prioritize and Execute:

In my opinion, there’s still no substitute for the list.  It doesn’t matter if you create it on your p.c., on a notepad or on your iphone, just create one and use it to guide where you focus your time.

I create one every week, and I refer to it constantly as a means to re-establish direction after the phone calls, interruptions and unexpected but inevitable crises do everything possible to keep me from focusing on my priorities.

I use a basic “A,B,C” prioritization scheme that I learned a million years ago in a time management seminar, although I’ve added my own criteria for differentiating between priorities. 

It’s simple.  Jot down your long list of things to do and then force rank them as top priorities (A’s), important (B’s) and someday, maybe (C’s).  If you are working this right, you end up with a few top priorities, a healthy quantity of important items and at the base of the pyramid, a large number of things that would be nice to get to someday. Fair warning, not everything is an A priority, and this is where your criteria are critical in helping you differentiate between items on the To-Do list.

The theory says that you should pick an A and work on it until completion, and then pick the next A.  It works.  It’s actually liberating to allow your brain to momentarily forget about all of the other items and issues vying for your time as you focus on what you’ve reasonably defined as your top priority. 

By prioritizing, you also avoid the really bad habit that so many people have of cherry picking the list and crossing off the maximum number of items.  Note: the easiest items are usually not the most important.  

As your role changes in your career, the criteria for the ranking should change as well. Your very few A priorities need to include a preponderance of people issues.  Here are mine: 

The 5 Criteria that Define A-List Priorities of the Leader:

1.  Performance feedback and developmental discussions with individuals and teams

2.  Fulfilling on responsibilities as an executive sponsor for project teams

3.  Communicating results, clarifying strategy, and calibrating on goals with individuals and teams

4.  Reaching out to customers or responding to customer issues

5.  Brainstorm discussions that focus on innovation around improving the customer experience and increasing customer value.

—

While at first glance my list might seem fairly broad for defining a top priority, it really does help you build your calendar around the right topics.  This gives you the courage to say “no” to the endless stream of status meetings and update calls that you are invited to and it also defines for your direct reports the types of topics that they should draw you into for help or input. 

As a pragmatist, you know that “stuff happens” during the course of a week, and it is likely something will jump suddenly to the top of the list.  Hey, the boss has been known to call and the Board might just want an update.  A little bit of flexibility might just save or enhance your job!

I’ve been a career-long sales and marketing type and externally focused, so if you are internally oriented, you might choose some different words establish slightly different criteria.  However, as a leader, these 5 for me have stood the test of time.  If they don’t fit, chances are that they are a B, and I’ll worry about them later.

Now it’s time to get busy.  And yep, I do get to cross one of my A priorities off the list.  Leadership Caffeine for the week: done!

Have a great and productive week!

-Art