I purposely wrote the word Prioritize three times above and you’ll soon see why. I’m going to make an assumption that every single person reading this is not getting to everything on their to-do list. While you might wish you could check off all the items, the good news is that it’s not necessary and probably not even desirable—and you can still be super productive and take care of business.
We’ll start with the macro level and I’m going to borrow from Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog here. The first thing you need to do is determine what are the three most important functions that you and only you can perform best. Brian Tracy refers to these as the Law of Three.
If you’re an IT consultant, that might be 1) working with customers, 2) learning about new technology, and 3) drumming up new business. If that’s the case, doing anything else—like bookkeeping or filing—becomes a poor use of your time and you should cut it out altogether, delegate it or outsource it. If you’re me (and lucky for you, I’m the only one who is), those three functions are 1) client care, 2) sales and marketing, and 3) staff care.
I’m willing to bet that if you take 60 seconds right now to figure out your own three most important tasks, you’ll be able to do it. They tend to be pretty obvious. So go ahead and do it.
On to the micro level. Within each of those functions there are many, many to-dos. For example, client care for me means talking with clients about their business support needs, matching them with the best staff member, following up to see how things are going, and responding to any communication from them.
So, how to manage all those pieces? I have a notebook that contains all of my to-dos, whether they be urgent or not-so-urgent. Each morning, out of that notebook I create a daily to-do list. Since I know I won’t get to everything, I further prioritize the items using the ABCD system. (Also from Brian Tracy.) A = I must do today; B = I should do today; C = It would be nice to do today; D = Don’t do it. Ds never get onto my to-do list.
The week before last when I was exceptionally busy and my to-do list included attending to new customers as well as writing a newsletter, my customers were the priority. I have always had a clear sense of priorities but the Law of 3 and ABCD systems have given me a really easy way to think about my priorities and make sure I focus on them. If you don’t already have a system that’s working for you, I suggest you try this one out.
If you do have a system you like, what is it? I’d love to hear!
Prioritizing can be tough, but definitely vital. Renee Trudeau spoke of this too this week during a RISE session, referring to it as “my 3 80% activities.” In other words, these 3 things get 80% of her attention each week. I wrote the following for me:
1. Research business software solutions
2. Marketing and Sales (includes networking and social media activity)
3. Relationship/Alliances building (includes customer care and social media activity)
For instance, I view responding to this blog post as “relational.” Now, off to another activity that combines 2 and 3 above – writing my own blog post (that I’m really behind in getting out!)
BTW, I like the ABCD approach.
Your top 3 makes total sense – and means you have your priorities straight, Keith! ABCD is really helpful and has given me a laser-sharp focus on my to-do list. The name “Eat That Frog” comes from something Mark Twain said; namely, that if the first thing you did every morning was to eat a frog, then you know you would have done the hardest thing first and the rest of the day gets easier! Same with our biggest, baddest tasks.
Good article Abigail. I liked Keith’s follow up points as well. I think you nailed it on the head by starting with the 3 most important things ONLY you can do. Most folks have not taken the time to figure out the top three. They have a top 10, or top 15. One key to prioritizing is that there can only be one, #1 priority. Many people say, “these things are ALL important and I need to do all of them”. But, writing done your list and always “eating the frog” FIRST is great advice.
Thanks for the tips, Abigail. Like Brad, I too appreciate your twist on the 3 most important things–the ones only I can do. One of my top three is doing the actual work, which in my case is graphic design. Under that broad umbrella come many different aspects of design, ie: photo research, production, illustration, etc. I choose the parts I like doing the most (and am best at) and delegate the rest when possible. Thanks for encouraging me to clarify what my 3 MITs are. Good way to weed out the extra stuff I have no business doing.
Ilene: MITs – I like that. Makes us sound extra super tech-y smart.
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