Power of prioritization in a crisis
The world is facing a multifaceted crisis. A health crisis, economic crisis, geopolitical crisis, climate crisis, and overall fear and uncertainty. In the face of these challenges, there is an urgent need to ensure the people, communities, and teams are healthy both physically and mentally to make the right decisions at the right time.
Why is prioritization important?
Prioritization is the process of deciding the relative importance or urgency of a task to improve performance and build time multipliers. Therefore, critical thinking and decision making is ranked top skills in various skill and future of work studies. In a crisis when “everything is important” all the time, lack of prioritization is a typical problem many professionals face daily. This leads to increased stress, suboptimal performance, and quality issues.
In a work-from-home environment, this has become a bigger challenge. With more tasks to do, virtual management, non-stop emails, and higher expectations, deciding what deserves your attention can quickly become overwhelming. To maintain a healthy balance, it is important to Prioritize.
For me, Prioritization is a power that can make tomorrow better. It is a differentiating factor between a growth and fixed mindset.
In this article, I want to share some best practices of how individuals and teams can operate to maximize employee and client outcomes in times of crisis.
A step-by-step on how to prioritize better
Step one: Eating the frog
We all go through natural highs and lows of energy and focus throughout the day called the productivity curve. Finding your peak productive times and scheduling the highest priorities during them, you are setting yourself up for the best day possible.
My most productive hours of the day are before 12noon. I prioritize the most important work for the day in that time and avoid everything else until that is finished. This also sets the tone of the day.
“If you have to eat a live frog, it does not pay to sit and look at it for a very long time!”
Step two: Trusting the intuition
My daily priorities as a communications leader are often dependent on three factors:
- What’s trending today?
- What does the organization need urgently?
- What if not done today can become an escalation tomorrow?
The last one is more about intuition than judgement. Factoring all these in defining the priorities for the day helps me move towards fulfilling the long-term goals of building an agile, well recognized, and a meaningful brand. For you, these factors can be different, recognizing them is important to find the purpose of your work and help you prioritize.
Step three: “Everything is important” – Doing only six things a day
There is a classic problem we all face where we end up with a massive list of urgent and important tasks, we need to get done especially on a Monday morning. They are called Manic Mondays for a reason.
In such a scenario, defining the true prioritization can be done using a simple method developed over 100 years ago by productivity consultant Ivy Lee. This “six tasks a day” method can really take them blues away:
- Jot down six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow
- Prioritize these six items in order of their true importance
- Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the next one
- Move any unfinished tasks in a new list of six tasks for the following day
- Repeat this process every working day
Step 4: Considering moving targets
It is always worthwhile to know how to prioritize and change priorities for factors beyond your control. In a crisis, flexibility is a valuable skill to have.
As per Arkes and Blumer, individuals commit the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ when they continue a behavior or endeavor because of previously invested resources like time, money, or effort. This fallacy, which is related to lose aversion and status quo bias, can also be viewed as bias resulting from an ongoing commitment. In a crisis, rigidity can cost reputation, valuable assets, and lives.
“Sometimes our effort is better used switching boats than trying to fix a leak.”
Step 5: Deciding what looks fantastic vs. what is real
On paper and in short term, a lot of goals and yardsticks may look achievable and fair.
It does not matter how efficient and effective you are each day if you are working towards the wrong goal. That is why it is a good idea to periodically reassess your long-term goals and priorities to make sure you are still on the right path.
According to Warren Buffett, the ‘25 to 5 goals’ method works best at assessment. It goes like this:
- Write down your top 25 goals – any goals
- Circle your top five on the list
- Any goal you did not circle goes on an “avoid at all costs” list
This approach is what the Power of Prioritization is all about. As the remaining 20 are time killers and distractors instead of helping you move towards your long-term priorities.
In my opinion, having a relaxed day state of mind is as critical as having a highly charged one and above methods help me do just that. With the right set of priorities, you will accomplish better outcomes and end the day feeling good about the progress you made and like you can step away and take a well-deserved break.
Read Also : Why do brands need to have a personal touch and feel for more consumer engagement?
About the author:
Parul Singhh, VP and Head Corporate Communications, Praxis Global Alliance