Vlad, I sympathize with your situation. As far as I understand you have one big project to be submitted within two months. Not great sense change jobs, because there is only a little time left before the deadline. So now I will talk about 11 ways to prioritize that will allow you to focus on the most painful place, i.e. on your project.

Causes of Failure - Wrong Priorities

Many people often show up at work. additional tasks, phone calls, unscheduled meetings, etc. We try to do everything, but it doesn’t work, and then we get upset that we didn’t have time to send a commercial offer key client or make an important phone call.

Why did we miss important things, but managed to do minor ones? It is human nature to disperse one's attention to do things that don't matter at all. This is because many minor things do not require much effort. And we try to follow the path of least resistance, that is, we take on those things that are easier to do, and not on what is really important. But sooner or later, you still have to start those tasks that seemed difficult, just not on time and the chances of success drop sharply.

One of the Causes of failure is - incorrectly placed priorities. The methods described below will help you distinguish the important from the urgent, the main from the secondary. Things that bring lasting effect from short results. How to prioritize correctly?

1. Start with the most important things

Move on to less important things only when more significant ones are done. How to assess the importance of a task? To do this, you need to assess the consequences that will await you if you fail to complete various tasks. Just ask yourself the question: “What will be the consequences if this is not done?” How worse consequences the more important the task and the higher its priority. In unimportant cases, the consequences of not doing them are minimal.

For example, regular disease prevention is extremely important, because without it there may be serious problems with well-being, which will negatively affect your entire life. Therefore, disease prevention is high priority and proceed to this matter as one of the first.

And now imagine how they affect your life: computer games, Internet surfing, alcohol, etc.? If their influence on your future is small, then the priority will be appropriate, if you refuse them, then nothing bad will happen, but on the contrary, you will get extra time that can be spent with benefit.

Therefore, we go to the social network or go to a restaurant only when more important things are done.

2. Start your day with planning

Before you get started, ask yourself these questions: What are the most important tasks you need to get done today? What matters are secondary and can be started only after the completion of the main one? If you have more than 4 tasks per day, then write them on a piece of paper because our brain cannot operate effectively and prioritize in the mind when there are more than 7+-2 tasks. Remember how long it takes you to memorize a regular city 7-digit? How much time to write? Therefore, it is much more efficient to plan on paper rather than in your head.

3. Say no to minor matters

Secondary tasks can be done incompletely or, in general, they can be abandoned. When there is not enough time, it is better to do the main thing well than to try to do everything.

If there is enough time, then doing everything is the best result, this is indisputable. But in conditions of limited time, you can not even start the most unimportant things from the end of the list or not do it completely. It's like in chess - the sacrifice of a piece for the sake of victory. Also in business, learn to sacrifice the secondary to work with the main.

In practice, it can be difficult to give up everything planned and you begin to sacrifice time for rest, prevention of your illness, etc. In general, you do urgent things instead of important ones. To eradicate this habit, every day in the morning write a to-do list for the day and next to each item indicate a priority from 0 to 10. In this list for the day, the last thing that has the lowest priority - do not do it, because it is the least important for you . Thus, you will learn to say no to secondary tasks, on which little depends, and you will feel much freer.

4. Don't do it until you write it down

Write down each new task first and only then decide when to start. When a new case appears, it seems to be more important than it actually is. and all for the same reason that our brain cannot work mentally with more than 7+-2 tasks. Therefore, the rest is simply forgotten and it does not work well to compare the degree of importance of several tasks. Also, the effect of importance can enhance the emotions that inevitably appear with everything new. When you write new task, then in the neighborhood you will be able to find more important cases and by comparing you will be able to better estimate how long it takes to work on it.

It often happens that you are busy with something and they call you and ask you to answer an email, find information, etc. Often such requests seem more important and urgent than they really are due to the emotional component that is present in any human communication.

Learn not to start asking immediately, so that emotions do not distract from the important to the secondary. Say that you are very busy right now, but you will be free in a few hours and you can help with this request. Even if you are not busy right now, say that you will call back in a few minutes, this time may be enough to assess what time is best to help so as not to disrupt your schedule.

There are times when it is desirable to give an answer right away, then say: "I'll look at my diary now and see if I can help now." In any case, it will be better, because you have the opportunity to compare the degree of importance of the case with those planned earlier and make a more informed decision.

In many cases, you may not even answer the phone. And you can call back when you're free..

5. Separate important from urgent

Urgent tasks are not always important. Just like important tasks may not necessarily be urgent. You need to start with important tasks and only then move on to urgent ones. Important tasks are often strategic and do not require great urgency, for example, learn English for a promotion at work, quit bad habits, lose weight. etc.

Urgent things that need to be done right now, as a rule, appear as a result of external forces, it can be a phone call, a request from colleagues, etc. Often, urgent matters are not important, so you should not start them if you can not have time to do something important.

6. Learn to say no

Things are simple - because they themselves do not cause you emotions. And when someone asks you for help, you experience emotions, pity, all this can bring down your plans and instead of the important, you will start to do urgent, which may not be important at all.

There are situations when you can do harm with your help, this is called doing a disservice. For example, a drug addict asks for money for a new dose, from which he can die. Or you are asked to participate in illegal cases. In such cases, you need to learn how to say no. For example:

- "I can't now."
- "Why?"
“Personal reason, I can’t say.”
- “Maybe you can help out of friendship?”
- "Oh please".
- "-/- We repeat the same thing."

Learn this dialogue by heart or make up your own and then you can say no more gently, which, you see, is important.

Pay attention when you don't have good reasons or you understand that you can offend another person if you say the real reason, then you say: “you can’t for a personal reason.” A personal reason is also personal, that it should not always be said, and this will meet with much more understanding than just the word “no” or a reason that may not seem so good to the interlocutor.

7. Don't be influenced

It happens that the requests of colleagues or personal requests are insignificant and can distract you from more important matters. In this case, refuse. But do it carefully and only in cases where you can help later or there is a higher priority for which you are giving more help.

Why is it impossible to completely refuse to help others? And all the time to spend only on yourself? The fact is that helping raises our morale, we become kinder. And the people around tend to cooperate with the decent and avoid the proud and arrogant. I.e success in any business depends on morale.

You can refuse Help if you help in another better!

8. "A", "B", "C", "D" tasks

Make a list with all the things that need to be done and write one of the letters next to each task. Each letter is a priority. "A" is the highest, "D" is the lowest.

The letter a". The most important things on which your future depends greatly. All important matters are divided into urgent and non-urgent. Urgent ones are marked with the addition "Ac", and non-urgent ones are simply "A". First, do all the important and at the same time urgent “A” tasks, and only then move on to the important and non-urgent “A”.

Important and urgent, i.e., “Ac” refers to: going to the doctor during acute pain, handing over a work project, the deadline of which is today, etc. If there are several such cases, then set the priority of execution, for example, “Ac1 ”, “Ac2”, “Ac3”, ... The worse the consequences of not completing the task, the more important and higher the priority.

Important and non-urgent ones include: learning English for a promotion at work, paying taxes, etc. When there are several cases, we also note their priority: “A1”, “A2”, “A3”, ...

The order of the list "A" will be as follows: First, we make urgent and important "Ac1", "Ac2", "Ac3", and only after they are completed, we proceed to important and non-urgent "A1", "A2", "A3", ...

Urgent and unimportant cases, from the failure of which little will change, do not belong to this list. For example, watch KVN or buy seasoning for dinner.

If a task requires a lot of time, for example, to learn English, then agree to do it certain time every day, for example, 30-60 minutes. and consider completed on the day you give it the scheduled time, then continue, but only the next day.

Letter "B". Not very important tasks that are desirable to do, but in extreme cases, you can refuse. If you do not proceed to such matters, then there may be minor troubles, but at the same time without serious consequences. It is important to observe next rule- do not proceed to cases "B" until the tasks "Ac" and "A" are completed.

The letter "B". Things that would be nice to do, but at the same time unpleasant consequences will not, for example, read the news, grease the door in the house. We proceed to them only when "A" and "B" tasks are completed.

The letter "G". Unnecessary tasks and unnecessary actions that are performed out of habit. Try to identify activities that are irrelevant to you and not perform them, because the more time you save on empty activities, the more you can do more meaningful ones.

9. Delegation

How more tasks you can delegate to someone, the more productive you become. But it is important to follow 2 rules:

The quality should be at a similar level as yours or higher;
- your time is worth more than the cost that you have to pay for delegated work.

Delegation will empower you and increase your free time, which can be spent to achieve your goals.

10. Do what works well

Look for your calling. The most important tasks for us are those that make the most of our talents. Give preference those cases which you are good at and you do very well. And vice versa, do not do what you don’t like or it’s not for you. This process is slow, but necessary. I have been looking for myself for about 15 years, trying different areas activity until he determined his vocation. John Keynes' words: We must think about the future, because there we will spend the rest of our lives».

11. Don't start small

We are so arranged that we strive to do everything by least resistance. On a subconscious level, we choose the easier task. So, instead of doing important tasks that greatly affect our future, you can spend the whole day doing insignificant things that are of little value. Resist the temptation to start small.

P.S. If you have any difficulties or questions about the article you read, as well as on the topics: Psychology (bad habits, experiences, etc.), sales, business, time management, etc., ask me, I will try to help. Skype consultation is also possible.

P.P.S. You can also take an online training "How to get 1 hour extra time". Write comments, your additions;)

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Do you often have a question in your head: "What do I want?" Sooner or later, everyone asks this question. Trying to realize our dreams and satisfy desires, we choose our life path.

How to realize your goals in a certain period of life

Desires can be endless. And how to define tasks in this case paramount importance and arrange the rest of the aspirations in the right order? After all, everyone wants to be rich, healthy, drive an expensive car, learn several languages ​​and gain immortality. Ambition is very good, but it should not exceed the scope of reality.

The main thing you need to learn to do is to prioritize. First, take a pen and Blank sheet paper. Write down all your desires in a column. Write the list in present tense. For example: “I look at my bank account. The balance is 500 thousand rubles. I feel happiness and satisfaction from being rewarded for my work.” The main condition is that what you write looks believable. That is, if you write that you are having lunch with the president, but subconsciously understand that this is impossible, or possible, but not in the near future, then you should not write it.

Working with the wish list

After your desires have been written form, start reading them aloud in turn, pausing before each subsequent entry. After reading one wish, close your eyes and concentrate on your feelings. What do you feel? It can be satisfaction, a feeling of superiority over others, indifference, a pleasant thrill, or a feeling of real happiness and flight.

It is the feeling of happiness that is true desire each person. Perhaps he is not even aware of this, but subconsciously each of us strives for happiness. Guided only by your inner feelings, you will understand what you really want from life and learn to prioritize.

Analysis of the three main points

Cross out everything that does not match your priorities and leave three points. Why only three? It's simple, practice and research show that a person cannot work effectively on more than three tasks.

Think about what you are doing now, what activity takes up most of your time. The main question to ask yourself is whether it brings me closer this species activities towards my goal. If the answer is no, then it's time to change something.

The road to happiness is difficult, but the right priorities will greatly simplify and speed up this process.

Other people's interests

Self-sacrifice and life for the sake of others, close people, makes sense only if it is conscious choice a person whose realization brings him joy and happiness. Of course, caring for loved ones is normal behavioral response However, when a sense of duty crosses out one's own aspirations and dreams, driving a person into depression, this is no longer the norm. There are many examples when healthy selfishness played into the hands of not only a person, but also members of his family.

A vivid example when young people, striving for a bright future, leave Father's house and leave to study or work in other cities or countries, where, in their opinion, young people expect many opportunities and great success. Youthful maximalism often helps people and leads them in the right direction. While parents, wise by experience, prefer to keep their child with them, being able to help him if necessary.

Each person has his own goals, and no one, including close relatives, should interfere with achieving the goals. You should not allow yourself to be manipulated, indulging others will not make you happy - rather, on the contrary.

Change of priorities

The above lists will develop your ability to prioritize. And upon reaching all the points, it makes sense to acquire a new list.

It's perfectly normal for priorities to change with age. The stages of growing up involve a change of mindset. Changing priorities should be evolutionary, not the other way around.

Not the best option when a person rushes through life and cannot find his place. In this case, it is important to analyze your actions and understand from where everything went wrong as planned. If you have problems analyzing your actions, or you need help, it would be useful to visit a psychologist who can help you prioritize correctly.

Etymology of the word "priority"

An interesting fact is that the word "priority" in plural person was not used until the beginning of the 20th century. Before this concept used only in the singular.

The word "priority" has the Latin prefix "prio", which means "before". Prioritizing means identifying the tasks that advance the achievement of your goals.

Exist effective principle on working with priorities, namely the Eisenhower method. It helps to arrange all the tasks using only two criteria - important and urgent.

Differences between important and urgent matters

The famous Pareto principle tells us that 20 percent of all our tasks will be classified as important. Interesting, but some of them will also be considered urgent. What is the difference?

The implementation of important things brings you closer to your goal. At the same time, the execution of urgent matters distracts your attention, but does not significant influence to achieve the chosen goal.

It's no secret that most people start with secondary tasks. The thing is that they are lighter and do not require serious costs. And the brain, like the body, does not like to overstrain, if they are not accustomed to this. And the implementation of unimportant things creates the appearance of work, but the truth is that you should pay attention to those tasks, the solution of which will contribute to your success. This will help you know how to prioritize in life.

Priority categories on the Eisenhower list

Priority A is the things that need to be done today, as they are both urgent and important.

Priority B is activities that are optional on a particular day, but for which you need to carve out a small amount of time each day. Their stable implementation will bring the achievement of the goal closer.

A very common mistake is postponing cases from the second group until later. You don’t need to do this, because the developed habit of solving problems constantly in a small amount will qualitatively affect your further achievements.

Examples of tasks from priority B:

1. Writing a diploma or an important report for a job. Let's say you have a month to calmly prepare the necessary report. But you are postponing work in a black box. As a result, moral and physical overstrain in last hours before submitting the report, can lead to a crisis and undesirable consequences.
2. In personal life good example tasks from list B, there will be a timely examination by a doctor in order to identify diseases at an early stage in order to subsequently avoid a long period of disability.

How to work with third and fourth order priorities

Priority C. These include skills that you feel are urgent to learn but are not important. For example, learning to say “no” when the need arises. These tasks will give you the necessary time to solve priority tasks.

Priority D. These are tasks that are not important or urgent. You can safely postpone them for later, or entrust them to other people. It is strongly recommended that you occasionally skip tasks from list D. This will allow you to get a good rest on your most stressful days.

How to prioritize according to the Eisenhower method

Being able to prioritize is not a difficult task, the only thing that is required is to allocate a little time for written work. But later, following your own instructions, it will be much easier to act.

1. Classify your daily activities according to the four points above. So it will immediately become clear what is important and urgent, and what is useless.
2. Do not confuse important and urgent. Important things can be done gradually, giving them a little attention every day. They are an integral part of your success. Urgent matters require your attention and prompt decision. But it may not apply to your goal.
3. Pay attention to the hierarchical construction of the list. Important matters take precedence over urgent ones. Do not get hung up on doing urgent things, as they tend to take a lot of time and attention, distracting from important tasks. If there is an opportunity to avoid urgent matters - use it.
4. Do all the items from Priority A. Even the last task from the first category is more important than the first item from the other groups. If during the day it was not possible to cope with all the important things, continue to work with them the next day. Do not move on to other categories until you have completed all the items from category A.
5. Every day, try to complete the longest tasks from Priority B. But in everyday tasks, do not forget about your main goals and work towards achieving them.

How would you like to embrace maximum amount things, there is not enough time for everything. And this must be understood. The most important thing is to set priorities correctly, and then success will not be long in coming.

Allocate your time wisely, spending it on the really important things that will help you achieve your goals and realize your most significant desires. The ability to highlight important aspects one's activities and avoiding non-essentials is an important and useful skill. The Eisenhower Method helps you understand how to prioritize your life.

The word “priority” itself contains the Latin prefix “prio”, which means “before, before”. Prioritization is when you decide on a daily basis what needs to be done first in order to achieve your goals.

The Eisenhower principle will help you start your tasks and work in order, according to your priorities. To do this, first ask yourself: are these matters important or urgent?

According to the Pareto principle, 20% of our tasks will be important in all respects. It's funny, but most of them are also urgent. Doing important things brings you closer to the intended goal. Urgent matters, on the other hand, switch your attention to themselves, without exerting great influence to your target. The most important tasks and tasks leading to success and achievement of goals should in no case be pushed back under the pressure of unimportant but urgent matters.

However, unfortunately, we all tend to start with minor, unimportant things, so to speak, "exchange for small things." The printed forms lying on the desktop seem much more attractive to us than the important project we have been putting off for several days now. Therefore, first of all, pay attention to those tasks that can most affect your success. Priorities will help you with this.

To achieve the best results, you should spend most of your time on the really important things and tasks.

A little test: important or urgent?

Check correct option(only one).

1. You decide to work towards your “yearly” goal. However, all this is still "shelved".

Important or ____ urgent?

Important or ____ urgent?

3. You decide that you will visit the dentist once a year. A year has already passed, and you still have not been to dentistry.
____ important or ____ urgent?

Right answers:

question 1 - important; question 2 - urgently; question 3 is important.

The Eisenhower principle allows you to combine only two criteria - important and urgent, thus, four classes of priorities are obtained. For successful planning you need to analyze and classify all the tasks before you. And then you will build a hierarchical list, thanks to which you will know what, when and how to do it.

Eisenhower Hierarchical List

A-Priority: These are things that need to be done today because they are urgent and necessary.

B-priority: important things that don't have to be done today. Just give yourself time regularly to do things B and find a place for them in your schedule. Completing the tasks in this group will ensure success and bring you closer to your intended goal.

Very often, B cases are simply shelved because they are not urgent. Nevertheless, their timely implementation will avoid many problems.

Task Example B: You need to prepare a report for a board meeting, it is quite possible that it will even get you a promotion. You have a whole month in reserve, however, if you frantically write a report in the last two days before the meeting, this can lead you to a crisis.

For anyone who has to compile numerous documents, the task of B is certainly to acquire the skill of the ten-finger typing method. Even if it takes thirty hours of your time - it's okay, in the future, being able to type quickly, you can save a lot of time, Moreover The sooner you start learning, the better.

Of similar importance is the so-called customer survey conducted to improve the product, which will significantly increase customer satisfaction.

AT privacy Task B can be called a regular preventive examination by a doctor, which will identify special threats to your body and prevent serious diseases and, as a result, the subsequent long weeks of disability.

C-priority: skills, mastering, which we think urgent matter, but is not important. These include: the ability to remain calm, to delegate their duties (so to speak, “the ability to send delegations”) or to say “no”. With this, you will buy time to solve important tasks from group B.

D-Priority: This includes cases that are neither important nor urgent. You can safely put them in a drawer or, if we are talking about deadlines or certain tasks, to refuse them, or simply to entrust someone else to do it. Consciously block yourself for a while from doing things D that allow you to relax and have fun on the days of the most stress.

Eisenhower Prioritization: Do It Right

1. Eisenhower prioritization of work

   Divide all your tasks and responsibilities into the above groups A, B, C and D. In this way you will separate the "necessary" from the "useless".

Remember: “important” is fundamentally different from “urgent”. “Important” brings your goal closer, but it is not necessarily “urgent”. “Urgent” on the other hand requires your immediate attention.

Pay attention to the so-called "priority rule": "important" comes before "urgent". It is not necessary to do everything that requires haste. Try not to submit to the dictatorship of the urgent anymore, because it lurks the following danger: we begin to get distracted by what is urgent, but absolutely unimportant and not mandatory.

To plan your time wisely, this tip will be very useful: always start work with the task number 1 in group A, and not with the one at number 3 or 4, no matter how attractive and interesting they may be. If by the end of the working day you did not manage to cope with all the tasks and cases from group A, then continue working with them the next day. Do not do other tasks until you are done with the first ones.

Every day, work on some task from group B that requires a lot of time. Along with your daily activities, you should also think about your "strategic" important tasks and goals. Only in this way will you be able to secure tomorrow's success today.

Make it clear to yourself once and for all that you will never have enough time for all the things you would like to do and all the things that others want from you. Make sure to use your time only for things that are really important to you and that can advance your goal. And you can only win time if you learn to say “no” and refuse to do unnecessary things.

Eisenhower Principle Test: Are You Prioritizing Right?

Now you can analyze your ability to prioritize. Please note: only tasks that are really important to you can be included in priority groups A and B!

1. What percentage of your total time do you spend in each of the four squares A, B, C, D? (see picture)

BUT__________ %
B__________ %
WITH__________ %
D__________ %

2. To which group would you classify the things that you will do tomorrow?

1.____________________=_________ - priority
2,____________________=_________ - priority
3.____________________=_________ - priority
4.____________________=_________ - priority

3. Now write down what or whom you would like to spend more time on than usual, and what you would like to reduce time on.

I would shorten (a): __________________________
Instead: __________________________ Explore other methods and techniques of time management, personal career management, work streamlining, persuasion, and performance improvement in the Self-Management: Career Management course: Self-Management: Career Management: A Practical Interactive Multimedia Distance Course

Every business should start with prioritization. By learning to separate the important from the unimportant, you will save time and effort. American President Eisenhower developed a prioritization matrix, in which all tasks fit perfectly.

The word “priority”, which has firmly entered our lives, means “first” in Latin. We use it when we talk about the importance, the primacy of something.

The ability to prioritize both in work and in personal life is very valuable. Otherwise, we are threatened, at least, with a neurosis provoked by those who have piled on like a snowball, unresolved issues and imbalance between work and leisure.

After all, it is impossible, for example, to work equally well at two or three jobs, while studying day department passing all the tests and exams on time, and at the same time always being in a beautiful physical form and mood. Anyone who believes that he can do it, sooner or later will still be forced to choose what has a higher priority, and abandon the secondary. Otherwise stress or syndrome emotional burnout secured.

Or, for example, someone decided to fulfill an old dream - to visit an exotic country. The trip will require significant financial investments. It is also important to set priorities here so that in the future the travel experience is not overshadowed by the stress of having to save money due to debt. What is more important: traveling or giving up petty everyday pleasures in the name of it?

Thus, the ability to prioritize and choose what is more important to us, both in work and in personal life, will allow us to maintain health and avoid time troubles in our lives.

Eisenhower Priority Matrix

Time management will help you not fall victim to chronic fatigue or stress - the science of time management, which includes the development of prioritization skills.

Many who are familiar with time management have probably heard of the D. Eisenhower matrix - the 34th American president who developed it. Its essence is the correct prioritization. After all, most people usually do not the work that they should do in the first place, but the one that they like best.

Anyone who wants to work effectively must prioritize, dividing all tasks into important and urgent. Important tasks are those whose outcome affects our work as a whole. Urgent tasks, of course, are determined by how quickly they need to be done.

So, all cases are divided into 4 groups:

1. Important and urgent;
2. Important but not urgent;
3. Urgent but not important;
4. Not urgent and not important.

1. Matters important and urgent

Important and urgent matters are those that need to be done immediately. If we classify most of our affairs as such, then this does not mean that we are so businesslike, but that we:

• we do not know how to plan our day and put off all important things for later;
• we lack self-discipline;
• elementary laziness is one of the main features of our character:
• the state of emergency for us is a common thing.

People who are constantly busy with urgent important matters are most prone to stress. As a rule, some urgent matters are replaced by others no less urgent, and there is no end to this. They are mistaken in thinking that they will urgently drop the load of important things and finally start a new one. quiet life- because of the inability to prioritize, they will fall into the same rake again and again.

An example of an important and urgent matter would be an urgent visit to the dentist because of a severe toothache. It could be done in advance - as a preventive measure, without bringing the matter to the need for emergency care.

Or, for example, they are running out of deadlines for submitting an accounting report, preparing for an exam, etc. We have known about these deadlines for a long time, but we catch ourselves when a case from the category of “I still have time” turns into an urgent one.

On this occasion, there are many proverbs, from which we can conclude that such a problem is very common. For example, “Thunder will not strike, the peasant will not cross himself”, “Go hunting - feed the dogs”, etc.

2. Matters are important but not urgent

So, in order for our affairs not to fall into the previous category, we need to transfer them to the category of important, but not urgent. This category is the most important, because, having determined the priorities in the implementation of tasks, you can calmly and deliberately, without unnecessary nerves, perform them. And then there will be no rush with stress, sleepless nights and nervous breakdowns, and work will bring pleasure. And even if mistakes are made, we will have enough time to correct them.

In general, most people understand that this is what they should do: undergo preventive examinations in the clinic, without waiting, as the people say, until “a roasted rooster pecks in the head”; pay utility bills on time, write reports, etc. But since these cases require some effort and often involve getting out of your personal comfort zone, they smoothly flow into the first category and become important and urgent.

3. Things are urgent but not important

This includes cases that do not affect the results of the work in any way, they do not shorten the road to our goal, but we are forced to do them.

For example, our neighbors flooded us, and we must eliminate the consequences of the flood. Or they have lost documents and have to spend a lot of time on their restoration. We can say about such things - "neither mind nor heart." They distract us from work and prevent us from concentrating on the main thing.

4. Things are not urgent and not important

What are these things?

• many hours of aimless hanging in social networks and playing computer games;
• long telephone conversations with the aim of "just talking";
• watching meaningless TV shows;
• going shopping without the purpose of buying something, etc.

These deeds bring no practical use. However, it is difficult for many to deprive themselves of such pleasure, since such activities cheer them up. The main thing is that they do not become a priority. Non-urgent and non-important things should serve only as a respite, a short rest between important ones. And especially do not start your day with them.

How to prioritize correctly

1. To separate the necessary from the useless, you need to sort your affairs into the mentioned 4 categories.
2. Do not forget that important business does not mean urgent. The important brings us closer to the goal, but it may not be urgent. Urgent need to pay special attention.
3. The “rule of advantage” says: important first, then urgent. Do not submit to the dictatorship of haste: urgent matters may not be important and not mandatory.
4. Every day you need to start with cases from the 1st group, no matter how attractive the cases from other groups are. If it was not possible to finish them within one day, you need to continue work the next day.
5. It is also worth setting aside some time every day for tasks from group 2 (important, but not urgent). This will work for "tomorrow's" success.
6. Since there is always not enough time to do everything that we have planned and what others expect from us, we need to determine the things that are really important for us and be able to refuse to do the optional ones, that is, say “no”.
7. Ideally, our day-to-day efforts should be focused primarily on the tasks in Group 2—important non-urgent ones.

Each person's priorities are different. Someone has a career in the first place, someone has a family, and someone else has health, etc. In addition, they can change over the course of a lifetime. But in order to be successful and maintain health and nerves, you must first of all be able to determine priority tasks on every day. This is where the Eisenhower Priority Matrix comes in handy.

© Timoshenko Elena, BBF.ru

The Eisenhower Matrix as a prioritization tool is one of the main methods for successful planning and execution of cases. In this article, we will look at this technique in more detail, since it is the most popular time management method that has been used for a long time in all areas of life.

The value of time management in human life

"Life has value if it is a constant struggle for a worthy cause"

D. D. Eisenhower

Time management tried to understand the world-famous 34th President of America, David Eisenhower. It was the study of this area that made him popular all over the world. He explored in detail how effective planning, step-by-step implementation of the plan. This is how the Eisenhower matrix appeared as a tool for setting priorities. We will consider his technique in more detail later in our article.

Time management- the ability of a person to correctly allocate his time for the implementation of planned tasks. This phenomenon has been studied for many years by various psychologists, everyone tried to understand how it works. this method proper planning. famous psychologist David Allen wrote a book on the basics and practice of effective planning.

In our time, vanity and diversity modern life more and more forces to turn to methods of successful structuring of the planned tasks, their correct and quick implementation. Correct prioritization allows you to quickly and efficiently do work of any complexity, comprehend your mistakes, learn new skills and abilities in the process of achieving the goal.

Eisenhower's personality in the study of time management

David Eisenhower was a famous US President. He became famous throughout the world for his intelligence and organizational skills. During his life, he built a brilliant military career, which left no small mark on the history of America. He successfully completed all the tasks, always achieved his goals, which earned him respect, became an example for many public figures.

Eisenhower believed that to live life correctly means to do a worthy business that gives pleasure to its subject and benefit to others. As president, he asked more and more questions about how to do everything in time, do it right and with success in the end. These thoughts led him to create a method of arranging important cases, which is intensively used in our time.

Thanks to his resourcefulness, confidence and striving for perfection, Eisenhower achieved success in everything, he completed everything he planned on time, without much difficulty. Many figures of his time were only surprised at his self-organization, tried to follow his methods of government, since the personality of such a president really deserves respect and may well be an example to follow. The Eisenhower Matrix as a prioritization tool is one of the main ways to organize your work plan in your daily life.

Features of the Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix as a prioritization tool is a popular time management technique that allows you to correctly and on time carry out the planned tasks, determine significant goals for yourself for a specific period of time. The basis of the Eisenhower table are four so-called quadrants of cases. The basis for its creation were significant and urgent tasks that have accumulated over a short period of time due to various factors.

These quadrants are also called Eisenhower windows, since they are depicted in square table. The Eisenhower table looks like this.

quadrant Important urgent matters

quadrant Important non-urgent

quadrant unimportant urgent

quadrant unimportant non-urgent

Anyone who wants to learn how to properly allocate their time can make such a table for themselves. The Eisenhower matrix as a prioritization tool will help you deal with the accumulated tasks in a very short period of time.

The essence of the quadrants of the matrix

Having understood the basic structure of the prioritization method, we can analyze each window of the Eisenhower matrix in detail. The Eisenhower matrix as a prioritization tool is useful for determining the significance of your plans at a particular point in time.

Quadrant A

It includes important urgent tasks which cannot be postponed until later, as this may lead to negative consequences. For successful planning, you need to start precisely with sector A. An example of such cases can be a complex unexpected operation, an unscheduled meeting. This sector is very important for a person's life, but if you learn how to plan your time correctly, then ideally this square should be completely empty, without any plans. With the timely implementation of the main plans, significant tasks will not become urgent, their implementation within a specific time frame does not make them urgent.

Sector A plans can appear for two reasons:

• internal causes: depend directly on the person (insufficient motivation to perform, laziness, lack of desire or professionalism);
• external causes: do not depend on the subject itself ( sharp deterioration well-being, force majeure).

So that these reasons do not interfere with the implementation of activities, you do not need to postpone valuable optional tasks (this is already sector B) for the last day, since some conditions may affect their non-fulfillment and then you will accumulate valuable tasks.

Quadrant B

Important non-urgent. The plans of this sector must be regularly implemented, without postponing for later, since their timely implementation is an indicator of your productivity and success in your activities. The deeds of this quadrant do not require doing here and now, but their value indicates the occurrence of negative consequences if ignored by a person. The more significant the task is for you, the more negative will be the consequences of its failure. That is why priority should be given first to important matters, then to urgent ones. For ideal self-satisfaction, a person must complete significant urgent and significant non-urgent tasks in full. The tasks of this sector include, for example, an immediate visit to a doctor, mastering the skills to successfully perform activities in a new workplace in order to get another promotion.

“It’s better to do the important tasks on which your life depends first than the unimportant ones.”

D. D. Eisenhower

The Eisenhower matrix as a prioritization tool shows: if you sort your plans correctly and on time, then in any sphere of human life there will be no rush jobs that exhaust the human body physically and psychologically. Sector B will not move into Sector A if we properly plan our tasks for the first time.

Quadrant C

It doesn't matter, it's urgent. The urgency of plans does not always determine their significance. Eisenhower said that if urgent tasks interfere with the execution of valuable ones, then it is better to postpone them. To understand the importance of your plans, ask yourself a simple question: “What will happen if this task is not completed?” If you understand that there are no negative consequences or they are minimal, then the matter is not important in this moment. Look for more meaningful tasks that really threaten negative consequences for you.

These activities include, for example, participation in social survey, call a friend just to chat. The plans of the "sector C" have a significant disadvantage: they prevent a person from working effectively and doing significant things, because they are constantly distracting, making you worry. Any distraction threatens with negative consequences, so if there is any interference in the performance of significant tasks, try to either eliminate them before performing. If you carry out only urgent matters, it may accumulate great amount important things at one moment and then it’s hard to direct yourself to right direction, concentrate for their implementation.

Quadrant D

Not urgent, not important. This sector combines the most unnecessary non-urgent things, their implementation is not beneficial at the moment. If a person concentrates on them, then significant things will accumulate very quickly and lead to negative consequences. This may include, for example, hanging in social networks, various computer games that just kill a person's time without any benefit.

But not all non-urgent unimportant tasks are so useless. If you have long wanted to neatly arrange books in your library, or clean out your closet with clothes, then doing these things will bring benefits and pleasure from the result, but you should not strive to do them when you have important things to do.

The Eisenhower table as a way of effective planning is a useful method for identifying significant valuable cases, helping to complete them in a fairly short time. It is designed to complete one-day tasks or those that need to be completed in the near future.

Goals of the Eisenhower Method

Everyone can learn how to plan their personal time if they wish, there is nothing complicated here. For help, the Eisenhower table described by us can be used as a tool for setting priorities. Having analyzed in detail each quadrant of the matrix, it is possible to determine the main goals of this technique.

1. self-organization. Knowing that significant things await you, you will not waste time, but will try to do everything on time. Having singled out the main plans, a person can quickly organize himself for their implementation. Having fixed the main thing, you can immediately see what has been done, and what else needs to be done today or tomorrow.
2. Good planning of your plans. The purpose of the method is successful execution conceived by a person, and not rewriting cases from one quadrant to another.
3. Learn to manage your time effectively. Highlighting important tasks helps you mentally determine the amount of time to complete them. A person roughly calculates in his mind how much it takes to complete important non-urgent tasks so that they do not suddenly go into quadrant A.

The Eisenhower matrix, being one of the main and popular planning methods, will help everyone learn to manage themselves, organize themselves in right moment solve your problems in a short period of time.

A young woman, Olga, came to see a psychologist with an atypical problem for her age, which she defined as emptiness. Strange situation: husband, two children, work, and around it - emptiness. Come on, only around, the emptiness was also deep inside. After completing a series of formalities, the psychologist asked to talk about how a typical weekday goes, in order to understand the daily prioritization.

— Priorities? What are you speaking about? I am completely right about life. The main thing for me is the health of my loved ones,” the client was indignant.

“I’m not asking you to talk about values, I just want to understand the daily prioritization,” the psychologist explained.

- Do you want to understand what is more important for me: my mother's health or my husband's love?

— I'm not trying to figure out the hierarchy of your life values. It's quite difficult. I'm just trying to understand how you build your day.

The dialogue could have been endless and required a simple clarification of the meaning of the art of prioritization.

What are priorities?

The question that took the client by surprise is really very important from the standpoint of a daily attitude to life. To prioritize means to understand what is really important NOW.

The concept of priority has recently entered our lives from computer vocabulary. Task Manager operating system computer determines which program to execute at the moment, depending on its importance - i.e. assigns priority.

Consider the definition of priority on a simple example. Suppose you need to collect information about something on a computer disk. First you need to create a folder with a specific name, and then put the necessary files there. This is more convenient and faster than throwing files in different places, and then collecting them in a folder. So, to start collecting information, we need to create a place where we will collect it. Folder creation is a priority.

Notice, not the main or important, but the priority, that is, the first, important right now. You can create a few other folders along the way if that's important now. And if not, is it worth spending time and effort on this?

So, priority is the process, the event, which is the most important in this place, at this time. The car is simple. The computer brain quickly calculates all options for performing tasks and determines the most effective ones at the moment, making them a priority, that is, it performs them. And you can't argue with that.

In everyday life, we constantly have to prioritize, that is, choose the most important and effective processes. We plan to go to the store, clean the apartment daily, work at work, including light breaks to discuss the news. We even plan to start a new life on Monday, but we don’t start, because completely different processes become priorities.

The psychologist continues the dialogue with Olga:

- Do you buy food in fast food for your loved ones?

- And why?

— Relatives love this food, I want to give them pleasure. In addition, this purchase frees me from the need to spend the evening at the stove.

- Do you know that this food is harmful?

- I know. But that rarely happens.

- So, sometimes for you the desire to get rid of household chores more important than health relatives?

No answer. And it can't be, the concepts are confused here.

Why is it necessary to prioritize?

The continuation of the dialogue between the psychologist and the client speaks of a distinction between concepts: values ​​and priorities. We will not talk about the dangers of fast food. We are talking about processes that are important right now. And, the main thing is to understand what exactly is important - to prioritize.

First of all, this will save time. Think of a computer system's task scheduler, which clearly prioritizes processes based on this principle.

Secondly, this will save you energy. Indeed, it is easier to go to the store on the way home from work than to return after you have already come home. It is more convenient to plan your activities in advance, calculating possible options.

Thirdly, this will determine your main tasks for the near future and subordinate all other actions to them.

To understand the importance of the ability to prioritize, consider the situation with fast food.

Option 1. Situation: A tired woman returns from work. She really wants to relax at home after a hard day.

Solution: Buy food for loved ones at a fast food restaurant. This will provide them good mood and save her from cooking dinner.

Priority: rest after a hard day's work.

Will you reproach her for a bad attitude towards loved ones? No, because you understand the motive of her action and the chosen priority.

Option 2.(we complicate the situation). Everything is the same, but there is very little money in the wallet.

Solution: buy fast food. This will save her from the need for long cooking times and give additional time for relax.

Priority: cook food as quickly as possible and save money.

Will there be recriminations in this case? Also no. Because, the choice is also clear here.

Option 3. The situation is the same.

Solution: buy vegetables, defrost meat, cook chakhokhbili.

Priority: proper nutrition of loved ones.

Bottom line: long cooking, a disgruntled hungry family, a nervous tired woman and, possibly, conflicts in the family, combined with mutual accusations.

Was this priority worth the results? What is more important to you: peace in the family or compliance with proper nutrition? So, again, prioritization.

Having dealt with the concepts of priority and values, Olga received homework, in which it was necessary to rank daily priorities, starting from the most important. The difficulty of the task was that she had to indicate at least 50 points.

With surprise, the psychologist noted that the woman coped. In an abridged version, it looked like this:

1. Don't be late for work.
2. Take the kids to school.
3. Do your job in good faith.
4. Do not make mistakes in the texts.
5. To the boss noticed her diligence.
6. Prize opportunity.

1. N.'s attention to her person.
2. The opinion of colleagues about her appearance.

1. Opinion of A.P. about her shoes.
2. An invitation to tea in the office of the chief accountant.

38. Have time to do everything in the service, so as not to take work home.

1. Feed your loved ones.
2. Eat low calorie foods to lose weight.

Mistakes in prioritization

So, we have already found out that the need to prioritize is before us every day, and the result of our activities depends on how correctly we do this. What is wrong in the rating of our heroine?

First on the list is not to be late for work, then, through the point, do your job without making mistakes. Commendable. And if the list consisted of four items, then the option with the boss and the bonus would not be important? And the material side of the issue is irrelevant? Some kind of communism is obtained.

In fact, it's not like that. We come to work to earn money, which means that material interest is important. Selfless workaholics are quickly identified in any office, and then they cry into the pillow, earn depression, just because they set their priorities wrong. They are considered conscientious and responsible, but they are not promoted or financially encouraged.

Another thing, people are careerists. Even with lower abilities, they get high salaries and positions for a reason right priorities. Is it so bad to be a careerist?

Several items on the list relate to the assessment of appearance. For every woman, appearance is important. But in the list we did not see anything related to the processes of creating female beauty: makeup, manicure, choosing clothes. What is the matter here?

AT this case, the client does not consider it important to take care of herself, and the evaluation of her appearance by her colleagues most likely frightens her more than pleases her. She is scared negative attitude, or even comments, and does not expect compliments. This item, along with others, can cause a depressive attitude to what is happening.

Everything will be easier if you add a well-groomed appearance, properly selected clothes to the list of priorities, and only then the desire not to be late. The morning of a young woman will obey her mood, reflection in the mirror, desire to please. The opinion of colleagues about her appearance will fall lower and lower in the table until it completely disappears from the rating.

This item, of course, will force you to change plans for the weekend. You need to make time for yourself: go shopping, visit a beauty salon, or at least do simple beauty treatments at home. Perhaps in the plans for the weekend there will be a task to relax, the most important thing to do. But in priority ratings, as a rule, cooking borscht and cutlets is more common, and not options family vacation.

What happens: we drive ourselves into a dead end simple planning life? Yes exactly. Errors in prioritization destroy a person's personality, making them slaves to needs; destroy relationships in the family, bringing to the fore the cleaning of the apartment and cooking, reducing the importance of spiritual communication and family vacations to zero.

I present an imaginary dialogue with readers:

“How is it,” readers exclaim, “we ourselves destroy our lives? But we try to do household chores, taking care of loved ones.

- And what is more important for relatives: a plate of borscht or a joint skiing trip?

“Both are important,” you say.

- Correctly. But we are talking about prioritization, when you need to choose one thing. And in this situation, a quick snack may well be suitable if it preserves the warmth of the relationship and the impressions of the weekend. And a whole day spent in the kitchen can cause alienation and resentment.

Of course, household chores need to be done. But it must be planned in such a way as not to destroy other values.

The Art of Prioritizing

Prioritizing is actually easy if you learn to understand what exactly you need. Don't be afraid to answer your questions honestly. Only you can understand your desires.

How to do it? Here are some rules:

1. Always prioritize your business, even the little things. Start your working day with what is important, but not with what is simple, light and smaller in volume. Remember that spending time on the little things, you will miss the important, and this is always fraught with consequences. Your personal planner should always prioritize.
2. Know how to clearly assess your condition, and, based on this, plan your activities. Do not force anything unless absolutely necessary. If negative state norm, then try to change this situation.
3. Involve your surroundings in important decisions and affairs. Voice your condition without fear of the reaction of colleagues or loved ones. Let others learn to build their priorities, taking into account the interests of loved ones.
4. Define a few important long-term priorities that will be present in the form small tasks. For example, the goal of losing weight will be reflected in the purchase of low-calorie food or the rejection of dessert.
5. Consider the wishes of loved ones in your priorities. Give in to them and make compromises. Don't confuse mission and values. And don't let one destroy the other.

After some time, Olga talked about how she saw off her husband on a long business trip. Usually, she got up early in the morning, started cooking pies, putting things in a suitcase, ironing each shirt. By evening she was tired and irritable.

But not at this time. She desperately wanted to spend this time with her family. After discussing in the evening the insignificance of homemade pies and shirts, which still have to be ironed, she and her husband packed their suitcase and planned a family vacation.

The young woman talked with a smile about visiting a shopping and entertainment center, air hockey and a little shopping.

The psychologist noted that Olga learned to enjoy life.

There will always be daily chores. It is very easy to become addicted to an endless series of work and household chores. At some point, a person completely subordinates himself to the concept of “should”. It is then that life is filled with fatigue, vanity, and alienation.

It is important to understand in time own desires and needs, it is from this position that he sets daily priorities for work and household chores.

Do you know how to do it? Do you want to learn? Then, to begin with, make up your rating of daily priorities (at least 50 points). Only one important condition A: Be honest with yourself.

Time management prioritization is the foundation upon which the rest of the process is built. Wrong gradation will bring even more chaos into everyday life and will only aggravate the situation. How to cope with this task, our article will tell.

Prioritization Techniques

From time immemorial, people have made tremendous efforts to subdue time. exact date origin is unknown, but the first mention of it was recorded back in Ancient Rome, in the notes of the philosopher Luzzius Annaeus Seneca (3-65 AD).

Since then, mankind has gained a lot of experience and was able to form principles, using which you can competently and conveniently prioritize your own affairs and work effectively. We bring to your attention an overview of popular and well-established methods of prioritization.

Planning according to the ABC system

The beginning of the creation of this system was the fact that, as experience shows, percentage important and unimportant things are almost the same. Therefore, all classes are distributed according to the degree of importance, where each step is assigned a letter.

What needs to be done first is placed in group "A": these are the most important and significant things. Cases with a lower indicator of urgency are distributed into groups "B" and "C".

• Urgent tasks of group "A" make up 15% of the time and bring 65% of the results.
• Less urgent tasks of group "B" take about 20% of the time, while bringing the same results.
• Minor things "devour" 65% of the resources and bring about 15% of the result.

Based on this, the following “operating instructions” for the system were developed:

1. Make a general to-do list.
2. Organize each by urgency.
3. Number the cases according to their importance.
4. Divide all tasks into the above categories.
5. Tasks from group "A" solve independently.
6. From group "B" delegate to employees.
7. Tasks of the "C" group should be minimized (eliminated) or also delegated.

Eisenhower planning

Here, time management occurs according to the principle of distributing all cases into categories:

• Important and urgent.
• Not important, but urgent.
• Important, but not urgent.
• It doesn't matter and it's not urgent.

Ideally, the bulk of the time should be devoted to the second group. At proper planning the first group should generally remain empty, which indicates rational use time. Cases from the fourth area should take a minimum of time, as this includes recreational activities.

With proper planning, the first group should generally remain empty, which indicates the rational use of time.

For the convenience of daily planning, the Eisenhower method involves building a quadrant consisting of four quadrants, where there are two axes, urgency and importance. Daily tasks fit into each of them (after distributing them into the presented groups).

Pareto Planning

Popular with Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto: 80/20. According to his observations, only 20% of the effective time spent brings 80% of the results.

Here are just a few examples of his calculations, the results of which prove a natural pattern:

• 20% work = 80% profit.
• 80% work = 20% profit.
• 20% clientele = 80% revenue.
• 80% clientele = 20% revenue.

Use this pattern in your daily life and see how your productivity changes. As a rule, people are accustomed to spending their precious time on recreation and entertainment, and devote the rest of their energy to business.

Change the focus, use 20% of the time, investing the maximum of your personal potential, which will lead to 80% of the result. Do only the most important things first, and only then the rest. The Pareto rule is conveniently applied in tandem with the Eisenhower method.

How to get started with time planning

Regardless of which method is preferred, the approach should be the same. Do not grab onto the distribution of cases right away - this will not lead to anything good. Start with preparation, which is observation. For two to three weeks, keep track of your schedule, keep an accurate chronology, up to 5 minutes. The timing of the chronology and the accuracy in the counts are very important for the final results.

Keep your entries as follows:

• 07:00-07:30 - woke up, did exercises, took a shower.
• 07:30-08:00 - had breakfast, checked mail and social networks.
• 08:00-08:30 - prepared working documentation.

Events can be recorded in any place convenient for you: in a notebook, computer, special program, to the voice recorder. Based on the data received, you will see what time is spent on, and then decide which of these are the most important and which are the least important.

If you decide to "steer" your time consciously and effectively, the following tips will definitely come in handy:

1. Never slow down on what you have achieved. As soon as you have achieved what you want, set yourself a new task and go to it. This will allow you to always stay in good shape.
2. Find time for self-development.
3. Do not take on other people's duties and tasks. You must move yourself forward, and not become a tool for the advancement of others. To do this, learn to say a firm “NO” and not feel guilty about it.
4. Analyze your desires, think about what you want to achieve in this life. This will give you an idea of ​​what you need to spend most of your time on.
5. Take a critical look at your life to identify bad habits that "devour" time. Feel free to cut them out of your life. As a last resort, leave them the smallest amount of time.
6. If, while doing something, you feel that it does not bring you any benefit, but only slows you down or pulls you back, drop it!
7. Before embarking on any business, think about whether you need it? Will it move you towards your intended goal? Yes - go for it, no - forget about it.
8. Keep a journal in which you will record all your victories and achievements. In difficult times, you can “draw” inspiration and strength from there, which will not let you deviate from what was planned.
9. Make business plans not for the day, but for the week - this approach is much more effective.
10. When you get stuck in business, do not rush and do not panic. No need to try to do everything at once - there will be no efficiency from this, but you can make mistakes, and nervous system break. Start with the most important things and gradually move on to the less important ones.
11. Do not try to remember everything, in the hustle and bustle of everyday life it is almost impossible. Keep a diary where you write everything you need.

Find a technique that is most comfortable for you, take into account the tips above, and live every day not only with pleasure, but also with benefit.

• Translation

Prioritization means doing the tasks that matter most first. If you are a product manufacturer, it means doing what is most valuable to the customer first.

In my experience, the art of prioritizing decisions is one of the hardest skills for teams. The reason is that these decisions are sometimes very complex. While this is usually part of the basic responsibilities of a product manager, I have found that on the best teams, each member prioritizes maniacally, focusing on the same goals as his colleagues, and working with them in conjunction.

This article focuses on the basics of prioritization.

The Basics of Prioritization

Prioritization in product management can be divided into two areas:

• Inter-project prioritization is all about determining which project your team should take on next.
• Prioritization of work within a single project - here the goal is to complete one project as efficiently as possible.

As we shall see, the ways in which we must deal with each of these problems are very different. This is explained by the fact that they involve different solutions.

When prioritizing projects, you must take one important decision: what will my team invest in first? To find the right approach to this question, imagine that you are putting together a puzzle. Strictly follow the diagram to find all the pieces, and when they add up in the right sequence, you will have the answer.

When you prioritize a project, you will have to make the same decision hundreds of times: is it really necessary? The correct approach is to realize that the process of producing a product is always spontaneous and develop a rigid way of thinking that will allow you to make decisions quickly, separating the necessary from the optional.

Prioritization between projects

Strictly follow the pattern to put the puzzle together: what will my team invest in first?

The answer to this question may require you to be rigorous, but the process itself is not particularly difficult:

• Estimate ROI for each project
• Apply three constraints: dependencies, time frame, and team composition.
• Put the puzzle together - sequencing projects based on ROI and constraints

I assume that most of these ideas are not new to readers, so we will go through them in passing.

1. Evaluate your ROI

The basis for prioritizing projects is the return on investment (ROI); it is measured as the amount of customer value that your team creates per unit of time. Your goal when it comes to prioritization is to always do the work that will give you the most customer value.

To highlight priority projects, you need to evaluate two points:

• The amount of customer value that will be received;
• The amount of time it will take to complete the project.

Once you have all this data for each project, you can simply compare them, and then - voila - the priorities are in full view.

Of course, it is difficult to assess the impact and efforts, but if we assume that the probability of making a mistake is the same every time, then as comparative exercise Payback calculation is a perfectly legitimate method for prioritizing projects.

Advice: made an assessment of effort and impact? Double the first value, and divide the second by two - and you will find yourself much closer to reality.

2. Apply limits

Because life is not as smooth as it is in spreadsheet, there are also limitations that need to be taken into account when prioritizing. The main constraints you will have to deal with are dependencies, time limits, and team composition.

Dependencies

An addiction occurs when one stage of work needs to be completed in order to progress with another stage.

Suppose your team is developing mobile applications and you want to make it so that on smartphones, customers can pay with the click of a button. you figured out that this project will pay off better than anyone else, and therefore want to implement this feature as soon as possible.

However, in order to do this, your company must first be able to accept payments at all, which is currently being worked on by another team. Dependence on other departments means there's nothing you can do yet, so the right thing to do in terms of prioritization is to defer the one-click payment feature and move on to the next project with the highest payback.

In the production process of products, dependencies are inevitable, and the more successful the product becomes, the more numerous they are, because a larger scale implies more complex systems. In large companies, understanding and working with dependencies is often the most important component of prioritization.

I’ll note in parentheses: many people think that startups have such high rates because the people there work harder and are more ambitious. In fact, the speed difference comes from the fact that startups have far fewer dependencies (and customers who will be unhappy if something goes wrong), so it's easier for them to get things right.

Reverse dependencies

There are times when you have a project that will be very helpful to other teams in achieving their goals. In such cases, you are the dependency.

If you are calculating the ROI of the project for the company as a whole, and not just your product - and you need to do just that - then you should calculate the total ROI not only of your project, but also of all the dependencies on it that you “unfreeze” in order to correctly prioritize your team.

Whenever I see how the team is working to “unfreeze” others, I feel respect for these people - this speaks of maturity in product thinking. These teams are the unsung heroes, the ones that bring the most value to the product company.

Time frame

The time frame is a standard limitation that we have all experienced. Things get especially serious when there is a risk that you will spend money before implementing the most profitable feature, and it will all be over.

In such a situation, the right decision, of course, would be to choose the most cost-effective project that can be realistically completed within this time frame.

Line-up

Not all teams are equal, and sometimes the composition of a team will influence your decisions about which project to take on.

Take for example a team that almost entirely consists of people new to the company - for example, a bunch of interns (I don’t want to say anything bad about the interns, 50% of all software is made by them).

In such situations, you should beware of prioritizing a project that contains many risks for clients, even if it has the highest ROI. Instead, it will be more beneficial for you to prioritize a project that does not affect any critical pieces of code or user experience, because then the likelihood of a bad outcome is reduced by several times.

Help rookie teams get their feet wet first by successfully rolling out a few small projects. Once they have a history of successfully implemented features, they can move on to more complex projects.

Prioritize between projects: put the whole puzzle together and get to work

I'm understating the amount of work required to collect all of the information above, but once you have it all in your hands, all that's left is to put the pieces together.

Setting priorities within the project

Once a project is underway, the prioritization differs on a fundamental level. She becomes more spontaneous. Decisions need to be made every day, and there is not enough time for a deep analysis of each problem, which we did at the project selection stage. In addition, during this period, the team is on nerves - after all, all these decisions will somehow affect real customers, and at times it may seem that the reputation of each of those involved in the startup is at stake.

The only way to deal with the speed and chaoticity of the product development process is to develop a rigid approach in which all the work that the team does will be tracked and every action will be called into question: is it really necessary?

To take a tough approach is to recognize real situation things, realize what you have to do daily hard choise where to focus your energy. Realize that the intention to release the perfect product is an illusion that launch always requires compromises.

The tough approach is caused by the desire to bring the product to launch. The expectations of investors and customers put so much pressure on the team that in the end, it simply becomes scary for many to bring the product to market. They begin to bother with trifles to such an extent that the work practically does not move. They lose sight of what really matters - customer value per unit of time - and start chasing perfection.

Show me a team that doesn't have bugs at launch and I'll tell you they should have rolled out a long time ago.

In fact, the very spontaneity of prioritization within a project renders any attempt to define a fixed sequence of activities pointless. A more productive strategy is to help the team learn product development concepts that will be useful to them in order to firmly answer the question: “Is this really necessary?”. Here are the ones we'll cover in this article:

1. We create a prioritization system
2. Use product assumptions to strike a balance between quality and speed
3. Startup time cost

1. Create a prioritization system

Any default software is a headache. It still has bugs, and over time there will only be more of them. If a team, faced with a new bug, cannot quickly determine whether it is worth fixing, then their ability to focus on the most important tasks will be undermined.

You can't afford to call a meeting and discuss priorities every time a bug is discovered, so optimal output will introduce a system by which you can determine which bugs to work on right away, and which ones to give up.

As an example, here is a system that has proven useful for my team.

The x-axis represents the percentage of users who will be affected by the bug, the y-axis represents how severe the impact will be. The red dot represents the bug itself.

To apply this system, work with your team to determine what severity level and percentage of users will be considered the maximum allowed (in our case, these are “users cannot complete the payment” and 5%, respectively). Next, break the field into zones and agree on what actions will be taken for each. The set of actions must necessarily include “send to the backlog and do not touch”.

If you put the time and effort into this, your team will become a veritable bug-fixing machine, and the possibility of someone working on a minor bug will be eliminated at the system level.

2. Use product assumptions to strike a balance between quality and speed

You often hear stories about how terrible code the founders of a startup wrote in the early stages. Then, when the company achieved success, this code was a nightmare for the new programmers of the team.

What, the founders didn't know how to write code? Not excluded. But most likely at that time they simply did not care about the quality of the code, since the likelihood that the product would be successful was extremely small. So they emphasized speed and idea testing.

Every team inevitably sacrifices some quality in order to launch a product. She has to decide where to draw the line, and for the most part it is determined by how the priorities are set - which is considered key to the quality of the product.

Here's a good way to find your sweet spot on the speed-to-quality spectrum: build on your assumptions about the product. Product assumptions are those underlying beliefs about a user problem or intended solution that you hold.

As a simple example you can bring the company Facebook at the dawn of its activities. The alleged problem was formulated as "people want to communicate with each other online." After confirming that the problem was real, they began to come up with ideas for the product, such as the ability to add other users as friends - in other words, make assumptions about how to solve the problem.

If you analyze your product, you will see that the situation with assumptions can be as follows:

1. The very problem you want to solve is an assumption
2. The solution you propose for known issue, is an assumption
3. Neither the problem nor the solution is a guess (you know exactly what to do and why)

If you are on the left side of the spectrum, then you have an assumption that users are experiencing some problem, but you do not know how true it is. In that case, you'd be better off cutting corners as much as possible and rolling out the product as quickly as possible to minimize the risk that you're solving a problem that doesn't exist.

On the contrary, if you are on the right end of the spectrum, that is, you are confident in both the relevance of the problem and how to create the right solution, then it is worth providing the maximum possible quality- after all, you know that the product will be successful, which means you need a good start for the future.

Often companies create separate teams for experimentation and for working on the “core”. It seems to me that this organizational structure indicates that most teams do not have an understanding of the range of assumptions about the product and, accordingly, they are not able to make an unambiguous choice in favor of speed or quality.

3. Time cost of launch

Software has value for users only after launch.

This means that we must be able to determine the value of an early product launch for users. I already talked about this concept in one of my previous articles.

For example, teams are often faced with the difficult choice of whether to implement a feature for 80% of customers while delaying it for the remaining 20%. Typically, this situation develops when its implementation for these 20% requires niche functionality, the creation of which will take twice as long (compared to what was implemented for 80%).

Let's break down both options.

Looking at the chart, we see that in the first case, 80% of users win - they get access to the functionality earlier and are able to extract more value. Otherwise, they would have to wait. Then, it turns out, there is nothing to guess - should you choose the first option? Not really. The choice remains difficult because:

1. The 20% of users who remain unreached will definitely understand that you made the decision not to support them, and will be furious. From their point of view, it would be better if you did nothing at all.
2. 80% of users for whom the feature will be connected will not actually feel that they have gained anything from having access to it earlier.

Paradoxically, these two effects add up to the following result: by making the decision to provide more value to users over a certain period of time, we will anger more people than if we did nothing. Lived up.

However, in such cases, I usually advise the teams to get tough and launch the product. And that's why:

1. If users knew the context and could decide for us, the vast majority would vote for launch.
2. AT long term, if the team consistently adheres to such a strategy, then gradually the ratio of cases when a particular user is among the 80% and 20%, respectively, will even out. As a result, the effect is cumulative and users get more value exponentially over a given period than they would from a company that prefers to always wait until it can reach 100% of its customer base.

Opting for an early launch is one of those ideas that is easy to think about but difficult to implement because of the discomfort it causes. Those who know how to rigidly prioritize will understand what's what and will be able to act in the interests of users.

Prioritization within the project: a rigid approach is unnatural

The concepts considered are those in the usefulness of which I had the opportunity to verify on own experience. There are others, and everything I suggested can be adjusted in the process of application.

Unfortunately, most of companies are reluctant to adopt a rigid approach to prioritization, despite the fact that this is a key principle for those who create products.

For example, in large organizations, new features are rolled out every now and then; most of the workers learn about it no earlier than the users themselves. Do you think they will see in such conditions that their colleagues managed to spend three times less time on launch than others would have spent in their place? Unlikely. But they will notice what is missing in the final product, even if all these shortcomings were missed by the team on purpose.

Conversely, a polished product is usually praised within the company. One bad thing: it took two years to bring it to launch. It’s a pity that we don’t think about how many users have turned away from us because they despaired of waiting for it.

Motivate your team to get better - that is, tougher.

Prioritization is an art

Time is the most valuable resource that your company has at its disposal. If your responsibility is to manage this time, you need to develop this skill to the maximum. This is an art that can be purposefully comprehended in practice.

Finally, I offer you one more thesis on the topic of priorities: there is always a way to achieve your goal faster than you planned.

Always. You just need to find it. You just need to ask the question: “How can we do it twice as fast?” at the end of the meeting - and somehow miraculously the team will come up with a solution.

I've been launching products for two years and have never seen a situation where the team couldn't figure out how to deliver the same value to the user in less time. I also did not come across cases where the team prioritized ideally - which once again confirms what was said above.

If we accept that there is always a way out, then the most reasonable thing is to actively and firmly prioritize, whether the project is already in the works or you are still choosing which of the startups to do.

Even if your project is a whole state.