Building off last month’s post about my enjoyment of being busy, it seems important to follow it up with a reminder about prioritization.
I used to wear “I’m juggling everything” like a badge of honor. Here’s the thing nobody tells you early enough in your career: if everything is a priority, nothing is. It’s not a clever saying. It’s a trap that I lived in for longer than I’d like to admit.
I remember a particularly brutal period where my team was stretched across five “top priority” initiatives. Guess how many we finished well? One. Barely. The rest were a mix of half-done and almost-there. And we were exhausted. We didn’t fail from lack of effort. We failed from lack of focus.
What I didn’t realize was prioritization was a leadership skill. True prioritization requires saying no/not yet, in ways that people can hear and respect. And I’m not always great at it. Sometimes, I’m just a quick no response that can really shut down the conversation and curiosity. So here’s my new approach I’ve been experimenting with:
- Take a breath
- Start by asking what’s the benefit of the new priority request
- Explore creative solutions
- Examine tradeoffs (what goes if this is not first, are we ok with the waste that comes from putting something on hold, are we ok with good enough, etc)
- Make the priority decision
Prioritization isn’t about being ruthlessly efficient. It’s about being honest — with your team, your stakeholders, and yourself — about what you can actually do well, right now, with the reality of the situation.
What is your approach to updating prioritization?
