#18: On prioritisation

How to figure out what's most important

Pass It On is a bi-weekly newsletter bringing the tech and non-profit sectors closer together through knowledge sharing, written and edited by Lauren Crichton.

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Summertime in Stockholm is officially in full swing. The city is calmer than usual as many have ventured on the customary four-week Swedish summer vacation, and the weather has been uncharacteristically hot. Both changes have caused my brain to slow down.

One advantage to a less whirring mind is more focus. At Sana Labs, where I work, I've prioritised two projects for the month and stripped away the rest.

Since that decision was easier said than done for me, today's knowledge share is about prioritisation—why it matters and how to do it. And since non-profits and startups both work under resource constraints, it's a relevant topic to both sides of the Pass It On camp.

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Why does prioritisation matter?

The 80/20 rule

Also known as the Pareto Principle and the Law of the Vital Few, the 80/20 rule states roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. It plays out across many different outcomes: 80% of wealth belonging to 20% of the population; 20% of hedge funds investing 80% of the money; 20% of workers doing 80% of the work, etc. For both individuals and organisations, the 80/20 rule carries an important lesson about prioritisation: find the small number of high-value activities and focus on those; ignore the rest. At Sana, we value this principle so highly that it’s part of one of our core values.

The 80/20 rule sounds simple, but it's easier said than done. Especially when multiple people are asking for your help on tasks they all wanted to complete yesterday. And if you're a people pleaser on top of that? Challenging stuff.

So, how do I prioritise?

Assess importance vs. urgency

Via the Eisenhower Matrix, famously attributed to the former US President:

While the matrix suggests that you immediately attend to what's urgent and important, remember to make time for what's important, but not urgent. The latter tend to be more strategic, high-leverage activities.

Assess effort vs. impact

When both time and resources are limited:

This matrix helps teams find the most efficient path towards achieving their goals. Just be sure that everyone is clear on what that goal is before mapping the tasks! For more tips on running the exercise, check out this guide and template from online collaboration platform Miro.

There are plenty of other prioritisation methods out there, some better suited to individual rather than group tasks. Zapier provides a helpful overview here.

What if I have competing priorities?

Let's imagine you've filled in the Eisenhower Matrix and have ended up with three tasks that are both important and urgent. Which task should you prioritise first?

Compare the Cost of Delay

A common technique within Agile teams, Cost of Delay quantifies the economic impact of delaying a project. In other words, where the Eisenhower Matrix combines urgency with importance, Cost of Delay looks at urgency and value.

A simple way to calculate Cost of Delay cost is to:

1. Estimate the project's expected (weekly/monthly) profit

2. Estimate how much time it would take to complete the project

3. Divide the expected profit by the estimated time duration

The higher that number (known as the CD3 value), the more important that project is from an economic point of view. You could choose to prioritise based on that, but there may be other scenarios you'd want to consider. 

Resist the temptation to run all projects simultaneously

If the same people need to work on all three prioritised projects, concurrently running those projects will:

(a) Increase Cost of Delay because you're increasing the amount of time before any project is delivered.

(b) Increase context switching, which kills productivity.

(c) Reduce team morale as a result of (a) and (b).

As the Agile saying goes: stop starting and start finishing!

Oh, and one more thing…

Understand your self-doubt behaviour

We use two common behaviours to manage our self-doubt: perfectionism and procrastination. Both can sabotage our ability to prioritise.

Why? Because perfectionism usually results in someone obsessing over minor details that may not be important, urgent, or impactful. And procrastination causes us to avoid challenging situations that would likely be all three of those things.

For example, when I feel out of my comfort zone on a project, and my self-doubt kicks in, I get tempted to tick off my "easier" (i.e., less important/impactful) tasks in a bid to make myself feel more in control.

Now that I understand this self-doubt behaviour, I can recognise it more quickly and take steps to ensure it doesn't muddle my prioritisation.

Much credit to the brilliant Dr. Rashmi Narayana and her illuminating newsletter on self-doubt, from which I've paraphrased. Sign up for future issues on the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, and leadership here.

And thanks to two additional Pass It On readers, David and Sana Labs founder Joel Hellermark, for their respective prompts on Cost of Delay and the Eisenhower Matrix.

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Do you have any other tried and tested prioritisation techniques? Let us know:

As always, thanks for reading,

Lauren 👋