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prioritise & delegate

If you feel that often you don't have enough time for the amount of work you have to do, then here's an interesting tool. Also for when you consider ALL of your work as important and urgent, stay tuned. Time to change a bit of your perspective. You can be so involved in your work, that you are not able anymore to distinguish what truly has priority or urgency.

prioritise & delegate to organise your tasks to avoid stress

On the right something known as the Eisenhower model. First, let determine the two axes.

1) important tasks are tasks where there is a lot at stake. Life & relationships for example. Future livelihoods or basic social needs. Preservation of nature. Also critical tasks with lots of interests of people and organisations, clients, financial interest or media attention.

2) urgent tasks are tasks that have a short-term deadline; they need to be done immediately, because exceeding or postponing the deadline isn't possible.


Now, make a list of all the tasks you have to do on a daily basis. Make them as specific as possible. 


For example, I am not talking about 'administration' as a task, but rather 'processing registration of clients', 'making diagnostic reports' or 'visiting colleagues for ad hoc questions'. Try to see what consumes your time in a day and give the task a proper name.

Next, order all the tasks into the diagram, that you can draw yourself, and arrange them based on your own judgement of how important or urgent these tasks are. You can asks co-workers or your team lead some feedback on how you have ordered them (remember you have blind spots).

delegating isn't just task management

it's the art of letting go and trusting your fellow co-workers


When you are confident that the tasks are well ordered in the diagram, it is time to process them and see what you can stop doing.

plan & delegate your tasks

1. All your urgent and important tasks have high priority. Those are the tasks you want to DO. Make sure you make time free in your agenda on a daily base to finish them.


2. All the tasks that are important but don't have a deadline you can PLAN. Align with the product owner when the task should be finished to prevent any stressful ad hoc urgency.


3. All the tasks that are urgent, but not important, are actually tasks others could do. These are the ones you can DELEGATE. 


If you think you can't delegate them because you feel responsible or it's what you're hired to do, then discuss with your superior or others involved how to deal with the magnitude of your tasks and those that you have defined as important & urgent, in relation to these that could be delegated. Ask help, and people will be happily to execute some of these tasks. Then it's up to you to let go and allow others to deliver an amazing job. If you keep the feeling that you will do better than your co-workers, try setting up quality indicators together with them; when is the job done in an excellent way?


4. All the tasks that aren't urgent nor important you can STOP doing and chances are no one would complain. Stopping doesn't mean you just drop everything or you don't answer emails. It means saying no, suggesting someone else does it or just say that you have other priorities at this time. If you feel it's really you that needs to DO these tasks, then do it only if:

- it only takes 2 minutes of your time (like a brief email)

- if you are able to PLAN these tasks in a block of one hour in your agenda and then DO them.

DETERMINE YOUR VALUE

Prioritising & Delegating isn't just task management, it's managing the value you deliver. Overworking yourself doesn't help anybody. Doing a lot of everything eventually leads to not doing much at all. Determine your true value:

- what are you really hired to do? What is your core assignment?

- what are your true talents that make you deliver an outstanding job? Are you using them in the tasks you are prioritising?


Try to answer these questions, perhaps together with a colleague, supervisor or coach, if prioritising and delegating keeps on being a challenge for you.

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