A common mistake for any manager – not just engineering managers (EMs) – is failing to prioritize. 

Thinking everything in front of you is urgent and important will have you running in circles until you suffer from:

  • Poor performance
  • Missed deadlines
  • Incomplete tasks
  • Overwhelm
  • And burnout

Naturally, many managers then seek to fix this issue but make another common mistake as a result: they think they learn prioritization, do it once, and move on. In other words, they view the process as a “set it and forget it” approach.

It’s not. 

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Prioritization is never a one-off job – it’s either part of your daily routine, or it isn’t. And you need to be ready to adjust it throughout the day if unexpected circumstances or crises arise (because they will).

The impact of clutter

If you’ve ever moved house, you know how much stuff we accumulate. But you never really understand just how much until you’re moving! You start packing, and even after having filled ten large boxes, you realize you have enough things for ten more. 

How? How does this happen, you wonder?

One item at a time, but probably also because of that one “junk drawer” we all have. You know, the one probably full of: 

  • Cords and cables
  • Random tools
  • Takeout menus
  • An old doorknob or two
  • Chargers for phones you no longer own
  • And wires for those speakers you had back in 2003

Everything goes in, but you rarely take anything out, and it just keeps growing. Somehow, this drawer ignores all the laws of physics and keeps expanding to accommodate the things you put in and forget about. There is nothing wrong with this – as the many Reddit threads and forums dedicated to this topic can attest – but all of these items occupy something that will eventually burst or become unusable.

Your brain, just like the drawer, is a limited space. And pushing past those limits causes disastrous consequences, as mentioned above. 

It will feel like you can keep pushing past them, and you’ll probably get away with this for a time. Likely just long enough for you to turn it into a bad habit that will make it even more likely for you to face those consequences.

Break it down each day

I allocate approximately 30 minutes each morning to organize my priorities. 

As an example, not too long ago, I was traveling for work on Friday, so I knew I only had so much time that week. Monday morning, I came to my desk and started my day with about 300 items I needed to do (I’m exaggerating, but that’s what it felt like!). Obviously, this is not humanly possible. So, I prioritized.

My way of prioritizing is basically a process of condensing a huge amount of items, tasks, and information into manageable parts – it’s eating the elephant one bite at a time. These are the steps I took (and take).

Be ruthless

First, I assessed my list of items. I had to be ruthless. Yes, lots of them are great things to do, but the vast majority are for someday, not today. 

This is when I’ll utilize the Eisenhower Matrix. This system helps you prioritize your items based on what’s important and urgent. For example, if a task has an imminent deadline, then it’s urgent. But if researching new tools for your team is neither urgent nor important, then it gets moved from the priorities.   

So, a lot of the items went into the “do some time because they are a good idea” box. This list is not a priority list but a pile of items that, every once in a while, I’ll organize into categories and topics. They are not items that require immediate action, though. I also find that doing this helps me keep a clear mind.  

Group

Being ruthless left me with far fewer items, and most of these were important but not urgent. So, I started grouping them together. By doing this, I realized it wasn’t actually about 100 separate things to do but about eight groups. 

Some examples of my groups are:

Small stuff: This is a group of simple things that don’t require much time to complete, usually under five minutes each, such as giving someone access to a server, reminding an engineer to do something, or responding to a comment.

Watch list: These are items that I have to keep an eye on – they are not big items but ones that need monitoring, like making sure someone continues to do something.

Meetings: This is another group where I get organized for my meetings with things like questions, talking points, and items that need resolving.

High-level: This is all one large task but then broken down into its components, with each task allowing you to move on to the next one. There might be several of these, depending on how many projects I’m working on. An example of this is preparing a performance review for an engineer. The review is the large task, and the components would be:

  • Gathering and analyzing data
  • Reviewing past goals and objectives
  • Identifying strengths and areas for improvement
  • Writing the evaluation
  • Setting new goals and objects
  • And preparing for career development discussion

Find high-priority items

Next, I looked at the eight groups to determine which had deadlines and which didn’t. In this case, three did and five didn’t. As a result, I knew what my high-priority items were that day and what the rest of my week would look like.

Ultimately, from 300 items, I ended up with three that were high-priority I needed to do right away and five I could tackle after.

And I achieved all of this by spending 30 minutes of my time that day dedicated to this task. I would still need to spend time each following day reassessing priorities, but I had an excellent head start.

Follow the rule of three

The idea that things presented in threes are more pleasing, effective, and memorable is a long-standing concept. It’s been used in: 

  • Philosophy
  • Writing
  • Music
  • Oration
  • Marketing
  • And psychology 

While it may not be the strict definition of Omne Trium Perfectum, prioritizing into threes is an effective method. By that, I mean prioritizing the three most important tasks for the day. 

The number three works because it is a realistic amount of items you can achieve. If you complete more than three on any given day – amazing! But if you set yourself 10 items and only complete three, then you feel like you’ve failed. This sets you up for a negative mindset and doesn’t help with productivity.

But by focusing on just three tasks, you’ll have the full power of your brain working on them rather than scrambling to process seven, ten, twelve, and so on.

Work out high-leverage and low-leverage tasks

High- and low-leverage items are about weighing up long-term gains with short-term satisfaction.  

Let’s say you have a team of engineers, and you have to build a piece of software, but you’re one engineer short. So, you think, “Okay, I will code this part myself.” 

Or you could go and prepare a test task and do a bunch of interviews for a new engineer. This will probably take the same amount of time as you coding the part yourself. 

So, what do you do?

Option one is the most appealing because it’s in our comfort zone. As EMs, especially new EMs, we like doing things ourselves, and if that involves coding, then even better! But as a manager, option one is not the best choice. 

The first option is the low-leverage choice because when the next project comes:

  • You’ll be coding again 
  • You’ll still be a team member short
  • And you won’t grow or improve as a manager

Option two is the high-leverage choice for three reasons, including: 

  • You now have a trial test you can reuse in the future 
  • You become better at conducting interviews with this experience
  • And you may end up hiring a candidate, meaning you’ll no longer be an engineer short and won’t have to code anything yourself

Find a system that works for you

Whatever you do, write it down! 

I’ll give you an example. I went to the dentist the other day, and I was lying in the dentist’s chair when I remembered I needed to look something up. But I was stuck in the chair. So, for the next 30 minutes, I was lying there with this endless loop circling in my head as I kept telling myself, “I need to remember this – I need to write this down so I don’t forget!” 

As EMs, we encounter hundreds of things we have to remember or take action on every day. We can’t afford to have even 10 of these loops going around in our heads, or we’ll never be able to get our work done. 

I like the Getting Things Done (GTD) method because, for me, it gets rid of the internal dialog and trying to remember a bunch of things I have to do. The GTD method may or may not work for you, but what’s important is finding a system to keep track of your priorities. Others could be:

The point isn’t even the tool or app you choose – it’s finding something that helps you actually do this work. So, start experimenting until you find one that works for you.

The short version: start taking your first bites

Taking the time to prioritize is one of the most important steps in being able to effectively manage your workload. Only after are you able to take the next steps to start work, delegate, and make progress. Here are some ways to approach prioritization:

  • Do it every day: make it part of your daily routine – that way, you’ll stay on top of it
  • Organize your tasks: systematically, ruthlessly, and realistically go through your tasks and separate, group, and prioritize them until you have a reasonable amount and know when you need to do each
  • Follow the rule of three: it’s an achievable number for you to do each day, and it makes you feel good
  • Work out high- vs low-leverage items: determine which action will result in better long-term gains than short-term ones
  • Keep a record: find a system, tool, or app that helps you write down and keep track of all your tasks and priorities each day

Aim to start each day with a clear focus on your top three priorities. So, the next time you are faced with an overwhelming amount of items on your to-do list, think like the Romans and apply the rule of three: veni, vedi, vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). 

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Originally published on Medium.com

Content in this blog post by Alex Ponomarev is licensed under CC BY 4.0.