Prioritize to Finish, not to Start
There’s a lot of focus on prioritization and rightly so. There are so many things I can get you distracted, not prioritizing can generate a great deal of waste. However, when individuals or organizations decide to prioritize, they often focus on the wrong factors.
What everybody wants to prioritize our new projects or actions to start. The first problem with this is that we don’t always know what is most important to start because we don’t know what it might generate. It assumes we know everything that we need to know before starting. The second problem is that prioritizing what to start doesn’t necessarily get us any closer to results. What to prioritize instead?
Prioritize what the finish. You may start many things, some you will clearly finish and others you will only explore. But it’s what to bring to fruition that really makes the difference and generates the results. Look at the things that you started. Figure out what days you either the most important result, or in result with the least incremental effort. Decide to finish, and then did so.
There is no magic and privatization itself, and the decision itself still requires a great deal of judgment and insight. But this judgment is wasted when only applied on what new actions to start and projects to begin. Focus instead on the many things underway and decide what to bring to completion.
Just what I needed to read today as I sat down to make my plan for the day — but wait, reading e-mail and your post wasn’t doing the day plan! Can we make an exception for discovering unexpected opportunities to learn?
Just what I needed to read today as I sat down to make my plan for the day — but wait, reading e-mail and your post wasn’t doing the day plan! Can we make an exception for discovering unexpected opportunities to learn?
Just what I needed to read today as I sat down to make my plan for the day — but wait, reading e-mail and your post wasn’t doing the day plan! Can we make an exception for discovering unexpected opportunities to learn?
Jamie,
Interesting post. It seems like prioritizing to finish is part of setting SMART goals but at the same time, many people don’t use them well if at all. There are certainly leaders who get too many irons in the fire and don’t seem to finish any projects well. PepsiCo seemed to take their eye off the ball while pursuing healthy products and they let Diet Coke overtake Pepsi as the #2 soda behind Coca-cola (http://wp.me/pZiRD-18r). Companies that have too many initiatives don’t do as well as those with less according to the Harvard Business Review. The same is true of leaders who do less really well. Thanks for sharing.
Chris
Jamie,
Interesting post. It seems like prioritizing to finish is part of setting SMART goals but at the same time, many people don’t use them well if at all. There are certainly leaders who get too many irons in the fire and don’t seem to finish any projects well. PepsiCo seemed to take their eye off the ball while pursuing healthy products and they let Diet Coke overtake Pepsi as the #2 soda behind Coca-cola (http://wp.me/pZiRD-18r). Companies that have too many initiatives don’t do as well as those with less according to the Harvard Business Review. The same is true of leaders who do less really well. Thanks for sharing.
Chris
Jamie,
Interesting post. It seems like prioritizing to finish is part of setting SMART goals but at the same time, many people don’t use them well if at all. There are certainly leaders who get too many irons in the fire and don’t seem to finish any projects well. PepsiCo seemed to take their eye off the ball while pursuing healthy products and they let Diet Coke overtake Pepsi as the #2 soda behind Coca-cola (http://wp.me/pZiRD-18r). Companies that have too many initiatives don’t do as well as those with less according to the Harvard Business Review. The same is true of leaders who do less really well. Thanks for sharing.
Chris