Managing Priorities for Success

Among the central skills for success in life and work is the ability to distinguish between the importance of various tasks or objectives. For busy people, there appears to be too much to do at every moment. Trying to work harder, run faster and become more efficient helps a lot, but ultimately we hit a wall. There just isn’t enough time available to get everything done.

One of my hardest challenges came when I was quite suddenly placed in charge of 15,000 employees at a large corporation. Previously, I had been Chief Financial Officer with huge responsibilities, but this sudden promotion to Chief Operating Officer left me virtually breathless for a few days. Fortunately, I was able to rely on the habits, skills, and priorities I had developed over many years. I wrote down my key priorities and set out to achieve them quickly. My number one priority was to quickly assemble an effective executive team from among the people already in the organization, which was a manageable goal. Doing that right enabled me to meet the other looming challenges.

Fortunately, my business career started out with much simpler challenges. For many years, I was engaged in building up several corporate banking offices, which started humbly. I can well remember having only one assistant to help me in the early days. Later, I had offices with 7 people, then with12 people, then 20 or 40 people. What enabled me to thrive and prosper was to cut through all of the sophisticated sounding management talk and to reduce our objectives to the basics, like:

• build and nurture a strong team, and
• serve our best customers and prospects well.

Simplify your goals

This may sound too simple for a Harvard graduate who started his career on Wall Street. But in my academic studies, I learned about the principle of simplicity called Occam’s razor, named after a 14^th Century monk, which says essentially that the simplest scientific explanation possible is more likely to be correct than the more complicated possibilities. This principle has now been applied to virtually every field of human endeavor.

In modern business parlance, we could translate Occam’s razor to say: “just cut through all the crap and get it down to the basics.” Leonardo da Vinci said "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication". That applies equally to life, art or business.

Regrettably, I do not subscribe to the theory that greater efficiency will enable you to accomplish everything that needs doing. In my experience, we are constantly choosing between doing one thing and another, all day. Should we spend quality time with our friend on the phone, or move on with an urgent task?

There is no simple easy solution to this dilemma, like “always do your work first”, or, “always spend time with people, no matter what”; these both sound equally good. However, in real life, we must choose between many seemingly important calls on our time. This gets especially complex in balancing family responsibilities against work demands.

Sort your priorities

Another guiding principle I have found and practiced for many years comes from an Italian philosopher who said that if you have a list of 10 items, or 10 possessions, or 10 of almost anything, one or two items will outweigh the remaining 8 or 9 on the list in total importance. I have confirmed that principle repeatedly throughout my career. Learning to sort out what is important from all the other demands in our lives is a consummate skill.

My daily practice for many years has been to write a quick list in a minute or two of what most needs to be done. Then I decide which of these tasks is most important and make sure that this one gets done for sure, no matter what it takes.

Sometimes we need a friend or advisor to help us sort out what is absolutely crucial from what is merely important. At work, it is good to ask your boss and colleagues what is most crucial, so that everyone works together toward a common goal, rather than pursuing conflicting priorities.

Look long term

Whether at work or in our family, we may often get tempted to do what seems important today and thus ignore tomorrow. Many years ago I heard someone say we should spend 50% of our time on longer term goals. I have tried to do that for a lifetime, which has helped me enormously.

That doesn’t mean no time out for relaxing, for family, sports, or entertainment. Those are also important for our long term well being. I have tried to limit my work week to 45 – 55 hours at most, which becomes possible by sorting priorities.

Conclusion

Sorting out and simplifying our tasks and priorities is crucial for success. Take a few minutes to do this daily. Occasionally it is worth taking an hour or two to contemplate your life and work to reassess your situation. At New Year, or some other time, it may be worth spending a full day to figure out your future direction.

I have found that the people who “work hard” rarely do as well as the people who “work smart”, although both are good. Turn your brain into a superior navigation instrument. That is its purpose!