I drew this on a screenshare today while talking to a MassLandlords manager.

I don’t remember where I learned it*. The basic gist is that lots of people will suggest lots of things for you to do.

Some things are going to be hard and have a low impact on your goals. Write them down, but don’t do them.

• These might become more relevant or less difficult in the future.
• Writing them down, as opposed to outright rejecting them, lets you return to them in the future. It also is more politically palatable to a requester to hear that it’s in your system, albeit lower priority, than “I have deleted your request.”

Others are going to be easy, low impact. Most administration falls into this category. Hire for it if you can. If you’re not able to hire, do these items when you’re tired.

• Anna Dietrich described these items as “zombie tasks” or “shooting zombies” because they are repetitive and won’t ever die. I like that analogy.
• When possible, try to eliminate the source of the zombies. Automation or process changes can eliminate a lot of the low impact work we take as given.

Some things are easy and will have a high impact on your goals. Do these asap.

• This is the most difficult thing for someone detail-oriented like me to do. I like to have a clean desk and inbox zero. Much of my best work happens because I ignore the other pressures.

The final set are things that will have a high impact but are hard. These require project plans and a longer-term commitment.

• It’s extremely important not to let a “high impact” item linger because you haven’t created the project plan. Oftentimes the first “action” is a brainstorm or research. Get these items into your task list. David Allen’s advice is invaluable on this front. Define the next action. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

I don’t like spending lots of time bucketing items into different categories. I don’t like systems that have nine or 16 squares. This four-square framework can be useful for communicating when you will or will not work on something. Otherwise, just get back to work.

*Covey’s Original Prioritization Framework

It turns out Stephen Covey popularized this, but he didn’t have “difficulty,” he had “urgency.” This switch hides any recognition that management or project planning might be needed. I might have learned to replace “urgency” with “difficulty” at Pratt & Whitney, I don’t know. Suffice it to say I think of the grid above when I think of priority frameworks.

Thinking of “urgency” works better in the “personal productivity” space, but less well in organizations. Everything is urgent to the requester.