STRATEGY
PRIORITIZING
WHY YOU ’ RE ( LIKELY ) DOING IT WRONG
BY DAVE CRENSHAW , AUTHOR , SPEAKER & ONLINE TRAINER , DAVECRENSHAW . COM
ONLY THREE hours a day .
According to one study , that ’ s how much time is actually productive in a person ’ s average forty-five-hour workweek . This essentially means that only 33 percent of your long , challenging workweek is actually spent doing the things that fulfill your role and bring more value to your company and yourself .
Maybe that ’ s why over one quarter of Americans work nights , and almost one third work weekends , to make up for lost time during a seemingly chaotic workweek . Or maybe that ’ s why most of us simply feel overwhelmed with work , and we find ourselves saying , “ There aren ’ t enough hours in the day .”
So what makes each day chaotic and unproductive ? Improper prioritization .
WHERE IT GOES WRONG
Prioritizing time is one of those long-held goals that we , as professionals , struggle with daily .
Sure , it sounds simple , but putting the concept to work proves to be more challenging — and less effective — than we ’ d like . And more often than not , individuals with poor prioritization skills tend to waste time and lose value in their daily grind .
The biggest problem with prioritizing time is that you have to start with the most important task first . While that sounds great in theory , it doesn ’ t help you in instances where literally everything feels like a priority . And since it seems we ’ re constantly confronted with a pile of priorities — all equally important — efficiency becomes almost impossible .
Having worked with hundreds of business professionals , I ’ ve found that there are a few key things that prevent them from prioritizing properly . Here are three questions business managers should ask themselves to make priority a function of time and to get compound dividends on what they put into their businesses .
“ IS THIS A REPETITIVE TASK ?”
According to a recent survey , repetitive tasks consume 520 hours of an employee ’ s time each year . This puts a lot at stake regardless of where you fall on the organizational totem pole .
Take some time to recognize redundancies in your workday , and you ’ ll likely find yourself swimming in inefficiencies . Absolutely anything that you do that ’ s repetitive is fair game for delegation .
Delegate those repetitive tasks to employees . No employees ? No problem . Outsource them using a resource like UpWork . Even if you ’ re in a nonleadership role , you can unearth enormous value by having someone help you with basic administrative or clerical tasks . You could also simply hire help based on annual and predictable spikes in business or when you ’ re overwhelmed with monster projects .
Delegating repetitive tasks isn ’ t a luxury — it ’ s a necessity for successful professionals .
“ AM I CREATING A BOTTLENECK ?”
No one should ever look up and find out he or she is the one holding up the line . But at any point in the day , you could be the one multiplying inefficiencies for your team or department . If you ’ re feeling the pressure of multiple
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