Priorities. Figure Out What To Work On - Productivity 4 - DS034 #DougShow

hey what's going on

welcome to the Doug show my name is Doug

Pennington and in this episode we're

gonna talk about prioritizing and

figuring out what to work on if you

caught the previous three episodes then

you know this is part four of the four

part productivity series which means

this is the final episode on

productivity in this set I do like the

productivity topic and a lot of you know

a lot about other topics sort of are

related to it so I wouldn't be surprised

if there were more in the future but

this will sort of close out this four

part series like the other episodes my

wife and I discussed the topic and for

me I think setting priorities is you

know one of the key things that helps me

like be productive on my own when you

have a boss a lot of times you can lean

on them to figure out what is the

highest priority item or items which I

mean technically you can only have one

highest priority but I do tell a couple

stories about that I think in the

episode here anyhow being able to figure

out what to work on is a huge difference

because I could for example spend a

bunch of time answering every single

email I get as soon as I get them and

then not get me work done super easy to

do that and I have literally done that

before where you know maybe I send you

know 40 email emails out in a day and I

feel busy the whole day a little bit

stressed out and by the end of the day I

got nothing done so without further ado

I'm going to send it over to the

discussion I'm prioritizing

[Music]

priorities so I'm Elizabeth oh and I'm

Doug that's right that's right come on

man follow the protocol priorities

number one you gotta say your name at

the beginning

are you good at figuring out the highest

priority items yes nice yeah what's your

secret

ah my secret is I think it priorities

whoo it's like an interview question

yeah my so I am NOT a procrastinator and

I think that really helps when you're

prioritizing because if you are a

procrastinator there's always like a

fire to put out a fire drill and then

you're just scrambling and running

around so I'm kind of the like if you're

earlier on time if you're on time you're

late type of person so yeah I think that

helps me prioritize that doesn't really

answer the question does it no we'll get

it we'll get more into that's a really

hard question I was just curious what

you might say so for me I think I'm an

okay prioritize er so our last episode

was about deep work and focus and I

think I'm okay at that and I think I'm

okay at prioritizing the major issue

that I have is actually related to the

deep work aspect of it where I can get

distracted easily on things that

shouldn't have a high priority but they

feel like they do and that's that's

where I sometimes have trouble and if I

can execute deep work well and focus I

can limit the distractions and thus work

on the actual high priority items one

way I prioritize is I make a list so

when you have a like when I'm feeling

overwhelmed and you have a lot of things

in your head you know and maybe they're

bouncing around in your head I need to

do this and you do that blah blah blah

blah that's taking that brain space and

so if if I have a lot of things to do I

make sure I get them written down

actually just this morning tore a piece

of paper off of our fridge where I was

keeping lists of stuff I needed to do

and then crossing them off as I went but

I think you got to get it out of your

head look and maybe this is just me

because I'm a visual person but get it

out of your head get it on paper and

then you can see everything written down

and that helps like you figure out how

to prioritize what you need to work on

first second third yes and I think I

remember I think it was right after we

got married and I was like overwhelmed

with some work stuff and I think I had

some personal projects like some beer

brewing things and judging and I was

like there's so much going on and maybe

I can't remember but I'll just throw in

like a vacation and we were we had all

these plates spinning and I was like

overwhelmed and you're like just list

everything out and then you can work on

it and I was like it's you don't

understand it's like like whatever you

can imagine I remember a second part of

that is this a real story yeah right

yeah and I think you said just list

everything out and I'm like you don't

understand like it's way more complex

like you don't know all the things I'm

going through and then I like wrote down

the 15 things and I'm like oh yeah

that's not so bad so really and I have

since I learned that piece of magic from

you I've done that over and over again

and basically it always feels

overwhelming especially like I'll wake

up in the middle of the night and like

all my brain will start working on the

problems and it seems so like important

and intense in the middle of the night

and then when I wake up write the things

down I'm like oh that's not so bad

that's gonna take some time but it's

okay

further I know it works really well even

for other people to think that making a

list isn't can help I've worked with

probably a few dozen people on different

like productivity sort of things and

yeah really helpful just to get it out

of their brain and then after that it's

not has

like it is intense the stress I guess so

we're kind of haphazardly going around

but writing things down some people call

it a brain dump and yes that's graphic

right it's a brain dump and that's

really helpful but I can um I can think

of a couple times when in my corporate

job where the priorities weren't clear

and you end up with like

misunderstandings and problems like

bigger problems than they should be

I can think of one particular time at

least and this happened multiple times

but I was I was on a team as a project

manager there were I don't know several

other project managers and each one of

us had some odd ten projects or

something and I remember we were gonna

be short on time and I needed to direct

my team properly and I asked my boss hey

of these ten projects which one is the

highest priority so I know where to

begin and then I assume there's one

clear one and she said oh no these are

all high priority which obviously means

that none of them are a high priority

they're all equal so at that point I'm

like well maybe none of them are really

high priority image can work on them in

any order I don't know if that was true

or not but if everything's high priority

then nothing is I thought that story was

gonna go differently and I was listening

to you thinking great point Doug you

goat if you're confused you know in the

workplace go to your superior have them

give you some direction and you didn't

get any direction but I think it was

still a good point if you need help with

priorities it's always good to check in

right and she was she was a one of the

busybody kind of folks who even if we

didn't have much to do she would make it

sound like we didn't have enough time

and everything was high priority and she

would create like drama around things so

yes if you like I am 90% sure I did the

right thing to ask like okay we're not

gonna have enough time I need to direct

my resources properly

you want me to do and and she was like

do everything and it's like you can't do

everything I'm asking you so I had yeah

figured out on my own I also got laid

off so I was not I'm not I was in like a

I was a squeaky wheel I'll say and it

didn't work out

as well on that team but you know what

if you're gonna be a if you're gonna

have like a team working for you like I

think the boss needs to make a hard

decision and say here's the number one

project at least based on what I know

and then after that things will fall

into place now there were other times

where it was very clear like someone

above her who can make a decision would

get in touch with me and they're like

hey solve this problem today and then I

knew it was a hundred percent okay to

ignore other stuff and that is the root

of like prioritizing so there's a couple

books that I'll reference essentialism

by Greg McEwan and the one thing by Gary

Keller and those have a similar topic

between the two where you're basically

figuring out you know the one thing

that's the most important or the

essential things you need to worry about

is that like Jack Palance city slickers

the one thing yes in fact that is

referenced in one of the books oh nice

yeah

what was the one thing from city

slickers was it love I think you have to

figure it out on your own though really

I guess I missed the point of that one I

think it was a dick calf that little

baby that was the one thing yep hmm

alright I think you have to figure it

out on your own yeah so those are two

good bucks yep two really good books I

personal I read the one thing first and

I I thought it was great and it helped

me to understand that I can't do

everything and you can do a lot of stuff

but you can't do everything at once and

you have to prioritize and figure out

what you got to work on so can I tell a

corporate story one of when I was in

consulting we were just being bombarded

from every direction when I

worked in program management we had so

much stuff to do every day like

literally what you're talking about we

didn't know where to focus how to focus

I'm being a little bit exaggerating we

were better than that but we had a lot

going on and so we started this process

in the mornings when we would have

breakfast in the hotel there were three

of us on the team and each one of us

would say what were the three things we

wanted to accomplish that day and I

think just the fact that we had to sit

down and say it to each other made us

think about our day and think well what

is the top priority of the day what what

do we need to do and and that helped us

a lot it was kind of a chaotic project

but um yeah like saying it to someone

else writing it down thinking about it

in advance because you're right we

couldn't do everything and so we had to

pick and we didn't you know we didn't

have a real formalized way of picking

and we kind of all agreed on it our you

know our manager would be like yeah we

really needed to get this - okay well

we'll focus on that not the thing I said

but that's one way we sort of help to

organize and prioritize our day on that

project and it was really helpful once

we started doing that I think to sort of

focus our efforts yeah are you familiar

with the prioritization matrix I always

really liked that I will tell you about

it I'm getting just a blank look I bet

Doug is but you have four categories if

you look at a box and on one side you

have like critical not critical and then

on the others you have urgent and not

urgent and so you want to focus your

efforts on the critical urgent tasks

right does that sound familiar yeah a

lot of people call it the eisenhower

matrix he's an hour yeah and it's

important and not important

and then urgent and not urgent and then

yep so that that says she's shrugging

her shoulders yeah it's in my

productivity course so I know pretty

well oh yeah and the key is there's some

stuff that it's not important and it's

not urgent and you shouldn't even do it

and

those would be things like the Facebook

updates or something like that or

wasting time on social media where it's

like unless you need to unwind which is

okay but if you're like in a work mode

you shouldn't be wasting time like

looking at political post on Facebook

not a good use of your time not

important that critical the thing that

will get you is not working on the non

urgent important things because they're

not urgent by nature and those are

things like actually do you have any

examples off the top of your head

something important but not urgent no I

don't have any examples on this however

yet so those would be things like a

long-term project because you have

plenty of time to do it and thinking

back to our college days or something

like that you may have a project and you

have a whole semester to work on it and

it will take you a long time but your

you can keep putting it off for a very

long time and that's where the

procrastinators get in trouble Oh see

that's why I don't understand that

because I'm not a procrastinator you

keep ignoring those they eventually move

into the important urgent bucket right

yeah yep and that that's where there's

there are some studies out there and

some great headlines for the

procrastinators and it's like do

procrastinators have it figured out they

can work better and maybe people should

procrastinate more and I don't think

that's the case I mean some sometimes

having constraints can help you be more

creative but generally you should

probably work on stuff to give you

enough time for it any good another good

example away from like the work aspect

would be like training for a marathon

like you have plenty of time but you

really can't cram and like prepare your

body to run 26 miles without doing it

ahead of time so the other what's the

other quadrant there you got the urgent

but not important

so those would be like emails that don't

really like concern you so I get a lot

of these where someone will send me an

email email feels urgent because it

takes up space in your inbox the people

will send me an email and ask me a

question or maybe someone will send me

an email and ask me to do something for

them and it literally it's like not I

get no benefit out of it it's just

someone asking me for a favor I think

that was a hard one I was I was just

Doug just caught me I was looking at my

phone trying to figure out what other

types of things fall into the urgent but

not important category and that because

I would argue if anything is truly

urgent it should be important but it's

like what he was saying people were

people requesting your time you know in

a time-sensitive way that maybe is

important to them but not important to

you it's like false urgency yep and the

urgency takes many different forms so so

the thing is like the email is kind of a

clear or urgent thing a text message can

seem urgent another one back to the

focusing and deep work from the previous

episode like an open working office plan

or whatever like pods or something where

you can't get some privacy

something urgent would be like someone

walking up and saying hey do you want to

get a coffee and walk over here like all

of a sudden that's urgent because

they're like right there in front of you

and you know maybe you want to get the

coffee but if you're working that's a

distraction and it could pull you off

from what you need to be working on so

yeah so if you're struggling with the

prioritization that's a good way to to

think about your tasks once you get them

all written out so let's say you're not

a procrastinator you want to prioritize

stuff so how do you go about

prioritizing your tasks hmm

I've I'm so good at this and I've been

doing it for so long it's just it's like

how you ask a cat that they walk around

so softly on their toes they just do no

I think it's usually if someone else is

dependent on it you know so if if

someone's waiting on me if you know like

someone else needs to act on this

information that's one of the ways I

prioritize like if there's a deadline if

there's time-sensitive stuff I

prioritize it that way and then honestly

sometimes things get D prioritized if

I'm not sure that the person who asked

me who will remember that they actually

want it that's kind of maybe not the

best thing to do or a hard thing to do

but I'm in a position where I get asked

to do certain things and maybe they're

very difficult or it's gonna take a lot

of my time and a lot of my resources and

so I kind of will just like bump that

down on the list a little bit and to see

if the person who requested it actually

really wants it or if it was something

that they just sort of said and forgot

and I think the thing you're not saying

is those things aren't important and

someone else thought maybe it could be

important and like I know exactly what

you mean because sometimes sometimes

people are asking for stuff and they

don't really understand what they're

asking for or the like usefulness of

whatever the part is so I guess yeah

that if we want to keep it in the

Eisenhower matrix I will experiment

sometimes with throwing tasks into the

not important not urgent bucket knowing

that my prioritization might be

different than the person who may be

requested it and just see what happens

and sometimes I'll end up having to do

that task and it'll get bumped back up

and that's fine but sometimes it just

gets that was that that was the correct

place for it not important not urgent

shouldn't even be done then it shouldn't

even be done and and then sometimes it

doesn't get done let's break it down a

little because I asked you the question

but maybe it wasn't super clear so we'll

have two scenarios one being like you're

working on a like a single project sort

of a silo of work or whatever so at that

point I think like listing out all of

the tasks that you have to do and then

understanding if there are any

dependencies like you have to do certain

things ahead of time let's just pretend

you're like building a house like you

can't start painting the walls before

you lay the foundation and build the

house so like obviously there's some

hierarchy and order that you have to

follow there and that helps you figure

out like what order to do things and

other times it may be like less clear

and it doesn't really matter what order

to do it in and that's fine so you could

pick whatever order you want so that's

sort of one aspect prioritizing based on

like dependencies and the sequencing

other stuff that may come into play when

you're thinking about like let's say you

have multiple projects for building

multiple houses that's where like what

Elizabeth was talking about comes into

play maybe there's a time constraint for

a particular house and there you have to

finish it sooner because people are

moving in or whatever other builders

have to get there to build it before the

painters could show up so you have to

kind of understand how things work

together I'm a goof it up like the exact

phrasing but I've heard a couple of

people say that they prioritize by

looking at the tasks where if they

accomplish a certain task it makes

everything else easier or not even

necessary to do after that and that

sounds really like a great idea right

it's so simple to say it I'm not sure

how effective that is or how much that

applies especially you know when I'm

thinking of the work scenario where I

had you know

multiple projects and it was unclear

every person that was involved in each

of the projects said that that one was

the most important so how do you deal

with that right you have to someone at

some point has to make a decision and

you can't really use that now from if

you're working for yourself and you have

like all these other tasks some of them

are clearly not that important some of

them are clearly important than sure you

may be able to figure that out

and for example like if you're if you're

an entrepreneur and you realize that if

you can land a particular client it'll

really like help your business elsewhere

then you can obviously you know focus on

that knowing that it has a much more as

a way more leverage than some of the

other things that you can do so it's I

again that it's a sexy thing to say and

it sounds really good when people hear

it but I think if you like try to apply

it sometimes it's just not clear but

what do you think prioritize to make

your life easier is that what she meant

by it's a sexy thing this is a sexy

thing to say yeah I think that sounds

like a great idea yeah if you could do

it but again it's like it's really hard

to tell yeah I have to think about that

as I put some of these things into

practice and prioritize for my week

makes sense yeah the other you know

along with the the priorities what it

means is you're working on a certain

area but it also means you have to

ignore something else so whenever you're

giving something priority you're like D

prioritizing everything else and that's

important yeah like when you make work

your priority sometimes your D

prioritizing your wife right and I think

like there are certain there certain

like periods where as like you'll focus

on your family for a while but there's

only so many like attention units that

you have and like

once you use them all up say waste them

on family now I'm just I need to know

how many attention units are allocated

to me and Georgie plenty plenty so yeah

the thing is like you only have so much

time in ability to focus on different

areas so if you're focusing a ton on

work for a while because you're wanting

to get a raise or promoted then you'll

have to like D prioritize some other

stuff and I think you know depending on

like the stage or period of your life

like you maybe would focus more on your

family because your kids are growing up

or whatever you need to go to the soccer

games or whatever but other times you

need like when they're a little bit

older or maybe they're you know

teenagers and their mouth and off or

whatever then maybe you want to spend

some more time at work and put in those

long hours we talk about that a lot and

survived a nine-to-five I feel like

almost all of our podcasts can either

come back to trade offs or like take

your vacation but I agree everything's a

trade-off so when you focus on something

you lose something else and I think a

lot of people who have a high faith base

I think that really helps them to

prioritize their life in terms of

importance because they have a set of

rules from some sort of religious text

whatever that might be I don't know I

don't know what point I'm trying to make

but there are a highest priority yeah

they're like built-in constraints and it

helps you decide more if you have like

no constraints it's really confusing on

what you should do it can be so yeah and

you again you got to keep that in mind

like when you're prioritizing something

you have to figure out like what you're

taking away or where you're taking that

uh like focus away from I think the

highest priority and everything that we

do should just be to be kind be kind to

people all right yeah I guess I mean how

does that really to

productivity I don't know maybe for

training because if you're kind of

people it is true if you're kind to

people at work they will be more likely

to step in and help you out when you

need help mm-hmm so what you could do is

like you can do stuff for them get them

a coffee every now and then and build up

that goodwill someone it's time to take

it back they'll do stuff for you what do

they call it political capital build up

your political capital at work mm-hmm

your work units it's the the rule of

reciprocity there you go so you do stuff

for people and then they'll want to do

stuff for you but that's not why you

should just be kind because it's good to

be kind I know just know is that see

that's always a problem whenever I know

when Doug wants something from me

whatever that might be because he gets a

whole lot nicer like God he'll be like

hey babe how's your day going and I'm

like what's happening here I get very

suspicious immediately I'm like what do

you want I'm just kidding a little bit I

don't think so I don't think well that's

a Georgie does too Georgie I call it

fake love or she'll come up to us and

she'll snuggle in and act like she

really likes us but she's just buttering

up because she wants us to throw the

ball and I'm like this wasn't real this

was fake she does that all day long

I want some real affection yeah all

right so any like other thoughts on

prioritizing or figuring out like what

you should work on if it's not clear I

think my last thought would be it's not

a vacuum so it's not just your usually

not just your opinion and what you think

if you're at work as Doug said you can

talk to other people other stakeholders

to try and help you figure out what the

priority is but your work will most

likely affect other people so just keep

that in mind and same thing at home when

you're talking about priorities at home

you've got a family you know you need to

include them and take

their opinions and feelings into account

and sometimes there's overlap right so

if you if your boss needs you to work

more over the weekend or the holidays

then you got to figure out like is that

higher priority than spending time with

your family or what you have to do and I

know for me at one point maybe we talked

about this in the episode on getting

promoted and performance reviews but

there was a time when my my bosses were

asking me to work over the weekends and

over like Christmas Eve and holidays and

such and I you know I'm I was a little

bit of a team player in that I I played

along for a while but when they were

like hey can you just came up can you

work on Christmas Eve and you know we

need you to stay and blah blah blah and

I was like no can't do that

so I took my own priority to be able to

spend time with my family and I took a

little bit of a hit but it turns out it

really didn't matter in the long run

[Music]

thanks a lot to Elizabeth for helping me

out on the productivity episodes and a

little bit of background a little

context on what I was describing you

know I mentioned that I didn't I didn't

work that Christmas Eve or the holiday

season I you know selected my own

priority and it didn't line up with a

company priority the hit that I took was

related to like my performance review

and I can't remember at that company if

we did like every six months or every

year or performance review I think it

may have been every six months but

anyway I was up to or I guess up for

promotion or attempting to be promoted

for a few years and that's kind of the

way it works at least in the management

consulting area that I was in where you

know you got to be put up for promotion

and you may have to go for it

three four times five times it takes a

little while and basically I got sort of

a poor review it generally said that I

wasn't a team player and I didn't get

support from that team to be promoted

now it turns out on a longer time frame

right on a longer time scale it didn't

matter right so after a couple years I

was able to get promoted actually may

have been like three three to four years

later the point is I got a little bit of

a negative review but I stuck to what

was important to me and I mean really

when it when it came down to it I didn't

want to work on that team anymore

because they were I guess that they were

just I don't know I don't know how to

put it I don't I don't think they're I

don't think they're stupid for putting

work over family and and that sort of

thing it's just different you know like

how I want to live my life is completely

different than what they're doing but it

doesn't mean I have to just fold and

accept that you know they want me to

work over the holidays

anyway it turned out to be just fine and

I was able to work at it you know work

hard at getting promoted and really

understands what was important to get

promoted and it's not really doing more

work or doing better work or even

working on the holidays when people ask

you to so we actually did a whole

episode on surviving the nine-to-five

about getting promoted and I'll just

give you the quick synopsis which is you

have to understand like how you are

being promoted and what metrics are

looked at and what is deemed important

if the management consulting company or

division that I was in the thing that

was really important is to have support

on the what they call a laddering call

where they rank everyone and to get that

support you have to do some networking

but not the traditional networking that

you may think of where you have to go to

happy hours and you know make small talk

with the you know executives or anything

like that it wasn't that sort of

networking at all it was more like I

volunteered for a few different like

charitable like events and I've started

reaching out to the executives that I

knew would be able to help me get

promoted to make sure they knew my name

and that I was doing interesting things

like volunteering for charity events and

volunteering for stuff like that is a

great way to sort of short-circuit the

like chain of command so I was able to

talk to an email and interact with

people that were you know three four

levels ahead of me

in an in normal project situation I I

wouldn't be talking to them normally

they're very busy but if you are

volunteering for something you can just

talk to anyone you need to so that said

I was able to

figure out that it was really about

marketing it was about marketing myself

as someone who's valuable to the company

not necessarily on a project basis sure

you have to do your job you have to be

good enough on the job but if you're

doing all the extra stuff again I'm just

continuing to say the charitable like

events and stuff those are the things

where like the company the overall

company looks good to the community at

large and that is important that again

sort of short-circuits

the process a little bit so anyway if

you have any questions out there please

do contact me you can leave a voicemail

there is a voicemail number in the

description or the show notes so you can

just check that out leave me a message

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either the the very next episode or one

after that there will be a voicemail

that someone sent in it's our first one

got a good question in there and I think

the voicemails are gonna be pretty cool

so if you if you have a second or you

have like a one minute or so give me a

call let me know where you're from

ask your question maybe leave me a

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you know hey that that bald head of

yours is so shiny it looks really good

with all those freckles that sort of

thing I mean I need encouragement to

just like anyone else so on that note I

think we can call it an episode thanks a

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