Prioritization Shortcuts
We’re all familiar with systematic ways of prioritization like:
Creating a business case
Comparing the decision against our vision, mission, and values
Plotting items on the Eisenhower Box of urgency compared with importance
But how about some prioritization shortcuts? Some decisions just aren’t “worth” adding to a spreadsheet, and others simply won’t take enough time to justify a lengthy consideration.
I’ve been paying attention to how I navigate lower-stakes priorities lately – within specific client decisions, more generally in making the most of working hours, and in how I spend those precious hours each day and week not on the clock.
I’ve noticed three questions (in isolation or in combination) that I ask to guide my thinking in moments of “smaller” prioritization:
Which is option-expanding, rather than option-limiting?
Which will I regret less?
What is truly distinctive or special in what I’m seeking?
Let’s dig into them with some examples.
Deciding Whether to Participate in a Rainy Market
Here’s a rather inconsequential example to warm up. Some of you know that my side hustle is creating and selling greeting cards. I love it as a creative outlet and as a way to connect with the St. Louis community.
Two weeks ago, the forecast included rain throughout Saturday morning, when I was scheduled to vend at my favorite farmers’ market. I was tired, had just gotten back in town from a business trip on Friday night, and not terribly excited about selling highly water-sensitive paper (wrapped in plastic sleeves, but paper nonetheless) at a rainy outdoor market.
My first decision was directed by what was more option-expanding or -limiting: I decided to load up the car Friday night, since if I waited until 6:00 on Saturday morning, I was basically admitting to myself that it wouldn’t happen.
(I take a similar decision-making approach to meals: if I prepare meals ahead of time, my options for eating healthfully are expanded. I can still choose to heat up a frozen pizza, but at least I had the option to eat Korean fried rice or corn chicken chowder instead.)
And then it was Saturday morning. I took the dog out and assessed the weather: tolerable, not great. My next decision was guided by what I would regret less: showing up and not selling much, or no-showing at the last minute and giving up the opportunity to sell cards and connect with people. Also in the mix: it was to be my second-to-last market for a while, so there was a feeling of wanting to make the most of limited time.
I decided to go to the market and just make the most of it. The weather was indeed bad for the first couple of hours, but the remainder of the time was delightful! The breeze was refreshing, people came out, and I had a great time. Plus, it wasn’t a blockbuster day, but I sold plenty to justify the opportunity costs of showing up.
Constituent Management Option Analysis
Okay, let’s move into a more professional example. I was working with a client in defining their requirements for a new constituent management solution, and then determining which options seem most promising for them. We had a set a requirements that we needed the solution to meet, and we compared dozens of options against the requirements.
It turned out that some of the requirements were met easily by many solutions, but one of the requirements was more sparsely met and critical to the client’s long-term success. Assigning user permissions by role and their placement in a hierarchy was the truly distinctive need, while event management and participant maintenance were more of table stakes.
So, we created key use cases to discuss with vendors that highlighted our distinctive requirement and focused the bulk of our evaluation questions on that area. We covered the table stakes requirements in more of a summary fashion.
The result was time better spent all around: setting up clients and vendors to focus discussions and demonstrations on the functionality that would truly make a difference in the long run, rather than spending considerable time on the table stakes items that were easier to verify.
The Bottom Line
We have a host of systematic prioritization methods to draw on for the big decisions that cross our path.
But for the smaller decisions in your day, having some prioritization shortcuts at hand can make the task of picking a path forward easier.
To summarize, here are the priority clarifying questions we’ve explored:
Which is option-expanding, rather than option-limiting? Avoid what limits options later.
Which will we regret less? Lean toward that option.
What is truly distinctive or special in what we’re seeking? Focus efforts on achieving the distinctive.
We hope these will be helpful in navigating the next everyday decision you face.
