Prioritization: The Key to Productivity and Smart Decision-Making

Last week, I faced a major challenge. With a deadline quickly approaching for a complex and important delivery, I faced a dilemma we experience daily, to a greater or lesser extent: defining priorities.

Despite having planned and made an effort to avoid Student Syndrome?(the tendency to procrastinate and start tasks at the last possible moment, leading to rushed work and stress) and Parkinson's Law?(which states that "work expands to fill the time available for its completion"), I was forced to adjust my plans. Some tasks had to be postponed, including a few I really wanted to accomplish, but I had to redirect my attention to what was genuinely relevant.

Using the term "priorities" in the plural is common without assigning relative weight to each one. This happens in both personal and professional settings. In organizations, I have often witnessed teams struggling to determine what is truly most important, whether to support the execution of strategic products or to manage daily activities. When this definition is unclear, it can lead to unrealistic commitments, misaligned expectations, and, consequently, conflicts.

Prioritizing is Deciding

Prioritization means making choices, sometimes tough ones. It requires letting go of some things so that others can be executed. Defining an order of importance is directly linked to the concept of priority.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary?defines priority?as:

• The quality or state of being earlier in time or importance;
• Superiority in rank, position, or privilege;
• Something given or meriting attention before competing alternatives.

What should be prioritized can depend on several factors, such as:

1. Constraints, such as deadlines or budgets;
2. Lack of resources or technical expertise;
3. The level of risk exposure if the activity is not prioritized;
4. The expected return on the activity (whether tangible or intangible);
5. Dependencies on other tasks for execution.

Tools for Prioritization

In project management (and personal life), various tools can help prioritize different demands, such as tasks, user stories, and products. Some of the most well-known methods include:

1. Urgency-Importance Matrix (Eisenhower Matrix)

Urgent & Important → Do it immediately.

Important but Not Urgent → Schedule it.

Urgent but Not Important → Delegate it.

Neither Urgent Nor Important → Eliminate it.

2. MoSCoW Method

Must-have (Indispensable)

Should-have (Important but not essential)

Could-have (Optional, if time allows)

Won't-have (Excluded for now)

3. Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)

20% of tasks generate 80% of results. Focus on them!

4. WSJF Model (Weighted Shortest Job First)

Prioritizes tasks with high value and low effort.

5. Kano Model: classifies features based on their impact on user satisfaction. It divides them into five main categories:

Basic (Indispensable) – Fundamental requirements that users expect. Their absence causes significant dissatisfaction, but their presence does not create excitement. Example: A car having functional brakes.

Performance (Progressively Improving) – Attributes that increase user satisfaction as they improve. Example: The fuel efficiency of a car.

Delighters (Unexpected Differentiators) – Features that pleasantly surprise users, providing satisfaction even though the user did not explicitly request them Example: A car with an automatic parking system.

Indifferent (Neutral) – Features that do not significantly impact user satisfaction, whether present or absent. Example: A car with an expensive printed manual that no one reads.

Reverse (Potentially Undesirable) – Features that, instead of increasing satisfaction, can frustrate certain users. Example: A car overloaded with complex electronic controls that make driving more difficult.

Less Multitasking, More Efficiency

Beyond the prioritization challenge, we often face the temptation of operating in the multitask mode, especially when we lack clarity on what truly matters. Constantly switching between activities reduces focus, wastes time on context-switching, and increases the likelihood of errors. Actual productivity comes from defining what is essential and dedicating full attention to it.

Conclusion

Prioritization is about making conscious decisions about where to allocate time and energy. Whether at work or in personal life, recognizing what matters and acting accordingly separates productivity from mere busyness.

After all, everything may seem urgent, but not everything is a priority.

How do you define your priorities?

For more articles, I invite you to check my blog: www.priscilavendraminimezzena.com.

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