> How to Prioritize Tasks?
I use a priority quadrant[0]
[0] https://appfluence.com/productivity/why-you-should-manage-ta...
How to prioritize tasks?
21–30 of 61 posts
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've long thought that the single hardest problem in startups is prioritization: figuring out the most important thing to build (or do) next.
It also is that while building new product often there is no single thing that is urgent but everything needs to be done.
Sometimes the exercise of explicitly trying to quantify and compare urgency, importance, and cost helps you develop a better understanding of the project, which leads to a better work plan.
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#23How to Prioritize Anything: 1) Make two lists. Write everything down in the first list. The second list is empty. 2) Something came up! One item on this list cannot be done. It doesn't matter why: you know which one that is. Which one is it? Write that down in the second list and mark it off the first list. 3) Repeat until the first list is done. Congratulations, your second list is prioritized (albeit likely in reve…
Thanks for this. It's interesting because it's super close to another method: Write down everything, put the most important thing at the top of a list, next important next, go till done. That's maybe the most naive method possible and essentially shouldn't count as advice for "how to prioritize".
But, maybe the fact that you're going from least to most important makes it materially easier. It's functionally different because you're picking out the least important stuff when the list of unchosen items is big and the most important stuff when the list is small. I can see how this would help a lot.
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#24How to Prioritize Anything: 1) Make two lists. Write everything down in the first list. The second list is empty. 2) Something came up! One item on this list cannot be done. It doesn't matter why: you know which one that is. Which one is it? Write that down in the second list and mark it off the first list. 3) Repeat until the first list is done. Congratulations, your second list is prioritized (albeit likely in reve…
Thanks for this. It's interesting because it's super close to another method: Write down everything, put the most important thing at the top of a list, next important next, go till done. That's maybe the most naive method possible and essentially shouldn't count as advice for "how to prioritize". But, maybe the fact that you're going from least to most important makes it materially easier. It's functionally different…
Approaching it from "least to most" circumvents the problem of rationalizing and justifying. We get caught up in that when we're looking for "most important" or "what to do", but we already know what's got to come off the bottom of the list, without even having to explain it.
It also helps mitigate our fear avoidance strategies (ex: (a|b|c) - (x|y|z) + (w|t|f), Einsenhower quadrants, and so on) because there's just no room for it. Something has to go. What? Okay. Next.
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've long thought that the single hardest problem in startups is prioritization: figuring out the most important thing to build (or do) next.
Strongly agree with this. One thing I realised is, startups should spend more time optimising the decision of their top priority, and less time optimising efficiency. There's no point working on the wrong thing with 100% efficiency.
I have seen teams spending most of their time on working on the highest priority (by a single measure) and not spending any time on overall delivery efficiency.
So having a balanced prioritisation approach would seem to be pretty important.
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#26From the way of work document at FluxNinja[0]:
Task priorities are decided based on two factors:
1. The ratio of value generated per given effort: If there are two tasks with similar value but one of them requires less effort then the one with lesser effort goes higher in priority. On the contrary if two tasks require the same effort but one of them has higher value then the one with higher value gets higher priority.
2. Time sensitivity: Certain tasks are time sensitive and should be given higher priority. Tasks can be time sensitive because they are blockers for other tasks or because they help de-risk technical or business risks and may affect the fate of other tasks going on in parallel. These are usually information generating tasks and they help reduce wasted effort on other tasks if the information is revealed early.
One makes a priority decision based on the best judgement combining the above criteria. The intent is to increase the overall value generated by the team.
[0]: fluxninja.com
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#27How to Prioritize Anything: 1) Make two lists. Write everything down in the first list. The second list is empty. 2) Something came up! One item on this list cannot be done. It doesn't matter why: you know which one that is. Which one is it? Write that down in the second list and mark it off the first list. 3) Repeat until the first list is done. Congratulations, your second list is prioritized (albeit likely in reve…
I'd like to read more about this. Are there any additional resources on this prioritization method?
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#28If I applied this strategy I would quickly be fired. All of the things that my management chain finds valuable are not things which are valuable to the product (mostly, planning and producing as work output JIRA tasks, spreadsheets, timetables, etc.). Actually working on things valuable to customers is seen as a necessary evil, a game we play to score the primary work output, i.e. plans.
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#29How to Prioritize Anything: 1) Make two lists. Write everything down in the first list. The second list is empty. 2) Something came up! One item on this list cannot be done. It doesn't matter why: you know which one that is. Which one is it? Write that down in the second list and mark it off the first list. 3) Repeat until the first list is done. Congratulations, your second list is prioritized (albeit likely in reve…
Thanks for this. It's interesting because it's super close to another method: Write down everything, put the most important thing at the top of a list, next important next, go till done. That's maybe the most naive method possible and essentially shouldn't count as advice for "how to prioritize". But, maybe the fact that you're going from least to most important makes it materially easier. It's functionally different…
“put the most important thing at the top of a list, next important next” you realize you’re basically saying “the trick to prioritizing is you have to prioritize” right? The idea behind all of these systems is to help people figure out what is actually important.
Re: How to prioritize tasks?
#30Instead of maximizing “benefit - cost” I would recommend maximizing “cost/benefit”. The former will bias towards big tasks with big payoffs, but often there are small tasks with extremely good ROI, which will get lost if you just look at the magnitude of the net benefit. But, +1 to the general approach of trying to put a number on it. Remember though, your numbers are uncertain, beware the McNamara fallacy.
I'm assuming that's accidentally inverted? Maximizing cost/benefit yields the most costly task for the least benefit.