You’ve Got A Decision To Make
We’ve all faced a day or a moment when our minds are flooded with things that need to be done. Our inner CEO is overwhelmed and doesn’t know how to proceed. Which thing needs to take priority over the others?
If you are at work, you may have to decide whether to tackle a report or meeting prep or ticking the usual daily tasks off your list when all of it feels like its breathing down your neck. If you’re at home, you may wake up on a Saturday morning (after a long hard work week) only to look around the house and see a million projects that need doing —do I take care of the laundry and go get groceries or do I finally start cleaning out the closets?
Sometimes, in moments like these the answers are fairly easy. You take care of what clearly needs to be done first and then move on from there. But things are rarely that easy. And there are times when we can even start to shut down and head to the couch instead of making headway on anything at all.
To be more effective, it’s best to tidy up our minds a bit. Whether it’s a little anxiety or a full-on panic, muddled thinking only makes mountains out of molehills, and once that process starts, effectiveness slows to a crawl. One really helpful and effective way to organize and prioritize what we’ve got on our plates is to make a simple decision matrix. I know it sounds nerdy—and to be sure, it kind of is—but it also actually helps clear up the clutter of our minds. It’s something I’ve used with clients and it always helps move things forward.
You’re going to start by making a quick chart—nothing fancy, it can literally be on a scrap of paper. List the things that you have on your plate. Be reasonable in what is before you. In other words, if you need to do 5 things, list the 5 things. Don’t go fishing for things that could be done. Now is not the time to make an endless laundry list.
Next, along the horizontal axis of your chart, make the following headings: Importance, Urgency, Effort Needed, Time Needed, Emotional Motivation, and Personal Value. Then add lines for the columns and rows of your chart. (Scroll just a bit for an example of the chart.)
(Using a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 is a little, less, etc. and 5 is a lot, much, more, etc.)
Now comes the “fun” part. Rate each option according to its respective heading on a scale of 1-5 where 1 is very little and 5 is a great deal (the triangular graphic helps show the rating). In other words, go task by task and write a score in each box. If your first task is really important, put a 5 beneath “Important;” if it needs to get done pretty soon but isn’t imminent, put a 4 beneath “Urgent';” if its something that is going to need a ton of work, pop a 5 below “Effort Needed;” and so on. You get the point. Don’t dwell on each and every score, just go with your instinct. (This is a tool to help you sort out things out not stress you out.)
And because you are a person and not a machine, I’ve included the two headings “Emotional Motivation” and “Personal Value.” They’re there to help make your decision making process more holistic and grounded, and they should absolutely take as much importance as the other columns/headings. If you are really not excited about one of your tasks, you might give it a 2 for “Emotional Motivation;” but if its something that you value, you might give it a 4 under “Personal Value.”
An example of a decision matrix—which can help you direct your energy and resources to accomplish more with less stress, while keeping your time better organized.
Once you’ve got things filled out (again, making this matrix is supposed to be a quick tool to help you and not a task in and of itself), take a look at things. You can see how you rated each task and get a sense of which you should tackle first. You can look at the numbers in general or you can even add things up. Whichever task has the highest score is could be done first. And if you have put a 5 in every (or nearly every) box, then it’s time to reach out so we can schedule some time to talk about prioritizing and expectations.
Regardless of how you evaluate your completed matrix, the exercise of looking critically at each task and comparing them across your ‘to-do’ list probably helped sort out what to do and when. Even if your situation changes and you have to reprioritize, you will be better poised to make those decisions effectively and with greater speed. Perhaps the best things about this sort of decision matrix, is that the idea behind it can be applied to other decisions as well. Stay tuned for future posts and articles about this and more.