When Everything Is Priority One
We use the word priority pretty loosely.
The client request is a priority. The deadline is a priority. The meeting is a priority. And somehow, whatever landed in your inbox five minutes ago is now a priority too.
Which raises an obvious question: If everything is a priority, is anything actually a priority? The word itself offers a clue.
Priority originally referred to what came first—what took precedence over everything else. Over time, we got comfortable talking about priorities, as though several things could all come first at the same time. And then, apparently, we created so many priorities that we needed to invent a new verb—prioritize—to figure out what to do with them.
There may be no better description of modern work. Too many things are competing for the same limited time, attention, and resources. And when everything gets labeled a priority, we lose the ability to distinguish what actually deserves our attention first.
At some point, someone has to stop admiring the list and start making choices. This is where leadership matters. Here are some strategies to decide what deserves attention first.
Rank importance. Not everything deserves the same amount of attention right now. Ask yourself a simple question: “Compared with everything else we are trying to accomplish, where does this belong?”
Communicate trade-offs. Choosing one thing almost always means delaying, reducing, or saying no to something else. Say that out loud. “We’re moving this project ahead, which means that deadline will need to shift” is far more useful than pretending everyone can simply work faster. Unless, of course, someone has discovered the 31-hour day.
Revisit decisions. What deserves attention today may not deserve it next month. New information, customer needs, staff changes, and unexpected problems can alter the order. Changing a priority isn’t necessarily inconsistency. Sometimes it’s simply good judgment.
If you really want to eliminate competing demands, get yourself stranded on a desert island with no Wi-Fi. Otherwise, be a leader and decide what comes first. Leadership means choosing.