Highlights
- 67% of employees say they are sometimes, very often or always burned-out at work, according to Gallup
- Managing your energy and not just your time can reduce stress and employee turnover
- Writing your to-do list can also be a form of structured procrastination, so spend no more than five minutes on this each morning.
If you want to invest time and resources accordingly, you should change the way you prioritise the items on your to-do lists. Your ‘most important’ projects may not be the most valuable use of your time.
With the right focus, you can move you and your team out of the 67% of employees who say they are sometimes, very often or always burned-out at work.
“Rather than focusing on projects that are most important, leaders should focus on where their personal leadership skills can add the most value,” says Daniel Shapero, VP of Global Solutions and Head of Sales at LinkedIn. “To help me determine how to invest my time and energy, I use a tool called the Priority Matrix (PMAT).”
The big idea: Analyse your use of time and resources
Shapero believes projects should be evaluated in two dimensions. He does this using a 2×2 chart called the Priority Matrix to prioritise projects and allocate resources based on value and probability.
If you’re worried that you’re putting your effort into the wrong things, you’re probably right. And writing your to-do list could be a chief contributor. According to The New York Times, this seemingly constructive task can be a form of structured procrastination. So, give yourself five minutes or less to write a to-do list each morning.
Shapero’s PMAT method could help guide your productivity as well. He evaluates each project in his organisation on two dimensions: The value of the project if it succeeds, and the project’s probability of success.
Establishing and understanding the cost of delay when managing your time helps determine these two key factors. “Cost of Delay combines urgency and value — two things that humans are not very good at distinguishing between,” says Eric Jorgenson, Director of Growth at Zaarly, Inc. “To make decisions, we need to understand not just how valuable something is, but how urgent it is.”
What’s in it for you: Allocate your time more intelligently
“I frequently think about whether I’m allocating my time intelligently, and I encourage my team to do the same,” says Shapero. He asks his managers to plot their projects on the PMAT and then record the amount of time they’re spending on each project.
“A light bulb usually goes off, and calendars usually get revised as a result. People often leave the session with fewer things to do and more time allocated to the projects where their involvement can truly make a difference.”
Make it happen
Use the Matrix that helps LinkedIn’s Head of Sales Daniel Shapero break projects down into 4 categories to prioritise your tasks and save your team time:
- Home runs should be delegated to a star team member. Your only role here is to clearly outline project objectives and watch it closely through weekly updates to ensure a high probability of success.
- Big bets require your expertise and your biggest time investment, especially at the beginning. The goal is to increase probability of these projects being completed, making them home runs. You can then hand them down to your star team member to focus on your next objective.
- Small wins are of less importance and should be delegated as they don’t need a great deal of monitoring. These projects aren’t for the stars, but team members further down the line.
- Junk projects, despite their name, aren’t to be ignored, but rather destroyed completely to maximise your available resources. This gives you time to focus your energy elsewhere, without having to procrastinate about these minor tasks.
