If you’re like me, it sometimes feels like there’s waaaaaaay too much on your radar. And when that happens, it’s hard to know where to start.
I’ve previously written about using Stephen Covey’s urgent/important matrix to prioritise – it’s an oldie, but a goodie.
Recently, a client shared with me her way of prioritising and it’s fabulous so, with her permission, I am sharing it with you.
Essentially, it has three criteria:
- Urgency: inner circle is more urgent (to be done sooner); outer circle is for ‘later’
- Impact: top half is higher ‘bang for buck’; bottom half is lower
- Complexity: on the left is the easy and quick stuff; on the right is the harder, more time consuming things
She has it on her wall in her office. It not only keeps her on track and feel better that she has prioritised her ‘to do’ list, it is a very visual way of staff also seeing ‘what’s on the radar’. She also invites them to contribute – as she wrote to them “I’d like you to add things to the radar as you see fit. Put your initials on the left so I know who to ask about it if its not clear to me what it means. If you’d like to take responsibility for something on the radar – leave it on the radar, but put your initials on the right to signify that you’ve taken it. I’ll do the same so you know if I’ve started working on something. Or feel free to ignore it completely. But its making me feel better about my to do list…”
I love it – simple, visual and it invites collaboration and shared responsibility.
What do you think? Could the radar help you get out of overwhelm? How might your use this tool? I’d love to hear from you.
PS: I promise to pass any feedback on this to the client who created it!
Download your radar tool here.
