Q:There is so much work and never enough time, money, or resources. How do we do it?
A: Stop trying to do it all
- Align your work to strategic objectives
- How is what you are working on contributing to specific goals or initiatives in your organization?
- If you cannot map it back to a strategic objective it isn’t critical
- Visualize the work
- Write down every task that needs to be done
- Put it on the wall, put it in a tracker, put it in a place where others can see it
- This help remind you, makes the intangible tangible, makes it clear
- Map dependencies
- Know which tasks require other work to be done before they are either started or finished.
- Mapping dependencies will help you sequence your work and keep you from focusing on the wrong things early
- Align/coordinate tasks
- Assign owners – who is going to do the work
- This is critical if you are working with more than just yourself
- Check in on regular intervals
- Hold yourself and the task owners accountable for the work
- Gather feedback on the tasks and progress to make sure you are still working on the right thing