Planning and Prioritizing

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

The old joke asks, how do you eat an elephant? Answer: one bite at a time.  People are told this when they have a huge project to tackle or their schedule is overflowing with too many tasks.  At the heart of this is the challenge of planning and prioritizing. Everyone knows the feeling of being stuck on a big project. It can be overwhelming when we are presented with a task so immense that we anguish over how to tackle it…or procrastinate because it is so overwhelming.  Most people also know the feeling of having to juggle too many tasks at the same time and not being sure how to keep it all going simultaneously.

For a business leader, it might mean preparing a business plan or an annual sales plan. For the head of a Programming Department, it might mean implementing a change to a new software or creation of a new platform. For a publicist, the challenge could be to prepare a brand-building campaign involving podcasts, blog posts and social media posts.   For the head of IT, it could be the development of a continuous backup system for when computers are hacked or files are lost.   Or for an accountant, it could be juggling the preparation of a huge number of tax returns within a very compressed tax season.  No matter the occupation, there are often major multi-step projects or a huge number of small projects to be tackled.  To manage many demands or a massive project within a short time frame, planning and prioritization are essential.  Without planning and prioritization, work is not done in the most efficient and effective way possible.  Time is wasted.  Sometimes, work has to be redone.  Deadlines are missed.

Improving the Ability to Plan and Prioritize

Planning and prioritization are skills that are part of a group of cognitive skills that collectively are known as Executive Functions.  And, that name makes sense since these are important mental abilities that every executive needs in order to “execute” tasks and be productive and effective.   But the strength of these skills varies person to person, as does any other skill.

Thankfully, when it comes to Executive Functions, certain thinking processes can be boosted with exercises that actually strengthen or improve it over what it was before.  Take, for instance, the Executive Function of working memory.  Yes, there are tools that help get around working memory deficits.  There is no need to do mental math to calculate a discount if you have a calculator on your phone.  That’s a simple workaround.  But there are also exercises that actually improve working memory to the point where you don’t need workarounds or need them less.

The same is true about planning and prioritization.  While a strong planning ability is something that we’re either born with or we’re not, it doesn’t mean a person can’t nurture and grow their planning and prioritization skills by actively building neuro-connections in their brain through persistent, applied practice.  Like any muscle, it is possible to build resilience when it comes to planning and prioritization.  For those who are naturally inclined to “fly by the seat of their pants”, strengthening the ability to plan and prioritize can mean the difference between success and failure or between having a job and losing a job.

Here are a few steps to improve one’s ability to plan and prioritize.  For those who aren’t naturally good at this, doing these exercises will feel cumbersome at first.  But the more these steps are implemented, the better at planning and prioritization they become.

1. Force yourself to plan. Like any muscle, skills improve with use.  The more you use it, the stronger it gets.  So face the music and sketch out a plan.
2. Practice planning. It’s been said that practice makes perfect. In order to practice planning, create a mock project.  Invent a pretend project such as writing a book, overhauling a digital storage system, or creating a new Onboarding process.  Map out how to accomplish that goal.  Break it down into steps.  Then pair-share that plan with another stakeholder to get feedback.
3. 3. Rehearse a real plan. Plan out a project.  Sit quietly and mentally rehearse the steps in your plan. Use your imagination to visualize the steps being taken. You will sense where additional steps need to be added and will anticipate problems to prevent.
4. Schedule planning time. Set uninterrupted time every day to do your planning.  That’s right… plan to plan.  When planning a project, plan in thinking time.  Plan for tomorrow, tonight. Your subconscious will help organize while you sleep.  Give yourself ample time so you don’t have to hurry the process.  Rushing through planning means things will get overlooked.  Use the first 10 minutes of each day to plan or review your plan for the day.
5. Do some mental crisis management. Try to mentally anticipate possible problems you could encounter in your project because of people, material, or mechanical failures. Purposely provide preventive actions and contingency plans in important high risk situations.
6. Plan for a block of time. Think about your whole week.  How will work projects be sequenced?  Anticipate the sequence of activities that you will do to attain the objectives you are after.
7. Plan in writing. Do your planning in writing to capture all of your ideas.  Because we only work mentally with about seven pieces of information without losing some-thing (working memory… another executive function), it is important to write down thoughts in order to utilize everything generated in the planning process.
8. Schedule a planning retreat. Schedule one weekend away each quarter and make planning a top priority. A planning retreat is refreshing and can help facilitate mapping what’s ahead.
9. 9. Listen to other people’s plans. Encourage coworkers or direct reports to create their own plan and then to explain it in detail.  It helps to hear how others come up with a plan of action.
10. Prioritize the steps in a plan. It’s not enough to come up with a detailed plan for a project.  The steps must be prioritized – placed in the most effective order to get the maximum amount done most efficiently.

In addition to becoming a better planner, there are also lots of workarounds for those who struggle with planning and prioritization.  There are ample devices to keep us on track, organized, on time and in step with priorities.  Those include:

• Watches
• Smartphones
• Calendars
• Alarms
• Folders
• Labels
• Checklists
• Project management software

There are literally hundreds of different planning and prioritization tools.  So it is important to choose a tool to assist with scheduling / planning for the future that caters to your strengths. Those who have a strong tendency toward visuals might benefit from an organizational tool that takes that preference into account.  It might include putting to-do items on sticky notes or drawing on a whiteboard.  For those who love spreadsheets, putting a task list or steps of a plan in Excel or using an app that tracks progress in a numeric fashion might be best.  Or for those who see time as a flow and rhythm, paper lists that allow time segments to be adjusted as needed rather than adhering to rigid time blocks might be most effective.  By choosing tools that cater to one’s strengths, it becomes easier to plan and prioritize, even if those Executive Functions don’t come naturally.

Ultimately, planning and prioritization are important but not just because of details of the plan.  It also lies in the value generated by the planning process itself.  In doing planning, we are able to look ahead, consider what problems might lie ahead and avoid them.  We are able to anticipate challenges and make adjustments.  We are able to ensure that there are adequate resources to make a project run more smoothly.  We are able to come up with improvements and enhancements to make it better.  We are able to ensure that things are handled in the most optimal order and that the most important things are not left for last or overlooked entirely.  By definition, planning gives us better control of what will be.

What’s your next plan?

Quote of the Week

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” US President Dwight D. Eisenhower

© 2022, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.