Hello, I'm Nishijo, the leader of the direction team.
The director is a job that has a lot to do. In my case, I not only have directing duties, but also have the task of managing a team as a leader, so prioritizing tasks is very important. So, I would like to talk about how I decide priorities and work on my daily tasks.
Which tasks should be prioritized?
Currently, I am working on one new project and five operational projects, as well as some leadership responsibilities.
New projects vary in size, but examples include the following:
- Proposal creation and proposal
- Site structure design
- Wireframe Design
- SEO Measures
- Production schedule design and progress management
- Quality control of deliverables
The level of operation projects varies depending on the content. For example, irregular or regular updates of site content, creating analysis reports for Google Analytics, support for system failures, new English page support, responsive support, etc. The amount of work required varies depending on the scope of support.
Duties as a leader include reviewing budgets and performance, processing invoices, creating and implementing policies to create an environment where staff can work comfortably, and recruiting.
There are so many different types of work, and each type of work has a variety of tasks. In order to carry out multiple tasks in parallel, you need to think about which task should take top priority.
What prompted me to think about priorities was the peak period in May and June this year. I was in charge of the main direction of two new projects, following up on one new project, and handling three operational projects. At the time, the delivery timing for the two new projects and one operational project was the same, so I had to perform the above-mentioned work at the same time. For the new projects, the client's headquarters was located so far away that it took about three hours round trip from the company, so I had to do the weekly regular meetings, preparations for the regular meetings, and many other tasks at the same time, working until the last train every day, which left me exhausted and so damaged that I couldn't even take one step outside my house on weekends.
"Not urgent but important" is one key
At that time, my boss gave me a hint: The 7 Habits .
Needless to say, "The 7 Habits" is a worldwide bestseller, and even though it has been 20 years since it was introduced in Japan, it is still a business book that continues to sell well.
Tasks have different priorities depending on their urgency and importance, but I decided to try practicing the third habit of the 7 Habits: "Put top priorities first."
When putting this into practice, consider the four areas mentioned in The 7 Habits.
The first category is things that are urgent and important.
This applies to tasks with deadlines and sudden appointments, and in the case of direction work, it would be project tasks.
The second category is things that are not urgent but are important.
In my case, this mainly applies to leadership roles and missions.
The third area is urgent but not important.
This includes meetings, reports, and processing non-important emails.
The fourth area does not have any particular business implications so we will not explain it here.
The 7 Habits teaches that the key to success is to secure time to invest in the second area (things that are not urgent but important). However, time is limited. Many people tend to end up overwhelmed by the repetition of the same thing, prioritizing the first area (urgent and important) without considering the second area.
Identify your top priorities
So, in order to secure the second area, I broke down all of the work I currently have into smaller tasks and created a to-do list of tasks for the next month.
*The ToDo list is a slightly customized version of the issue management sheet introduced by Nakagawa. Please see Nakagawa's article "Issue Management Sheet for Directors Using Spreadsheets" for how to create an issue management sheet .
This may seem like a small detail, but it will help you prepare to identify your top priorities.
This ToDo list requires daily maintenance.
Maintenance will be performed whenever there is a sudden change in plans or new plans arise.
After initially creating a schedule for the next month, add ToDos for the next two weeks or so.
For recurring tasks, add any tasks that require further action as they are completed.
For example, once invoice processing is completed at the end of this month, add an invoice processing item with the scheduled completion date being the end of next month.
Once your to-do list is complete, break it down into a daily schedule.
In my case, I make a schedule for the second half of this week (Thursday and Friday) on Monday, and a schedule for the first half of next week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) on Thursday. So, it is important to prioritize.
*For reference, please see Oyabu's article "A daily schedule that forms the core of your work" for information on how to create a daily schedule .
Priorities can be broadly divided into two categories.
- Tasks that require you to ask others to do them
- Tasks you can complete by yourself
The important thing is that if you are asking someone else to do the task (1), you should prioritize it over the task (2) which you can complete on your own.
In the first place, the other person is not acting according to your convenience.
For example, imagine the following scene:
Let's say you have a question for an internal sales representative. You need to confirm the details of the question that day and report them to your boss later.
However, I have to go directly to visit my customers in the morning.
Now, how should we proceed?
To get straight to the point, if you check the other person's schedule in the morning and check the best time to contact them, and then call at that time, you will be able to proceed with your tasks smoothly even if the sales person goes out in the afternoon and you end up missing each other.
However, if you had planned to contact the other person but are thinking of waiting until you return to the office, you may end up being too late, and in the worst case scenario, you may not be able to get in touch with the sales department and not be able to report to your boss that day.
To avoid this, you need to prioritize tasks that involve other people over your own tasks.
Once the priorities have been decided, consider the relative importance of tasks in each area. The third area (urgent but not important) has an overwhelmingly larger volume than the second area (not urgent but important), but in order to prioritize the tasks in the second area, create a balanced daily action plan.
summary
It's been a month and a half since I started, but I've never had the experience of breaking things down into such detailed lists, so even just maintaining them is a lot of work. To be honest, it's quite a hassle (laughs).
In particular, when the daily tasks scheduled for the next two weeks are disrupted by sudden requests or appointments for other projects, it can be a struggle just to adjust them. You have to re-plan your schedule, taking into account the priority of the tasks for other projects you have already planned.
However, because I plan my daily tasks in 30-minute increments, it's easy to make adjustments even when I have a sudden request or appointment, and thanks to the detailed to-do list, I think there are fewer missed tasks.
I'm still in the process of trying this out, and to be honest, I have no idea if this method is right for me. But it's worth a try, so for now I'm trying to see if I can make it a habit and turn it into a way of thinking.
In any case, the ultimate goal is to prioritize your work. Because time is limited, you must be conscious of time when working on your tasks. If you can identify your top priorities and prioritize them, I think you will be able to work more efficiently.
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