EPISODE 034 - Organisation: How do I define priorities?

Michael Seidl: Welcome to a new episode of the Get Shit Done in IT podcast. My name is Michael Seidel and our question of the day is how do I define priorities? So in the previous episodes and especially in the last one, we talked about getting all your stuff you have to do in one single list and then define priorities and go through the list and maybe throw something out. define priorities and then go to planning. But the question is how to define those priorities? What is important? What is on the top list? What is on the lower list? And what I mostly use here is the Eisenhower Metrics or Eisenhower Method. And related to Wikipedia, it is not related to former US President Eisenhower. So It's not completely sure where it comes from, but it is a simple list of four areas to define your priorities. So it goes from A to D, so A, B, C, D. And it says, if it is important and urgent, then it's priority A. important but not urgent is priority B. Not important. But urgent is priority C. And not important and not urgent is priority D. So we have four different priorities to define. And that's something I use very regularly because it is really easy. And before I you an example of what is important and what is urgent, let's go through those four values and what it means. Important and urgent is priority A. So this is something you should immediately do yourself. So not urgent but important is find an appointment to do yourself. Not important but urgent is find or delegate this topic. And not urgent not important is throw it out. Okay.

Michael Seidl: So if it is not urgent, if it is not important, then why should you do it? This is maybe something for the anytime list we talked last week. But from now on, or at least at this point, we don't continue or we don't put any more effort on this topic. So we focus on ABC. And nowadays, Last week, where I did my cleanup and put everything on a list and go through at least as I talked in the last episode. I had one example, maybe to help you to define if it is urgent or important and to find the right sequence or list on the Eisenhower matrix. So I did some LinkedIn lives last year. And I also want to do it this year. So I have five more episodes to do. So this is related to Automator, company, and to do some LinkedIn lives, to do some showcases, what we are capable of, what we did at our customers and LinkedIn lives. We always present one solution for this. And I wanted to do five more next year. And last week I was I had all my to-do's in one list and sat down and did some estimations and wanted to plan this LinkedIn Lives. And with all the preparations, with the recordings and the post-production, it definitely will take me three to maybe four days to do all those recordings, everything what it takes for five more episodes, each in German and English. So this is a lot of time. So I wanted to do it very early in the next year. So I started to plan my January, but then I saw something different in my list. Then I have a customer project that needs to be finished in January. And that's also one example for how important it is to have one single list.

Michael Seidl: and to go through that list and to have an overview of a complete list of all to-dos. Because then you can see that is more important than that, that is more urgent than that, and so on. So I've gone through a list, and so one customer project needs to be finished in January. And that's a good example. Both things are important. So one thing is important because it's my daily business, and it brings me money in the first step, and hopefully a happy customer. And the second one is also important because it brings me hopefully customers in the near future to showcase the solution. So both is important, but one has a deadline by the end of January. So it is also important and urgent. And that's the A matrix. So we have to do it immediately or at least plan it immediately. Okay. So I decided to go through that and plan. the customer project first and then go to the next one, the LinkedIn lives and plan those. And that's the thing or the advantage of have a single list to see those dependencies, to see those differences and to define if it is urgent or important or both. And then go through that list and go from the top to the low and do a planet. dependent on the estimation. And that's one thing, what is very important. One thing, you see the differences between important and urgent. The second one is, if you... done your estimation of to-dos, if you have done your prioritization and when it comes to planning, so what should you plan first? And you have maybe to-dos, what will cost you 30 days? But the first quarter of 2024, you only have 15 days left. And when you see this, when you see you only have 15 days where you can put in 30 days of to-dos, then you have cut, need to

Michael Seidl: cut some to-dos off those 30 days. And that's the second hint or the second suggestion or rule or guideline, whatever you call it. What I do is, it is easy, but most of the people and myself as well sometimes forget before I plan my stuff to see what is the available time of of my planning timeframe. And when I see this, for example, I only have 15 days left, then it's more easier to define on those lists of 30 days of to-dos to cut off something to only have 10 to 15 days left. And those needs to be planned. And everything else might be important, but not that urgent. So I can bypass it to the second quarter. That's also a thing to define priorities or to see priorities. It's also the same, maybe tomorrow your girlfriend has birthday and you only have one hour left. What will you do? I think then what is more important to go to a soccer game or to get a present for your girlfriend? So when you see what time you left, then it's easy to define those priorities. That's the second one. Hopefully, those two things will help you to define your priorities. This episode will air on the 3rd of December. Tomorrow we have New Year. I wish you all a happy New Year. Thanks for the last year and listening to the episodes. We will definitely continue in the next year. I wish you all the best. See you next year and bye-bye.