Talking to a number of people this past week, a common theme arose – having more than 10 priorities to work on bit each will take more than 3 days to complete. This on top of project work. How can someone succeed in the face of this?
There has been lots written on this topic over at HBR and other places but every situation remains somewhat unique. How do you keep going knowing that more people than not are going to be disappointed?
My rule has always been to make the best decision I can for the business. If I believe in the path then at least I know I will give it everything it needs. It is a good rule because it also allows each employee to be empowered to the degree they are comfortable with.
Take all the tasks and work on the ones most important to you. If in a month no one has mentioned some of the others then assume they probably weren’t that important anyway.