Chapter 7 Orchestrate priorities

It is often difficult for a person to avoid being entangled in various trivial and chores at work.Many people are exhausted and distracted by these things because they have not mastered high-efficiency working methods. They are always unable to calm down and do what they should do most, or they are blinded by those seemingly urgent things , I don’t know what is the most important thing to do, and as a result, the good time is wasted, resulting in low work efficiency and insignificant effectiveness. Numerous studies have shown that at work, people prioritize things based on the following criteria:

(1) Do what you like to do first, and then do what you don't like to do. (2) Do familiar things first, and then do unfamiliar things. (3) Do the easy things first, and then the hard things. (4) Do things that take a little time to do well first, and then do things that take a lot of time to do well. (5) Deal with the matter with complete information first, and then deal with the matter with incomplete information. (6) Do things that have been scheduled first, and then do things that have not been scheduled. (7) Do the planned first, and then the unplanned. (8) Do other people's work first, and then do your own.

(9) Do urgent things first, then non-urgent things. (10) Do the fun stuff first, then the boring stuff. (11) Do the things that are easy to complete or things that are easy to end first, and then do the whole thing that is difficult to complete or things that are difficult to end. (12) First do what is entrusted to you by someone you respect or has a close relationship with you, and then do what you do not respect or someone who has no close relationship with you. (13) Do what has happened first, and then do what has not happened. Obviously, none of the above criteria meet the requirements of efficient working methods.

Work is oriented towards the realization of goals. Among a series of to-do items based on the realization of goals, which items should be dealt with first?Which matters should be deferred, or even not dealt with? For this question, the answer given by McKinsey & Company is: the order of priority should be arranged according to the "importance" of things.The so-called "importance" refers to the contribution to the realization of the goal.The more important things that contribute to the achievement of the goal, the more they should be prioritized; the less important things are, the less important they should be postponed.Simply put, it is to judge the priority of things based on the principle of "whether what I do now brings me closer to my goal".

At McKinsey, everyone has developed the thinking habit and working method of "acting according to the importance of things".Before starting every job, we are always in the habit of figuring out what is important, what is not, and what is not, whether they are urgent or not.This is true of every job, every day, even a year or more of work plans. Among the thirteen priority-determining principles mentioned above, the ninth one is probably the most dominant to us - "do urgent things first, and then do non-urgent things". 80% of time and energy are spent on "urgent things".In other words, people are accustomed to deciding the priority of actions according to the "urgency" of things, rather than measuring the "importance" of things first.According to this kind of thinking, they often divide the daily tasks to be dealt with into the following three levels:

(1) What you "must" do today (that is, the most urgent thing). (2) Things you "should" do today (i.e. something that is somewhat urgent). (3) Things you "can" do today (i.e., things that are not urgent). But unfortunately, in most cases, the more important things are, the less urgent they are.For example, making suggestions to superiors for improving operation methods, planning long-term goals, and even personal physical examinations are often limited by those "must" things (such as non-stop phone calls and reports that need to be completed immediately) because they are not urgent. expectedly delayed.So, at McKinsey & Company, the number one thing we tell newcomers is: do the important thing, not the rush.This is also one of the essences of McKinsey's excellent working method.