Making Better Decisions

A simple trick here is to say (expected utility) = (expected value) / (expected effort). As long as you're consistent across projects (which may be hard), you can use this to force a ranking of different work items. Some traps I've seen people fall into (myself included!) include:

• Working on urgent-but-not-important items. Done too often, this means important-but-not-urgent items don't get done in a timely manner.
• Working on the items that are most interesting, or that are most like work I already know how to do. This isn't always the most important thing to be working on.

The truth is, I don't really believe there is a one-size-fits-all answer for prioritization. To me, this is a function of the role I'm in and the asks placed on me. The projects I work on tend to play out over long periods of time, so rather than thinking about priorities, I think about ensuring I meet explicit and implicit commitments I have made to others. In order to do that, I need to make sure I understand the scope of what I'm responsible for, what resources I have available (my own time, staff on my teams), what's needed to push an initiative forward, and what milestones I'm working towards.

Answering a somewhat different question, I often find myself in a mode of wanting more information in order to confirm some idea or another, or trying to find a way to break tough decisions into smaller steps and start executing one at a time, so we can test how each one goes. This incremental approach with easing into change lowers risk but takes longer, which is not always ideal. Have to be careful to not end up in analysis paralysis, usually by putting some time-bound on when a decision has to be made.

When I was in high school, I managed a rock band and I got them on the radio and a show in the nearest big city, Milwaukee.