Hi everybody,
Welcome (back) to Growth Path, where we discuss professional development & tools to help you grow in your career & life.
In this episode, we are going to talk about How to Prioritize. This is an important topic for personal and professional growth because if you don’t prioritize the right things, you will waste time, energy & resources pursuing activities that don’t matter or give you the results you want. Worse, if you are a manager and aren’t strong in prioritization, your team will work on too many different projects - ultimately leading to duplication and poor decisions. Teams that aren’t clear on their priorities often inch along without seeing results. They additionally have a hard time collaborating with others, and often suffer from a lack of momentum, which leads to poor morale and burnout.
The most successful people & teams all have one thing in common - they are highly skilled at prioritization. They allocate their time and energy effectively toward the things that matter most. They get more done, and they do more with less.
For this session, I decided to try something a little different. While usually, on Growth Path, we have guest speakers join to share their wisdom, there are too many incredible insights on this topic from too many people to limit it to just one guest speaker. For that reason, I am structuring this episode more like a research report. The primary sources are top books on business, management, leadership, and personal effectiveness (e.g., The Effective Engineer, High Output Management, and the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). I also reference writings by some of the greatest operators & thought leaders in business (e.g., Ben Horowitz, Michael Porter, and Andy Grove). The goal was to find overlap in their recommended principles, framework, and tactics for effective prioritization. My intention in this episode is to share with you the highlights and key takeaways of what I have learned.
This episode has three parts. The first focuses on principles - some of the highest-level foundations or beliefs on prioritization (e.g., “Begin with the end in mind,” “First things first,” and the compounding nature of prioritization. The second section digs into popular frameworks and structures (e.g., the Eisenhower Matrix, Pareto Principle, and Priority Codes.) The third section centers on tips, tricks & tactics for prioritization - along with a few examples of how they can be used. We wrap with some inspirational quotes.
Attached to this audio episode is something new called the “Learn More Document”. There, you will find timestamps, notes & key takeaways, reflection & discussion questions, and links to books, videos & articles for further study. Whether you are learning on your own, with a friend, or with your team - these should help you dig deeper into the topic and reflect on how you can improve your skillsets around prioritization.
I so hope that you find this useful. If you have any feedback or ideas, please don’t hesitate to email, or leave a comment below.
Have a great rest of your week!
~ Michelle
→ Link to Learn More Document ←
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How to Prioritize