A Job Done Well - Making Work Better

How to Prioritise Your Work and Increase Your Effectiveness

• Jimmy Barber and James Lawther • Season 3 • Episode 6

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In today's world, we all face too many demands on our time—where do you start? How can you achieve more? The answer is never to work harder! This week, hosts James Lawther and Jimmy Barber explore ways you can prioritise the demands on your time by focusing on the most essential stuff and making the right choices so you can achieve more and avoid overwhelm and burnout.

Stop being a slave to others' priorities and take control of your work.

Plus, you can hear Jimmy's latest conspiracy theory and how James is progressing with his next bestseller!

Got a question - get in touch. Click here.

Speaker 3:

Hello, I'm James. Hi, I'm Jimmy and welcome to a Job Done Well, the podcast that helps you improve your performance enjoyment at work.

Jimmy:

Hi James.

James:

What are we talking about? Sustain

Jimmy:

We spend too much of our time, either with too much to do or not focused on the most valuable tasks, or not knowing what to do, or just in general overwhelm. And we think that some simple prioritization methods could help. Change that and help people deliver more, have a bigger impact, and feel more in control and less stressed out. So we are going to talk about prioritizing your work and we'll cover this off in 30.

James:

Very good. However, give me the gossip, what we've been up to

Jimmy:

So, but I've got a, a conspiracy theory type thing for you.

James:

You've conspiracy theory.

Jimmy:

so I was I was talking to somebody the other day and I was just saying how I was feeling very frustrated and angry and I thought I was gonna lose my shit at someone about something. Had this conversation, now, on your phone that, I understand the algorithms. If you start looking at, fluffy. Puppies that will show you lots of fluffy puppies and I know it listens and it, it looks at what you like. But when I went on to check one of our posts to see how we were doing, had we gone TikTok famous yet, the answer obviously is no,

James:

Almost.

Jimmy:

But it started showing me all these videos of people. Losing their shit and getting into fights in the street. Just random people. And I was like, my God, I haven't ever looked at anything like this on TikTok before, but I think it's heard how I was talking about feeling and then started to serve me content to echo that, which I know may be a conspiracy theory, maybe a fluke, but it was very suspicious to me that it was amplifying my negative feelings.

James:

I am, yeah, a bit

Jimmy:

It was like, yeah, let's, let's amplify his feelings of anger and you do start like, you know, I wanna have a fight now. Anyhow. What, what have you been up to? James?

James:

Well, I have turned over a

Jimmy:

Gone.

James:

Well, so it's very easy. So I'm, I've decided to write a book and we talked about this, but I'm writing another book and,

Jimmy:

A second book.

James:

to

Jimmy:

For those of you who haven't read it, managed by Morons and Amazon bestseller. Check it out.

James:

Yeah. Very niche category. So I've. Decided that it's very easy for me to sit in this little study that I've got here and right away, but it's, no, it's not good. I need to get out and see people. So there is a very very selective private library in the middle of Nottingham, which I'm a member of'cause that's how posh I am. Yeah. So I went to the private library to write my book on them. Tuesday morning, which was great. I walked down there with my wife and then I then went in and I sat down in this place. It's just full of old blokes who are fast asleep, that's

Jimmy:

I'm sure I told you, James, that I'd been down to the li, the central library a couple of times to to work. So this is difference, right? You went to the private library where there was a couple of old boys asleep. I went to the Central Library where there was just acres of students sat there studying.

James:

so, so that's my life panned out ahead of me. I've got me in a nice, comfy chair in

Jimmy:

Did you just push your book? Did you just push your book to the side and just kick back and join them?

James:

yeah, keep back, a little snooze. So, yeah. Well worth joining right then. Go on then. So, prioritization. So go on then. What do we mean

Jimmy:

So

James:

You've got a definition of something

Jimmy:

dictionary definition, I know you do like a dictionary definition of these things. The act of putting tasks, problems, et cetera, in order of importance so that you can deal with the most important first.

James:

very

Jimmy:

in the the modern world. Because there's just so much noise, you're constantly drowning in requests, emails, suggestions, meetings. There's so much noise, and I think prioritization back to deal with the most important things, it talks a lot about importance. How do you see the value from the, from the noise?

James:

Yeah.

Jimmy:

there is also for us all, there's a bit of a hidden cost with poor prioritization. I mean people burnout is on the increase. People systemically missed deadlines. They're always firefighting, they're always stressed out. We're always being busy and not really thinking about, actually, is the work that I'm doing making a difference?

James:

Well, and I would actually argue you can't be productive without prioritization.

Jimmy:

People don't like to say no to things, but prioritization is about working out what you're going to say yes to, what matters the most. And a long time ago. I realized that there, there's always too much to do, right? So when I when I was first starting out at work, I was managing my first betting shop not far from Camden Town. I had a job I really wanted to do, tidy the back office. And I used to say, right when Shelton's finished, I'm gonna tidy the back office. And Shelton was finished and then something else would happen and something else would happen. And then after Epsom and it went on and eventually I realized that there was no point where you have nothing to do at work and you can go and tidy the back office.

James:

Right. And I think just to go off a slight tangent, yeah. There is always more work

Jimmy:

Exactly.

James:

and so if you think the solution is to ask for more people, you are

Jimmy:

Yeah. And, and similarly just thinking that I'll wait for the quiet time to ti the off you need to if, if, if tidying the back office is important, you need to prioritize that activity. Otherwise it's never gonna happen.

James:

Yeah. But then that actually, sorry, I'm drifting off a bit. But then that works on two levels, doesn't it? So it's personal prioritization, what is important to you, but it's also prioritization of your team's work. So what's important to them? Yeah. Or what do you need them to do? So if you can get rid of the junk, the stuff that's not priority, then you will be more productive. So

Jimmy:

Yeah,

James:

important.

Jimmy:

I think one of the key things is we have,

James:

What do you mean? Yeah, you sound like I've just

Jimmy:

well, you did,

James:

Well, okay.

Jimmy:

it's what?

James:

Job? Well, the podcasting

Jimmy:

Honestly, James, we make a living outta state in the obvious, but, but it's true. A lot of it is is obvious. If you are going to prioritize, you need to start off with what's the most important thing to you. You need to work out, and we keep saying it. Every episode we're talking about purpose. Are you clear on what your purpose is? Are you clear on what your goals are for this month, this week, today. If you're not, how are you prioritizing what you basing it on?

James:

Well, you then get into who shouts loudest. Yeah. Which means you are just clear about somebody else's purpose.

Jimmy:

And actually spending some time thinking about your prioritization and how you do it. What's the system you use? We used to have a, a classic, I don't even remember when we were at capital One together. One of the jokey sayings we had in the team I was in that was somebody turned around and they said, we were talking about some tasks and they throw, throw away. Said, I'm too busy to think. It's like, okay, Houston, we have a problem at the point, we are too busy to think. You need to think about prioritization. Just on, on systems and things that can help you, which we're gonna go into, have you come across the Eisenhower Matrix.

James:

Maybe Go on, fill

Jimmy:

Well, the Eisenhower Matrix is a very simple matrix that helps you distinguish between what's important and what's urgent.

James:

Go on then. How's it work?

Jimmy:

Eisenhower said, what's important is seldom urgent. And what's urgent is seldom important. And this matrix was then built some years later on the basis of that quote. So it's a simple two by two matrix. On one side you've got urgency and one side you've got importance. So you've got four boxes Urgent.

James:

Is this, hang on, hang on, hang on. No one. Is this like some sort of analytical

Jimmy:

a model. This is a model. James, you've now perked up. No.

James:

My, my work here

Jimmy:

Exactly. So long one access

James:

33

Jimmy:

one, long a one access. You've got urgent and not urgent. And on another access you've got important and not important. So you've got four boxes. And the premise here is to Eisenhower comment. We get caught up in what's urgent. So There is a box here that's urgent and important, that stuff, you've gotta do it now.

James:

Yeah,

Jimmy:

Then there's a box in terms of

James:

now is not the time to be

Jimmy:

Exactly. Then there's a box that is important but not urgent. And this is, this is one of the key things. This is stuff that isn't burning right now. This is what people kick down the road and this is the box where actually there's huge amounts of value and what you need to do. Little bit like my story about the the back office, schedule it in, plan in to do the work that is important, but not urgent because that's the box that people don't get to. Then on the not important stuff, you've got not important stuff that is urgent. Well, actually, you know, not important, not urgent. Should you even be. Doing it at all and

James:

that's stuff like looking at TikTok.

Jimmy:

Exactly. Time wasting distractions

James:

Yeah,

Jimmy:

and then you've got the final boxes, not important, but urgent and they're stuff that maybe you should delegate or

James:

well go on. Gimme an.

Jimmy:

So things like,, there was somebody we worked with back to my customer relations days. Remember we used to have the open plan office. I went up to a, a, one of the senior managers who was in charge, and I, I said to her Hillary, have you got a minute? And she turned around and said no, sorry, I'm, I'm in the middle of something. Can you come back at at three o'clock? It's like, yeah, yeah, no problem. We'll come back it through. And I was a little bit like, whoa. But actually there was nothing important about what I was doing to her. And actually I was just an interruption. So managing those interruptions so that you're in charge of them rather than otherwise, she stops a task, loses her flow, starts talking to me about something that's, that's

James:

not

Jimmy:

important. Something I want. Well, actually she did the completely the right thing, but that's the sort of thing that we're not very good at saying. Well, no, actually, I need to get this completed. This is something that is important. I'm gonna complete this, therefore, your interruption can wait.

James:

So this Eisenhower method Is this something that you should do on a weekly basis or is this just a framework you should

Jimmy:

So I think there's two, two parts to this, James. One is stuff that's not important. Don't let it, don't let it steal your time. Manage it. Stop it. Do what Hillary did and control it. The second principle is look at the stuff that you've got in front of you. Is important and not urgent.'cause the danger is you never get to that, but it is important to plan it in.

James:

You know Right. Podcast is stating the bleeding obvious, but it's the not urgent important stuff that is the

Jimmy:

yeah.

James:

stuff.'cause the less you do it, the you don't get to it. You don't get

Jimmy:

Yeah, and it is things like, you know, planning, working out your purpose, having a strategy, building relationships, all of those things fit into that not urgent important bit. Schedule it. So to your point, James, I would. Use those principles to help guide some of my thinking. But yeah, on a semi-regular basis, maybe once a month, look at those tasks you've got in, in on your to-do list. Look at what you've got coming up and just place that challenge. Are you focusing your time on not important stuff, and are you scheduling in and getting to some of that important but not urgent things?

James:

I have a little little addition I'd make to that With the important stuff that you've scheduled in Yeah, like writing a book. Don't go and do it somewhere with the option to go and have a ki instead.

Our podcast is all about helping people, teams, and organizations perform better and enjoy work more. I get as far as to say that we believe that everyone and every team has the potential to transform their performance by optimizing what they currently do. So if you'd like to discuss how we can help you transform your performance, then get in touch or maybe check out our website. We also do speaking events, mentoring advice, work as well.

James:

Right? So I like the matrix.

Jimmy:

You would do as a model.

James:

it before I, I just know it was called Thehow Matrix, but there you go. Are we called it the urgent important matrix?

Jimmy:

We, who's we? James, check you out.

James:

So my analytical tools and tips book.

Jimmy:

As we call it.

James:

yeah, go on. We've got any other practical tips, what other stuff that we

Jimmy:

Well, I think one of your favorites is the, of 80 20 question, which, really ask yourself, of the things that you've got to do today, what would make the biggest difference? And so I think it is just challenging yourself around that. Another one. If you've got to break down a big task, so you've got a big task and it becomes overwhelming, how do you prioritize it, chunk it down, and just plan the blocks of work you need to do. And we did a, a great episode on getting in flow that helps you get into flow. If you can chunk it down and sequence and plan in those those bits. And that's how you eat the elephant.

James:

Yeah, which is exactly what I'm doing with

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

book. You know, I've written down, I've got like a, a skeleton which says, or framework, which says, this is what I need to write about, sit down every morning for an hour and write

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

So it just

Jimmy:

And that's,

James:

very

Jimmy:

the only way.'cause if you said, I'm gonna sit down, I'm just gonna write a book. It's a bit overwhelming, isn't it? You know, mean I do do that. I'm gonna sit, just gonna sit here until I've written a book. No, you're not. So chunk it down. Another way of prioritizing, which I personally use quite a bit, is. You've got all the tasks that you need to do. Written down somewhere, or recorded somewhere, and some, of it depends on how much energy you've got. So think about a bit of energy based prioritisation In other words, when you get to the end of the day and you're low energy. Don't do something that's really challenging and takes a lot of focus and a lot of a lot of your, energy'cause you just won't be able to do it. And sometimes, you just pick those little tasks that get you sort of moving and it helps build up momentum and helps build up energy. So think about that as one of the the questions.

James:

EBP mate, energy based prioritisation

Jimmy:

We've even got an acronym now.

James:

Go on.

Jimmy:

So tell me, James, what's your personal ways of prioritizing? How do you prioritize your, your, you touched on your book, but what else do you do?

James:

Well, no, it comes down to priorities. So I I've got a, a little app, this not terribly sophisticated, it's one of these apps where you put across in

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

and they I've decided there are four or five things that I wanted to do that there are important to me, of which writing the book is one. Learning Dutch for some reason is another. But it just forces me on a daily basis to say, did you do something towards that goal or not? got, it's not quite scheduling, but you've got this constant nagging in your back of your mind, have I done it yet? Have I done it yet? Have I

Jimmy:

Well.

James:

So I think that's a really helpful, and it's sort of habit

Jimmy:

Yeah. And, and that was one of the things that was in James Clear's atomic Cabots, wasn't it? Just the act of putting a, a cross or a tick through each day does, you know, you do build up those sequences. That's why a lot of the social media and games and stuff like that, it's all about kind of links and sequences. So. I noticed today I'm on 108 week sequence with my Peloton. I've done, I've done a session on Peloton every week for 108 weeks. And you want to keep that going, don't you? And it's the same with the way, people use social media. It's that same, same principle.

James:

Yeah, but it is about making it for the things you want

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

not necessarily the things

Jimmy:

So what can you, what can you say to us in Dutch then?

James:

News, horn

Jimmy:

What's that?

James:

News, that's a news horn or a rhinoceros.

Jimmy:

So of all the things you could have said in Dutch, that's the one you're out to.

James:

That's the one that comes to

Jimmy:

Wow. Brilliant.

James:

but it's gonna be a very useful Dutch word to know

Jimmy:

When I go to to Holland, I know I want to be with, if we get attacked by a rhino, I'll be sorted.

James:

Yeah. There you. Another one would be an, oh, I'll come back to my man, Dan Pink. We talked about him

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

but he he calls it MIT, which is most important

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

you know, what is the thing you have to do today and do that. I've also heard it called Eating the Frog. Yeah. So you write your list of

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

and decide which one's the frock. Yeah. And the frog being the most unpleasant thing that you really must do today. Well, if you've really got to go on and do it, just eat the bloody frog. Get on with it. Don't faff about. So there you go. Eat the frog. That will be my piece of advice. Another one old Chinese

Jimmy:

Yeah. Oh.

James:

don't like a good old Chinese proverb. Not that I know any old Chinese people, but the old Chinese problem, when is the best time to plant a

Jimmy:

When is it?

James:

20 years

Jimmy:

Huh?

James:

Second best

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

today. Yeah. So if you've gotta do something, and put it on, get on with it and eat today so they can eat the frog in the tree. That will be my

Jimmy:

Okay. People are ready to remember that.'cause that's sort, heat the frog in the tree. People remember that. A couple of things from, from me. So I've, I've used a system called Getting Things Done since we first learned about it. Probably 25 years ago now, and if anyone will put a link in their show notes, but it's well worth having a look. It's a system that helps you prioritize and manage your work, but what I really like is you tailor the system to your way of working. So it's quite, it's quite flexible and it works enormously well. Helping you, particularly when the pressure's on. And that's the thing you've gotta remember with whatever system, however you decide to prioritize however you're using it. When you become busier and busier and busier, the answer is never to work harder. And I think that's one of the big challenges. And I have a had a great experience this where when I joined one organization. The guy who was there, head of one of the teams, had major problems. He really needed some, some help. He needed some more resourcing. I I, I bought in some, some experts to, to help him. And at the end of the first day, I went into where the experts were and said, have you gotten, Dave? Have you, have you helped Dave? And they said, no, no, we're, we're still waiting for him to come, tell, tell us what he needs. So I went and spoke to him, and his answer was, no. I, I've just got too much on. You've got too much on to explain to the people who are there to help you, how they can help you. What's your answer? I'm just working harder.

James:

That word lies

Jimmy:

Yeah, exactly. Plan B is not just work harder on plan A. So don't get caught in that. And the other thing that I always, I'm conscious of, which I think is a, a really good test is be respectful of others and how you, they prioritize and you remember the blue chip. White chip story. So it was just saying that, that basically, you have a, a, a bunch of a bunch of white chips and you have a bunch of blue chips, and blue chips are the important stuff for you. And white chips are the nif naff.

James:

Blue chips

Jimmy:

blue chips are important. White chips not important.

James:

I've got

Jimmy:

So then what you do is like, I've got too many to, to work on, so I'll delegate some stuff. So you delegate some of the, some of your white chips'cause they're not as important to you. And using the Eisenhower matrix, you'll delegate it. So you

James:

That's

Jimmy:

delegate somebody in your team and you give them a load of white chips to you. It's nif NAF work. It's not, it's not that important when they get it because their boss has given it to them. Those white chips turn blue. Their priority is, let me do what my boss has given me. It was stuff that you weren't really that bothered about, but to them it's the most important stuff in the world. So just remember that when you delegate tasks to people, if you're just delegating stuff that's nif NF that isn't important to you, it will become important to the person you delegate to.

James:

That makes a lot of sense. Another one I like is this whole question about, well, if I stopped doing

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

would anybody really care? And I've got, I've got a beautiful organizational example of this. I used to run an MI department and they, the guys in this MI department said, we've got this great IT agent scratch it Spy mi. So what the hell is Spy MI was? They'd send out these presentations with a little macro on them, which could tell whether or not somebody had ever opened them. So, you know, you spend hours producing this presentation, send it out. Nobody ever opened it. And when they came to the conclusion after four weeks, nobody was opening it. They just stopped

Jimmy:

That's fair enough.

James:

Yeah. So, but you know, is anybody, does anybody care if I wasn't doing this? I think that's a very good question

Jimmy:

We talked a bit about our experience of what do we do prioritization and some of the, the stories that we like that have driven our prioritization. But I think you're right. There are a number of questions that I think that. It's worth you challenging yourself and considering, and, and that's one of them. Does, does anyone really care about this? Another one that I, I liked was it's the supermarket trolley test. So think about your week as if it's a supermarket trolley. What are the essential foods that you've gotta put in and what's the little unhealthy snacks that just take up space and fill up your week with those essential tasks First?

James:

It's a bit like, a bit like the story of the rocks and the sand

Jimmy:

What's that?

James:

The story of the rocks and the sand is if you've got a no, I dunno, a bucket and a load of rocks and a load of sand. Always put the rocks in the bucket first. Because then you can fill in the sand around the gaps. Whereas if you put the sand in first, it won't all fit. It comes back to your point about what's important here. The important stuff is the rocks

Jimmy:

Yeah,

James:

The unimportant, trivial stuff is the sand

Jimmy:

yeah,

James:

Make sure you got these rocks

Jimmy:

in first And, and I think remember that when you say yes to something. You are inadvertently saying no to something else, and you might not be conscious about what it is you're saying no to, but, but as a result of, to your point, there's always more work than there are people, than there are hours in the day. So when I start doing all the stuff that you ask me to do, there is something that's falling off the end of the day. What is it? And is it, is that less important than the stuff that you have spent your day doing?

James:

Yeah, I heard, oh, I can't remember. I'd say it was the Eisenhower list, but it wasn't Eisenhower, but some other American guy. And said, right, write down the 10 things that you need to do.

Jimmy:

Yeah.

James:

And then he said, well cross eight of a month because actually it's best to do two things really well than eight, 10 things badly. So, you know, he maybe not get away from not doing it, but just

Jimmy:

Yeah,

James:

again.

Jimmy:

and, and that's the thing. About this, some of it is about the mentality you have. When you get those things and you say like, I don't know if we said, if we said, can we do, can we increase the frequency of this podcast daily? You and I would both say no. Can't, can't do it. If somebody says, I'll pay you a million pounds if you can increase the podcast daily. Yeah,

James:

A call at six

Jimmy:

we'd find a way. We would find a way, you mean, and so just challenge yourself. Well, what would need to be true if you were offered a million pounds to complete this task, what would need to be true? And therefore actually, is it a bit more realistic than you think?

We hope you're enjoying and getting value from listening to our podcast. If you are, please can you share it online on social media with friends and colleagues. We appreciate five star reviews and we really do, but any feedback on how we can improve or subject that you'd like us to cover, just drop us a line and get in touch. This all helps us bring the best quality show to you to ensure that you can improve your performance enjoyment at work.

Jimmy:

So in summary, James, we talked about why prioritization is important to make sure you're having the maximum impact. Make sure you are not burning yourself out and you're delivering results.

James:

Yeah, the most important thing is being clear. What is the most

Jimmy:

Yeah. Otherwise, how can you prioritize? If you dunno what your purpose or call is, that's your anchor.

James:

yeah.

Jimmy:

Then make sure you're not too busy to think and you have time to consider your prioritization, whether that's working out the system that you prioritize or the things that you prioritize.

James:

Yeah, invest a wee bit of time in the system and spend time planning particularly for the important stuff that's not

Jimmy:

Yes, and. We shared some of our personal things that we do to prioritize and some of the stories, tips, and questions and challenges you can make to yourself to help you prioritize your work better. But remember, the answer is never just work harder.

James:

And another one I'd just like to throw in. If you're not working on your priority, then you're probably working on somebody else's, which would you rather do?

Jimmy:

And on that note,

James:

that. Yeah,

Jimmy:

we'll we'll call it a day. All right. Thanks James. Thanks everyone.

James:

Speak to you later. Cheers. Now.

We cover a whole host of topics on this podcast from purpose to corporate jargon, but always focused on one thing, getting the job done well, easier said than done. So if you've got. Unhappy customers or employees, bosses or regulators breathing down your neck. If your backlogs are outta control and your costs are spiraling and that big IT transformation project that you've been promised, just keeps failing to deliver, we can help. If you need to improve your performance, your team's performance, or your organizations, get in touch at Jimmy at@jobdonewell.com orJames@jobdonewell.com.

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James Lawther

Co-host
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Jimmy Barber

Co-host