Prioritization grids are everywhere, and they happily contradict each other. A task can be important but not urgent, urgent but secondary, quick but pointless. In the end, we go with our gut, which means whatever is easiest to start.

The deciding criterion: the unblocking effect

A task is worth not only what it is in itself, but what it makes possible. Some tasks, once done, unblock five others. Others, however important, unblock nothing. When importance is equal, the first always comes first.

This criterion has a rare advantage: it is objective. You can debate a task's importance for an hour, but you can see in thirty seconds that it is blocking three others.

The right priority is not the most important task. It's the one without which the others can't move forward.

Spotting blockages in practice

  • Tasks waiting on someone's decision, often yours, often for a long time.
  • Tasks waiting on missing information: a figure, a login, a document.
  • Tasks handed to outside parties: they have their own lead time, so they should go out first.
  • Tasks a colleague's work depends on: holding onto them costs twice, because your delay becomes theirs.

The “I'll do it quickly” illusion

A short but blocking task delayed by a week costs a week to everything that depends on it. How long it takes to do is irrelevant; only its position in the chain matters. It's the calculation our instinct gets wrong most often.

What prioritizing demands: letting go

Prioritizing isn't putting a list in order, it's deciding what won't get done this week, and owning that decision. A list where everything stays “to do soon” hasn't been prioritized: it has just been tidied. The difference shows at the end of the month.

One question per task

Take your ten tasks in progress and ask one question about each: if this one were done tonight, how many others could move forward tomorrow? Do the one with the highest number first. You'll often find it wasn't the one at the top of your list.

Work doesn't move at the pace of your energy. It moves at the pace of what you unblock.