Managing priorities and the day to day routine

Managing priorities - Covey's Quadrants
Take a blank piece of paper, divide it into 4 equally sized rectangles.
QI - Important and Urgent
QII - Important but Not Urgent
QIII - Not Important but Urgent
QIV - Not Important and Not Urgent

Classify all your tasks in these 4 quadrants (remember that long term projects need to be broken into individual short term tasks), and just write them off when you're done.

The key here are the following points:
- "Important activities have an outcome that leads to the achievement of your goals".
- "Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are often associated with the achievement of someone else’s goals."
- The secret to being effective is making sure you focus enough on QII. QII is what drives the value of your work daily.

Of course, priorities are always shifting, hence I create a new quadrant every week.

Tweaking the quadrant
The quadrant is simple, efficient and changed my life (at work at least). However, I did tweak it a little when I started managing.

This is what my quadrant used to look like before I was managing.

Today this is what my quadrant looks like.

You will notice I added a "sub quadrant" where I list my managees' priorities.
I also added a sub section to QII: even though the quadrant is supposed to be weekly, I like to keep a small space on the page where I write down the important slightly longer term priorities (full market study for country X for example). This helps me keep the bigger picture in mind.

Even though my version of the quadrant is now slightly more cluttered, it still works for me. I no longer use up energy and brainpower every time i finish a task to think about what I should do next.
Furthermore, I can summarize what needs to be done and what's a priority with just a quick glance at the sheet. This is great for impromptu reporting requests.

The quadrant is an invaluable tool in my priority management and has a great impact on my productivity. Try it, you'll be surprised.

And finally: I draft my quadrant the old fashion way: pen and pencil. I am way more focused and clear headed when I'm not staring at a computer screen.

My Day to Day routine
Ending the day
- Clean and organize my desk to have a clear workspace waiting me next morning.
A clean desk is kind of a zen exercise for me: it helps me start the next day super focused and reduces my stress level.

- Identify the 3 to 5 important tasks I need to complete the next day.
Make sure the timing is realistic. Stick a post-it on my keyboard, so it's the first thing I see the next morning.
It's important to do this at the end of the day, when your brain is still "enjoying" the day's momentum.

The interesting thing about this is that research has shown that motivation and happiness at work is closely linked to getting things done and moving ahead (more than money and peer appreciation for example). Hence by completing a limited and realistic number of tasks each day, not only are you moving forward because you completed tasks that you intelligently chose, but you are going to be feeling great about it and it'll strongly motivate you.

Starting the day
- Spend the necessary time WITHOUT turning on e-mails and making/taking telephone calls. Use this "no communication" time to complete at least one to three of the important tasks.

Once this is done:
- review quadrant
- fire up Outlook and dive in the "operational overload" phase of your day :p

Managing e-mails
- Disable Outlook's email notifier.
It's insane how an email notice systematically breaks my concentration and rythm.

- Don't create a gazillion inbox subfolders.
Subfolders are helpful, but I wouldnt go overboard with it. Today's email search engines and organisation option makes it easy to find that specific e-mail you are looking for, so several subfolders per project folder seems excessive.

Other concepts:
- "Act on, file, or toss every document I touch".
Take action EACH TIME you have a document in hand.

- "Pay attention to the times of day when you feel that you are at your best; do the most important work then". In my case its early in the morning, during my "no communication" time.

- Group similar tasks together (outstanding phone calls, Excel reviews, answer urgent emails...). The brain works best when doing repetitive tasks.


Sources: almost exclusively HBR's "managing yourself' collection.
Covey's Quadrant is from "The 7 habits of highly effective people".