Reality Based Management

In general I think priorities as a decision making tool, or management tool are overrated, however there is no question that we usually have more to do than we have time to do it. Some criteria are useful in determining what we should do. The following list is not without problems, but it does help me to figure out what I should do next. We usually don’t have a problem figuring out how to get truly urgent tasks accomplished—getting the important tasks done is the hard part.

· Death / Loss

o Even if it isn’t a big thing death is not reversible. If you don’t water that plant in the backyard it will die. Items in this list typically aren’t good ones to delay.

· Damage

o Damage is also typically a non-reversible thing. If you don’t put on sun screen before some significant time in the sun you will damage your skin. Maybe it will be minor, but there may be a much higher price to pay later, compared to dealing with it now.

· De-stress something

o Regardless of whether it is a thing or a person, if you see it experiencing excess stress it is probably worth some time to deal with it. Ultimately the result of too much
stress is death or damage which is usually takes much more effort to fix than
the energy required to reduce the stress.

Now things get tougher to put in sequence. These next three are pretty similar.

· Do preventative work
o Sometimes you can do things that prevent stress,damage, or death. Is the effort worth
the payoff (e.g. lower chance of damage)

· Improve efficiency
o Can you figure out a better way to do things? The sooner you put this improvement in place, the sooner you start experiencing the benefits. Even small improvements, if done on an ongoing basis can really add up.

· Getting things happening in parallel

o Two people often can’t finish a task twice as fast as one, but they can usually beat the time it takes a single person. If your goal is to get things done as quickly as possible, rather than as cheaply as possible, then you should be trying to get stuff going in parallel.

o Putting things in parallel often involves delegating. Assume that the other person won’t do it the way you would, or as good as you would. If that is ok then go for it. Make sure they know the goals and the boundary conditions (e.g. restrictions on how they can do things)

o Some things inherently take a long time to get done (e.g. getting your passport renewed). A little work getting these items started early can save a lot of stress and
expense later. You can’t always expedite yourself out of trouble.

It feels like there is a bit of a gap to the next set. However in some situations the issues below might end up being of much higher importance.

· Cost

1. A useful adage is that if you can afford to spend your way out of a problem, then you don’t have a problem. Sometimes cost is critical, but make sure that you properly account for the time that reducing the cost requires.

· Commitments

1. I take my commitments seriously, but typically I won’t let something die in order to meet my commitments. Consider re-negotiating commitments if it appears that you are going to have to do dumb things because of them (e.g. overstress an employee, neglecting important preventative work).

· Utility

o If there are two ways to do something and one way will make things easier to do in the future that approach may be worth some extra effort. However, don’t fall into the
trap of always automating something, or building a tool to do things efficiently. Many investments in utility never pay off. Consider waiting until to see if the situation comes up again before investing much in utility.

· Aesthetics
o I’ve seen some restaurants where it sure wouldn’t hurt for them to pretty up the landscaping a bit, but I suspect that they have learned that having good food is way more important. Customers usually care a lot more about the value you provide than what paint color you use. However, there is a threshold effect. Below a certain level looks become very important.

· Consolidate Gains

o After a good run of accomplishments it is good to look around and ask if there are some things you could do that will reduce risks, or knock off some nagging problems. For
example, consider buying out your competitor when you have reduced them to a
state of existential despair. If you don’t someone else might buy them and build them into a formidable opponent.