deciding what to work on today

I'm not great at productivity systems. I'm good at trying them. Not so good at sticking with them.

But there are two things that still help me when 'overwhelm' starts to take hold.

1. The Eisenhower Matrix

2. RICE from Intercom

The Eisenhower Matrix helps me take a long to-do list and figure out two important parts of my week. First, when something is important and urgent it is the thing I work on now. Second, things that are better being done by someone else get delegated.

I do schedule tasks for later times, but I often find that when I get to one of those scheduled tasks it's not really important anymore. The important stuff gets done.

I don't delete much. Things that turn out to be unnecessary or delete-worthy seem to find their own way to the garbage.

RICE from Intercom

When it comes to product and marketing work, I often look to RICE. It stands for:

• Reach -- how many people will see this?

• Impact -- what's the goal of this work and what is the impact it could have?

• Confidence -- how likely will this work hit its reach and impact goals?

• Effort -- how many days, weeks, or months will this take?

​Intercom published a spreadsheet​ you can download. Or you can do the math by hand:

(Reach x Impact x Confidence) / Effort = RICE Score

Higher scores should mean important work. Sort the list of to-dos and start from the top.

Building a business, running a team, or managing time between family and work can feel overwhelming. Throw the to-do list through one of these frameworks and life gets a bit simpler (even if the work you now need to do isn't all that easy).

To doing important work,

Peter

(303 / 500)

PS: What's your go-to method for working on what matters most?