I’m guilty, and you? Our email inbox fills up with items that we always intend to “get to later.” Our daily planners have both immediate and long-term action items. We make lists and put sticky notes on our desks or other surfaces to remind us of all the things we need to get done. Add to that, the list of personal commitments and responsibilities or the challenge of doing the “work” at the expense of “building” the business. No wonder we find ourselves exhausted and frustrated when the list or lists seem to get longer and longer.

The notion of prioritizing tasks, actions, and requests is very familiar. Most planners and calendar programs have the ability to assign a priority to entered items. Unfortunately, during the course of the day, other items and requests enter the picture and the carefully developed list is brushed aside with a “I’ll come back to this later.” Whether or not the list is complete depends largely on how late the writer is willing to work that night or what other priority is sacrificed.

One of the main concepts of the Lean Manufacturing quality methodology is derived from the Japanese concept of “cleanliness” for the workplace. The approach known as the Five S’s is commonly anglicized as follows:

• Spell
• Straighten
• shine
• Standardized
• To hold

By going beyond the literal definition of the words, we can see a useful approach to managing the priorities that compete for our time.

1. ORDER: Create a list of everything you need or want to do. Try to make it as complete as possible. Look beyond the specific daily tasks or deliverables and ad-hoc requests that arrive at your desk. When creating your list, be sure to include the actions that will lead you toward the specific goals you have for your career or business. Too often, we allow daily tasks to take over and therefore ignore the positive action steps that will have the biggest impact on our future. Order the list broadly in terms of what it means for the things that are important. For example, using the terms “Step”, “Stretch” and “Jump” we could assign “Step” to all the daily tasks and one-time things we need to do because they are requirements of our daily responsibilities. “Stretch” could be used to describe the ideas and actions that are needed to achieve short-term personal or professional goals. Finally, “Leap” refers to the elements that will propel us to much greater achievements.

2. STRAIGHTEN-Organize your list. Let’s apply the concept to ‘ordering’ our to-do list before completing our planners. I recently read about an approach to taking back and keeping control of your email inbox. Like the 5 S’s, it’s an alphabetical catchphrase, the four D’s! Just ask yourself what you would or could do with each item.

You:

• SHOULD
• DELEGATE IT
• PUT IT OFF
• DUMP IT

What are the things you really need to do? personally? Even if you could do it or do it in the most convenient way, who else could you ask? Then ask yourself how many things need to be done right now. When someone calls unexpectedly during the day and asks you to take care of something, how often do you drop everything to answer simply because you assume it needs to be done right now? If you are unsure of the deadline, ask the applicant or perhaps contact them with some time options. Finally, ask yourself if you need to be done at all. If it has been postponed 2 or 3 times, it may be unpleasant or unnecessary. If the task is unpleasant but important, put it at the top of your list. Completing actions that are put off because they are unpleasant gives the greatest sense of accomplishment. On the other hand, you may have things sitting around on your to-do list that just aren’t important anymore. If they are no longer important, they have no place on your list. Working backwards, get rid of the Dump it items. You don’t need these unnecessary elements cluttering your actions. if is one Put it off, mark it as such and set a time to visit again. for the marked Delegate, pass it on now and remove it from your list too. What you are left with is a simplified list of actions that are most important to you and have the opportunity to have the greatest positive impact.

3. BRIGHTNESS – In terms of cleanliness or on the factory floor, this component refers to a neat and organized workspace. Think of ways you can ‘clean up’ your to-do list. If you have sticky notes posted to your workspace, plus a planner, plus a notepad list, consolidate them into one location. Consider blocking sections of your planner to dedicate them to activity categories rather than specific activities. If you’re a visual person, the color coding of the blocks will help highlight the times you make available for the “Step,” “Stretch,” and “Jump” activities. Don’t forget your personal time. You have steps, stretches, and jumps there, too.

The ratio of how long you are blocked for each category is up to you. A word of caution, be careful not to let “Steps” cannibalize your schedule and cause you to neglect the decisions and actions that will actually move you forward. Priorities compete because they are rarely sequential. They must be balanced and managed simultaneously. No matter how hard you work, if you try to finish the “Steps” before moving on to the “Stretches”, you will find that more “Steps” have been completed to consume your time, and you will not waste time on actions. that will truly transform your life, career or business.

Next, order the activities within each category by priority. Use a prioritization process that works for you to rate the importance of each item relative to others in that group. For example, prioritize “Step” elements over other “Step Elements”. This is important. Daily tasks and ‘fire drills’ are not more important than the medium and long term actions you need to take. They just seem so because they are current and on the top of your mind. Giving them constant priority over the things that will build you or your business is to your disadvantage. After you have prioritized each of the items within a particular group, place them in the appropriate blocks in your planner.

4. STANDARDIZE: Once you’ve figured out the process that works for you for organizing, prioritizing, and acting on things competing for your attention, apply it consistently. Since this is a personal process, you may not feel the need to document it; however, you may want to create a system to record or designate your decisions and a filing system to file them.

5. SUPPORT – This is the most critical S. Whatever process you develop to decide and manage competing priorities, it needs commitment. As a New Year’s resolution, make a commitment and stick to it. If you find the process too time consuming, reduce it. If trying to manage competing priorities over a long time horizon is too cumbersome, use the 5 to manage what you want to accomplish this month, this week, or just today. Respect the process you’ve developed, use it consistently, and don’t let the “I don’t have time to do this” or “It’s too complicated” excuses allow the noise of all those priorities to deplete what you need. and want to do to succeed.