Asher's Blog

Priorities

The key to effective leadership is getting priorities right.

I spoke about this topic during our Monday Leadership Lesson, and what follows is an excerpt of some of the things I shared with our remarkable team.

We all have the same 24 hours, don’t we? Yet very few people finish each day having done everything they intended to do. If this happens repeatedly and for most of us, it does, then it’s only logical to conclude that there must be a better way to be effective. Time itself is not the problem. As Jamie Cornell once said, time cannot and will not be managed, and you will never get more of it. The real issue is always found in the choices we make – what we decide to do, and what we decide not to do.

This is why, before even talking about priorities, I believe we must first talk about clarity of thinking process.

How well do you think?

One thing I’ve come to realise is that one of the fundamental differences between people is how clearly and how quickly they think. We must learn to think clearly, in building blocks, and with speed. The quality of our choices is directly tied to the quality of our thinking. So before asking what to prioritise, the deeper question is how we arrive at our choices in the first place.

Better thinkers always know what to overlook.

It’s helpful to regularly ask yourself why you choose one thing over another. That kind of self-interrogation exposes thinking patterns you might never notice otherwise. There’s a saying that thoughts influence actions, repeated actions form habits, habits shape character, and character defines a person. If that’s true, and I believe it is, then changing the way you think is the starting point of changing outcomes.

None of us escapes the pressures of life. From a young age, we all develop coping mechanisms for dealing with pressure. Some fight; others (take a) flight. What I’ve learned over time is that pressure points are defining moments. They build new skills in you, sometimes good ones, sometimes bad ones. For me, pressure points are opportunities for growth. They may be uncomfortable and inconvenient, but they stretch you and make you better if you lean into them intentionally.

When it comes to priorities, here are a few things I’ve found to be consistently true.

1. Too Many Priorities Lead to Paralysis

Trying to focus on too many priorities at once is unwise. It’s the equivalent of standing for everything, and therefore standing for nothing. Last year, I noticed that one of our strongest team members had a surprisingly low OKR score. She had always been a top performer, so the drop caught my attention.

After calling a meeting, it became clear what had happened. Her responsibilities had gradually increased over time, but she hadn’t been equipped with the tools or frameworks to prioritise effectively. She was overwhelmed, not incapable. So, we worked together on learning how to prioritise tasks, communicate clearly when new work was assigned, and use a simple tool to organise her workload.

The result was significant. Her output improved, but more importantly, how she felt about her work changed. That shift alone made a huge difference.

2. Little Hinges Swing Big Doors

Small tasks can quietly become big problems.

When your day is filled with many small, low-impact tasks, they end up consuming a disproportionate amount of time. You may feel busy all day, yet accomplish very little of real importance. Often, we neglect important or urgent work because it feels complex, uncomfortable, or mentally demanding. Instead, we react to smaller, easier problems and slowly lose sight of what truly matters.

Robert J. McKain captured this perfectly when he said that the reason most major goals are never achieved is because we spend our time doing second things first, or third things, or fourth things. Anytime small demands displace important work, we get into trouble.

Productivity isn’t about doing more things. It’s about doing the right things, first.