As professionals’ roles and responsibilities continue to become more complex over time, it’s important that we focus on the right priorities. Instead of spending valuable time responding to emails and dealing with interruptions, we need to prioritize tasks and tackle the more challenging work first. It may not yield short-term rewards, but it’s the only way to move the needle on our productivity.

According to Rebecca Ammon, Senior Director Talent Acquisition at Cleveland Clinic, our tendency to focus on nonessential matters while leaving important matters unattended is referred to as bike shedding (or Parkinson’s law of triviality). Why does bike shedding occur? “Because lower-level tasks are easier to comprehend, we feel more comfortable working on and discussing the simpler things. Priorities require a deeper focus and greater time commitment,” says Ammon. 

Today, many professionals credit their time-based planning (a process that involves mapping out their day on the calendar to ensure they’re maximizing their productivity and efficiency), in helping them achieve success. It enables us to keep our appointments organized and stay on schedule. But prioritizing our work takes time management one step further. Ammon says, “Prioritizing is how we set our focus and intention, ensuring we’ve got the right amount of time dedicated to the right activities.” 

Ammon shares a quote she read recently by former clinical psychologist Alice Boyes that best sums it up: “being too busy chasing cows to build a fence.” Another way of looking at it is to allow disorder to build up within the minor tasks to accomplish the meaningful. 

“You don’t want to spend so much time on other activities that you don’t have the energy or time to accomplish your most important and meaningful work,” says Ammon. “When we are truly prioritizing and putting our energy, effort and attention to the right things, that’s when we’re able to be transformative. That’s when we are starting to build the fence instead of chasing the cows.” 

This concept naturally ties into the idea of innovation. Ammon says, “It’s hard to innovate when you’re just putting out small fires all day.” 

Recruiters can apply this mindset when they are scheduling candidate interviews and preparing for the day. If they’re focusing on the right priorities, they’ll be looking ahead to both the near and distant future, too. “Are you a nurse recruiter that is anticipating a lot of retirements in the next year? It’s not just about what’s open today and which candidates are in front of you today. You have to screen-in candidates and have them teed up and ready to go when the right position opens up,” says Ammon. 

The same approach has applications in our daily lives. “You wake up on Saturday and you have to get groceries, you have to drop off the laundry, and you have to do your taxes. Which one are you doing first? If you spend all day taking care of groceries and the laundry, do you have the time and energy to focus on the most important task – filing your taxes?” 

We asked Ammon for some tips we can follow to ensure we’re focusing on the right things and prioritizing tasks correctly. She recommends:  

• Scheduling our most important tasks during the time of day when we’re most fresh. 
• Asking ourselves: What can we eliminate? What can we create templates for? What can we automate? 
• Turning off our email and messaging notifications to avoid temptation.  
• Trying to schedule meetings back-to-back, if possible.  
• Using a Priority Matrix to assist the decision-making process. 

The combination of time-based planning and prioritizing tasks promises to be a winner for us all. It’s definitely worth a try. What do we have to lose?