Which Task Should You Work On Next?

Alto Planner
Aug 9, 2017 · 6 min read
If you don’t know where you’re going, then it doesn’t matter which road you take!

Every couple of months, I send a quick survey to thousands of entrepreneurs, designers and product managers asking them one simple question:

What is the biggest challenge you deal with on a daily basis?

The topic of time planning and task management always comes up, and people often say they deal with one or more of the following challenges on a daily basis:

  • Deciding which task to work on next
  • Keeping track of the big picture while working on daily tasks
  • Finding enough time to launch a product on the side while working a full time job, commuting, and having a family

So I thought I would address each of these topics in a separate post (this is part 1, read part 2 here, and part 3 here), so that by the of the third post, I would have shared with you the mindset, strategies and tactics that I use to manage the big picture, prioritize daily tasks, and make time to launch new products on the side.

And today, I will address the topic of priorities: given a set of tasks, which one should you work on next?

Obviously, you do the most important task.

But how do you decide which task is the most important one?

It’s the one that will get you one step closer to accomplishing the goal you have set for today.

And which goal should you set for today?

The one that will get you closer to the milestone you’ve set for this week.

You get the idea: The best way to know what to do next starts by deciding where you want to go.

Or like the cat wisely put it in Alice in Wonderland: “If you don’t know where you’re going, then it doesn’t matter which way you take.”

Once you decide where you want to go, finding out what to do next becomes much easier, because you can tell which action will get you one step closer to your destination.

I had a period in my life when I wasn’t big on setting goals and planning destinations, because I thought it would be more fun to do things spontaneously, without a predefined plan, to be fully present, and do today what I can do, without worrying about tomorrow.

And it was fun for a while, but it was also stressful and unproductive, because it felt like I was taking my car for a ride without a predefined destination, making random turns, and hoping that I would magically find myself in a destination that is much better than the one I would have set for myself.

So I started learning and trying various time management techniques, and while many of them helped me manage my daily tasks, I still didn’t feel that I had enough clarity on how these daily tasks were helping me get closer to a big picture, or a meaningful destination.

Then, one Sunday morning, I did a small exercise that changed everything…

I sat down with a pen and paper, and listed a dozen or so things that I wanted to do before my life is over. I imagined myself an old man on his deathbed (yes, I started from the very end), looking back at my life, and reflecting on the many things that I regretted not doing, because I was too afraid or didn’t have the time.

Once I had those things written down, I started setting up a yearly theme (starting a profitable business, publishing a book, traveling to 10 new countries,…) that would get me closer to accomplishing those things (let’s call them life visions). And I started noticing that some of those visions were dependent on each other, which helped me prioritize them in the right order. For instance, starting a profitable online business would enable me to travel the world while running my business, and to learn enough lessons and experiences that I can share with others by writing a book about them.

Those annual themes were like marathons that I wanted to run, and I started planning each one of them as a series of monthly 30-day challenges, each getting me closer to the finish line by meeting a specific milestone. For instance, having a profitable business by the end of a year includes a series of 30-day challenges to identify the right audience, find a pain point they want to solve, prototypig a solution, validating it and iterating with feedback, launching an MVP, creating a mailing list, getting 10 paying customers, growing to 100 customers, and so on.

Once I have those monthly challenges defined, I tackle each challenge as a series of weekly sprints, designed with one goal in mind, one experiment to run, or one hypothesis to validate. At the beginning of every week, I know which sprint I need to execute, which result I need to measure, and which daily tasks I need to accomplish to get there.

Once you break down the process this way, knowing what to work on next is almost a no-brainer.

And while this process sounds overwhelming and time consuming, it isn’t, because you don’t need to get everything right the first time. After 2 hours of doing the first iteration, and I was very happy with the level of clarity and specificity I suddenly had for my time.

And the reason you don’t need to get it right the first time, is that this process is also iterative: at the end of every day, week, month and year, I spend some time reviewing my accomplishments, measuring my progress, and making adjustments to goals, sprints, challenges and themes accordingly.

That was the process that worked best for me, because it combined clarity, action and feedback.

And to be honest, there are times when I don’t feel like going through the planning and review process every day. And whenever I ignore it, I start feeling that deciding what to work on next is becoming more difficult and more random, and I get back to it by reminding myself that working on my life is as important as working in my life.

If you’d like to adopt this process, which I highly recommend, here is how to get started:

  • Set aside 1–2 hours to create an initial plan(my favorite time is early morning)
  • Write down 3–5 things (visions) that you’d love to accomplish (or that you you would regret not accomplishing) while you’re still alive . Describe what it would feel like to have them accomplished, and why it’s important for you to accomplish them (knowing the “WHY” matters a lot)
  • Pick one of the visions, ideally one that you can start right now, and that can render more visions possible, and write down a theme for this year that will get you a step closer to accomplishing that vision. You don’t have to wait for the new calendar year to start it. (note: if one of your visions is having a profitable business, I’d recommend starting with that one. I found that having a business makes many other visions possible, because it gives you back the time and freedom to work on them)
  • Break down this year’s theme into a series of 30-day challenges (those 30 days don’t need to start on the first day of the month). The trick for setting up a 30-day challenge is that it’s achievable but still outside of your comfort zone. The idea here is to get one milestone closer to your annual theme, while constantly expanding your comfort zone by tackling new challenges.
  • For the first challenge, design 4 weekly sprints that will help you finish the current 30-day challenge the fastest (If your 30-day challenge is to launch a new product, here’s what 4 weekly sprints would look like: week 1: research/ideate/prototype, week 2: test/iterate, week 3: build an MVP with Bubble, and week 4: launch/marketing)
  • For the first spring/week, create ONE high level goal for every day. Keep it simple, and don’t overwhelm yourself with too many goals to start with.
  • Finally, break down today’s goal into a series of tasks, and order them based on their potential to get you closer to that day’s goal.
  • What you work on next is the next task on that list.

I know it sounds like a lot of work; and that’s why most people avoid doing it, and get buried under everyday’s tasks, spinning their wheels, but not really getting anywhere.

Keep it simple, start with ONE vision, ONE theme, ONE goal, and ONE task.

And then make adjustments as you go.

Read the following posts in this series:

Alto Planner

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The ulatimate planner to help you work on the right tasks, keep track of the big picture, and accomplish all your goals. Sign up FREE at http://altoplanner.com

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