The biggest mistake I see people make in the first 3-6 yrs of their career is not getting good at weekly/daily prioritization that supports their team/business. I needed to improve at this myself at various times of my career. It became hard to make time to truly prioritize work. The truth is you have more autonomy over what you decide to do than you think. It starts with organizing your weeks in a way that works. As you organize, share bits and pieces of that organization with your manager and team. Make your personal weekly planning trickle into updates so you are putting it into action. There’s research that telling someone you are going to do something increases the odds you will do it – you become more accountable to doing it. Here’s a few other habits to build for good weekly/daily planning:
- Make time every Monday morning to plan your week.
- Make big rocks and put tasks under the big rocks. Big rocks should be things that tie to the team’s strategy.
- Do not share laundry lists with your manager. You aren’t doing anything to make things easy on them. They probably want to know about all these things but you need to present in a more organized fashion.
- Always remember it is okay to roll tasks over into the next day.
Thankfully, I have learned the lesson of owning my priorities and calendar and hoping to help others get there too. When you find what works for you, you will feel the right amount of control and autonomy you want with spontaneity mixed in.