How to Prioritize Your Work When Your Manager Doesn't Guide You

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1:03Prioritizing work can be frustrating, especially if you work for a hands-off manager or a company that doesn't give you clear goals. Research shows that more than 90 % of employees don't fully understand their company's strategy or know what's expected of them to help achieve company goals. And on the other hand, global executives say they have too many conflicting priorities. In a world where conflicting and unclear priorities are the norm, how can you learn to prioritize your own work and still feel satisfaction from a job well done. Here is an organizing framework that can help determine your next steps.

1:40First, take ownership by checking your mindset when it comes to setting priorities. Don't assume that prioritizing your workload is someone else's job, and don't choose to see yourself solely as a doer or a worker bee. It's easy to blame our managers and organizations when we experience high levels of stress or an overwhelming amount of work. But it's important to recognize that consciously setting priorities ourselves leads to success. Then, filter your priorities by selecting a couple of areas to focus on. This can help your brain manage information overload. Research indicates that it's the overload of options that paralyze us or lead to decisions that go against our best interests.

2:23You can filter your priorities based on two criteria. Contribution and passion. Ask yourself these questions. What is your highest contribution? When reflecting on contribution, consider both the organization's needs and how your strengths, experience, and capabilities play a unique role. Contribution captures a sense of purpose, citizenship, and service. What are you passionate about? Motivation and energy fuel action. So when setting priorities, get clarity on what inspires your work. Third, determine your next steps with an organizing framework. You can create an organizing framework by combining the two criteria of contribution and passion to sort priorities and define subsequent actions.

3:13Consider this chart. Prioritize those areas of your job that bring together your highest value add and make an impact that inspires and excites you. Tolerate those parts of the job that are important, but drain your energy when you're engaging in them. Aim to tolerate and accept that you aren't going to love every part of the job, and that you may be on a learning curve. Elevate those tasks that give you energy, but that others don't see as the best use of your time. Share what fuels your conviction, and explain why it's good for you and the company. Delegate. The daily churn of low-value and low-energy producing activities, emails, and meetings.

3:54If there's no one to delegate to, make the case for hiring someone. You can also just say no or eliminate those tasks altogether. The irony is, as we progress in our careers, things that were once in prioritize now belong in delegate. If people still come to you for these tasks, redirect them graciously. And finally, operationalize and flag priorities in your calendar. Look back on your calendar over the last month to see how much time you allocated across the four quadrants. Try using a color-coding system in your calendar to quickly and visually see how you're doing. At the start of a new week, flag all priorities to give yourself extra preparation time.

4:38Don't settle for the status quo. If you don't prioritize your time, someone else will. and it won't always be with your best interests or the greater good in mind. So take ownership and reclaim decision-making power over where you can best spend your time and energy. By doing so, you can produce meaningful results, experience more job satisfaction, and have increased energy.