For web managers in higher education, there are never enough hours in the day. If there is one thing you can count on, it’s that there will always be distractions.
I know. I was once there myself.
"Hey, can you send me the official logo in EPS format?"
“Why are the photos in my brochure printing really fuzzy? I downloaded them from our website!"
“Uh oh! The site just crashed. What should we do?”
When you’re continually distracted by requests from both internal and external sources, it’s easy to lose sight of the big-picture long-term goals.
For many, handling the onslaught boils down to two options:
Option 1: Deal with the loudest voice. Too often, it’s easy to relent to the loudest voice - maybe it’s the outspoken department head, or the dean who has significant pull with the marketing council, or just a pushy administrative assistant who is on a deadline. Whatever the case, giving in and allowing the loudest voice to get their needs met first is a shortsighted way to manage requests. Sure, on rare occasions it’s a necessary tactic, but if used on a regular basis, it’s a good way to let unimportant tasks be highly prioritized because of artificial urgency.
Option 2: Ignore everyone. This option works great - for a while. In the short-term, it’s easy to
But what if there was a more structured way to go about it? Enter option 3: the Prioritization Matrix - a systematic approach to prioritizing distractions and staying focused. The Prioritization Matrix or "Eisenhower Method”, stems from a quote attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower: "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.
Using the Prioritization Matrix, incoming requests are evaluated with two simple questions:
- Is it important?
- Is it urgent?
Depending on the answers, the tasks are then assigned accordingly.
- Important/Urgent quadrants are done immediately and personally
- Important/Not Urgent quadrants get an end date and are done personally
- Unimportant/Urgent quadrants are delegated
- Unimportant/Not Urgent quadrants are dropped
But, you might ask - how do you decide what’s important? The key is to understand the difference between an "important" versus a "not important" task.
Important tasks:
- Serve your long-term goals
- Serve the mandates set by your job description and administration
Tips for success:
- Get support from administration - ideally from the highest level. Explain your plan to prioritize tasks and ask for input on the criteria behind ranking the importance and urgency.
Ready to break out of the traditional project cycle? Let’s talk.