“You've got 5 open tasks and your lead asks "what ships first" - what do you base the answer on?”
Too many things at once - what do you prioritize first?
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Action framework
- Write down each task with two numbers: its impact if done, and its cost/time if done.
- Flag any task with a hard external deadline (customer, legal, an event) - those go first, no impact comparison needed.
- For the rest, rank by highest impact/effort first - not by "easiest to do".
- Check dependencies: a task that blocks others moves up even if its own impact looks low.
- Write one sentence explaining the order to your stakeholder - if you can't explain it in one sentence, the order isn't clear enough yet.
Before
"Do the easy tasks first, save the hard ones for later."
After
"Task A (high impact, blocks 2 others) → Task C (client deadline Friday) → Task B (medium impact, no dependencies) → Task D, E (low impact, push to next week)."