From Chaos to Clarity: How to Train Your Team to Prioritize Work Smartly
In today’s fast-paced work environment, it’s easy for teams to confuse being busy with being effective. Emails keep pinging, Slack won’t shut up, and the to-do list is longer than the Great Wall of China. Despite all the hustle, progress often feels... stuck.So, how do you help your team cut through the noise and focus on what truly matters?
In this blog, I’ll walk you through six proven prioritization techniques (inspired by an excellent visual guide by Kavit Haria), share real-life and humorous examples, and explore what not to do when setting priorities.
Let’s dive in!
🧠 Part 1: Setting the Right Priorities (Strategic Focus)
1. Warren Buffett’s 25/5 Rule
Use this when your team has TOO many priorities.
Best for: Teams with too many ideas and not enough focus.
The Method:
1. List your top 25 goals or projects.
2. Circle the top 5 that matter most.
3. Focus solely on those 5.
4. Avoid the rest like your annoying ex at a wedding.
Example:
• You run a marketing team. You want to start a podcast, write a book, create a YouTube channel, run 10 webinars, and go viral on TikTok.
• Your content team wants to start a podcast, write an eBook, redesign the blog, host a webinar, and create a YouTube channel. You pick 5 that align with your goals and shelf the rest (for now).
Your top 5 might be:
• Build an email list
• Improve website SEO
• Run 3 targeted webinars
• Launch one podcast episode
• Engage on LinkedIn
Tip for Managers:
Help your team make hard choices. Saying “no” to good ideas is often the only way to execute the great ones.
The rest? Pause. Archive. Say "Not now."
What NOT to Do:
Don’t say “yes” to everything. That’s the quickest route to burnout and unfinished work. Think of it as trying to run five marathons at once—with one shoe.
2. Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule)
80% of results come from 20% of efforts.
Best for: Teams that are busy but not getting results or not productive.
Example:
• You're a sales leader. You notice that 80% of deals come from 20% of your clients. Spend more time nurturing those relationships instead of sending cold emails into the void.
• You realize that 80% of your leads are coming from 20% of your campaigns. Double down on those campaigns and ditch the ones that aren’t converting.
Tip for Managers:
Coach your team to identify which tasks or clients generate the highest return—and allocate effort accordingly.
What NOT to Do:
Don’t treat all tasks equally. Folding swag T-shirts doesn’t deserve the same energy as closing a strategic partnership.
3. Theory of Constraints
Best for: When your team is stuck despite working hard.
The Method:
1. Identify the biggest bottleneck.
2. Focus all your energy there.
3. Improve it, then find the next bottleneck.
Example:
Your content team is producing blog drafts fast, but publishing is delayed due to legal approvals. The bottleneck isn’t content—it’s compliance.
Fix that first.
Tip for Managers:
Visualize the process flow. Sometimes the constraint is not where you think it is.
What NOT to Do:
Don’t scatter your efforts. Fixing a minor issue in a non-blocking area just to stay “busy” isn’t helping
💼 Part 2: Executing on Priorities (Task Focus)
1. ABCDE Method
Best for: When your daily task list looks like an infinite scroll.
The Framework:
• A: Must do (today)
• B: Should do (soon)
• C: Nice to do (meh)
• D: Delegate
• E: Eliminate
Example:You wake up to 47 Slack messages, 12 emails, 4 meetings, and one existential crisis. Use ABCDE.
• A: Prep for client call
• B: Review report
• C: Organize files
• D: Ask intern to book travel
• E: That email newsletter from 2019? Delete.
Tip for Managers:Encourage your team to start the day with task triage, not by answering every message.
What NOT to Do:
Don’t start your day rearranging icons on your desktop just because it feels productive.
2. MoSCoW Method
Best for: Sprint or project planning.
The Breakdown:
• M: Must Have
• S: Should Have
• C: Could Have
• W: Won’t Have (this time)
Example:Launching a new app?
•Should: Dark mode
•Could: Confetti when a task completes
•Won’t: AI-powered dancing unicorns (yet)
Tip for Managers:
Define these categories early in the planning cycle—and stick to them.
What NOT to Do:
Don’t treat “Could Haves” like “Must Haves.” Your sprint backlog is not a Wishlist to Santa.
3. Kanban Board
Best for: Visualizing and managing workflows., Use this for visual clarity.
Columns: To Do → Doing → Done
Example:You run an operations team. You create a Kanban board on Trello or Miro. You limit WIP (Work In Progress) to 3 per person.
Tip for Managers:
Encourage regular reviews of the board. Celebrate the “Done” column—it’s your scoreboard.
Suddenly, things move. You see what’s blocked. You celebrate real progress.
What NOT to Do:
Don’t let the “Doing” column become the Bermuda Triangle where tasks go and never return.
😂 Humorous missteps of Prioritization Gone Wrong
•"Let’s do all 25!"
Your team is now doing podcasting, TikToks, SEO, cold calling, cooking shows, and cryptocurrency.
Result: You’re busy—but also bankrupt.
•"Everything is a priority!"
Congrats, nothing is.
•"Let’s keep this going till 2 AM."
Burnout is not a KPI.
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🚫 What Not to Do When Setting Priorities
❌ Confusing speed with strategy.
❌ Failing to communicate priorities clearly.
❌ Revisiting priorities every other hour. (Pick a lane!)
❌ Making decisions based on who's loudest in the room.
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✅ Final Thoughts: Your Job as a Coach
Helping your team set priorities isn't about barking orders or assigning deadlines. It’s about guiding clarity, focus, and energy. These frameworks help you shift from reactive chaos to deliberate progress.
"Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it's about deliberately choosing to be different." – Michael Porter
Coach your team to:
•Think critically
•Say NO gracefully
•Make trade-offs without guilt
•Celebrate doing less but better
If you master this, your team will move from chaos to clarity—and you’ll finally stop waking up at 3 AM wondering why you spent 2 hours debating font sizes.
Liked what you read?
Share this with your team, manager friends, or fellow chaos-fighters. Got your own prioritization tips or war stories? Drop them in the comments—I’d love to hear them.
Written by Soven K Banerjee – Helping teams move from ‘busy’ to ‘brilliant.’
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