It would be nice if decisions were always straightforward. But, a drive for clarity can actually be distracting when you’re trying to set priorities. Sometimes it’s helpful to be imprecise.
For example, rather than ranking projects in a specific order of priority, assign them to broad buckets: “must do,” “should do,” and “nice to do.” Instead of giving projects a specific time period, categorize them as needing to get done “now,” “soon,” or “in the future.” That way, instead of drawing distinctions between projects, you can cluster ones with similar importance together. This simplified approach lets you understand how urgent different initiatives really are when compared to your overall strategy, rather than to each other.
Adapted from “To Get Better Decisions, Get a Little Fuzzy” by Bob Frisch.
