Do Most of The Things

As a manager, I don’t think it’s unusual to find that you can’t get through all of your actions and to-dos every week. I certainly couldn’t, and this only got worse as the scope of my team’s responsibilities expanded. I also found that there was sometimes a disconnect between my strategic priorities and how I prioritized tasks on a micro level every day.

I tried to just be more mindful of this, but that approach only got me so far. When I transitioned to a new boss, he introduced me to something that turned out to be a great tool to address that disconnect: 30x5s.

Your 30x5s (aka “thirty by fives”) are your five top priorities for the next month. You probably have a few other projects to work on, so this should be the five most important. Your 30x5s should be more specific than “work on the self-service site” but higher level than “write a ticket to have the new fonts added to the self-service site.”

My boss circulated his 30x5s to his team, and had all of us share ours with one another. I also shared mine with my team, who seemed to appreciate having an idea of where I planned to spend my time over the next few weeks.

Once I got into the swing of it, it didn’t take me long to write up my list. First, I’d start with any time-consuming non-negotiables. Things like budget development, performance reviews, or prep for a big cross-functional meeting. The types of things I had to prioritize over other work, or couldn’t realistically assume I could do on top of my typical workload. Likewise, if I was taking a week off I put that on my 30x5s to represent a reduction in my capacity.

Once I’d identified any non-negotiables, I’d think about work that related to my team’s strategic priorities. This stuff was usually crystal clear for me, and I knew exactly what the focus for the month would be. (Our strategic priorities were effectively my performance goals, but if yours aren’t, you’ll want to look at those as well.)

Last, I’d prioritize the list. Sometimes I had more than five, and in those cases I could see which one didn’t make the cut. I might still work on that project, but I wasn’t planning for it to be a major focus. Prioritizing also played into how I’d use the list over the course of the month. Here are a couple of (lightly edited) examples of what my 30x5s would look like:

• Complete all appraisals
• Prep for, run, & first follow up for fall retrospective
• Consultant recruitment
• Prep, run, follow up for Q3 support ops meeting
• Stakeholder demos for self-service MVP

Month B 30x5s: 

• Write annual performance goals
• Consultant decision & contracting
• Create & finalize next year’s Service Console roadmap
• Stakeholder review & soft launch of Learning Commons
• Vacation time! 

After I shared my 30x5s, I’d write a shorthand version on a sticky note that went on my monitor. I used it when I planned for the week ahead, but it was even more helpful throughout the week, as I prioritized on a micro level. If I had some unexpected free time I’d use my 30x5s to decide what to do next. Typically I’d try to work on something related to one of my top two or three. 

Writing up my 30x5s also helped me feel better about the things that didn’t make the list. There was always more work than I could actually do, and having a tangible reminder of the current priorities helped me let go of some of the anxiety around that.

While this worked really well for me at the time, I’m not sure if it’ll feel equally as useful in another role, where I’m (hopefully!) not pulled in as many competing directions. But at the very least it’s a good way to think through the month ahead.

What about you? How do you manage that gap between daily to-dos and strategic priorities?