April 15, 2024

Use This Framework to Become More Efficient

By Craig Groeschel

One of the primary responsibilities of leaders is to channel attention and activity toward a desired result.

Unfortunately, the most challenging attention to direct is your own.

People will consistently make urgent requests of you—and the urgent always screams louder than the important.

The problem is that if you’re always responding to what’s urgent, you’ll inevitably sacrifice what’s important.

Remember: Your importance is not measured by how much you do, but by how much what you do matters.

To make sure I’m prioritizing the tasks that matter most, I’ve created a four-tier system that my team and I use as a filter for every task.

Tier One—Absolutely Mission Critical

If these activities don’t happen, the organization or team doesn’t stay afloat. These tasks drive missional outcomes—but they can be harder to focus on because they take longer to see through to completion.

A good rule of thumb: if you have more than five core activities or responsibilities in Tier One, your top tier is too heavy.

Tier Two—Very Important and Strategic

These things are important and strategic, but they are not mission critical.

A tier two activity matters a lot, but if you don’t do these things, the plane won’t crash.

Tier Three—Meaningful but Not Vital

These are activities that we enjoy and value, but they aren’t essential. They are meaningful but not strategic. Nothing crucial will be missing or broken if we don’t do these projects or tasks.

It’s tempting to fill your time with these tasks. Don’t give in to the temptation.

Tier Four—Externally Initiated and Lower Priority

These are activities, requests, and tasks that come from outside your office or team. The urgency of the request does not have to be the urgency you meet it with.

As you work through the activities that take up your week, pay special attention to the Tier Four items. This is usually the most urgent, largest bucket of tasks—and they often have the least to do with your core objectives. Your response can be “no” or “not now”; there is no shame or issue with saying “no.”

Most leaders have many lower-tier activities robbing them of higher-tier priorities. Do first what matters most. Remember, you don’t change the world doing tier three and tier four activities!

Question for you

Is it possible you’re overlooking a top-tier priority?

Activity: Chart Your Weekly Activities

It may seem tedious, but I want to challenge you to write out a list of everything you do in a week.

Look back at your calendar and email, and list out all the types of tasks, expectations, engagements, focus hours, meetings, decisions, etc. that you engage in every week.

Take this list and sort every task into the four specific tiers. Are there any activities you should eliminate? Are there any you should spend more time on?

Don’t let lower-tier activities rob you of higher-tier effectiveness.