How do you make decisions and prioritize everything that has to be done all at once?
I'm going to share the decision framework that I use to stay focused on my North Star 🌟 and deliver results 💪
Here's the TLTR:
🌟 Define your North Star
💲 Run a cost-benefit analysis on the opportunity/problem. Is the outcome worth pursuing now, later, or never
💻 Calculate the probability of a successful outcome and weigh that into your decision-making and the costs to pursue it
🤓 Consider the opportunity cost of tackling this now versus pursuing another activity that might have a higher yield-to-input ratio.
🙋♂️ Once you've decided it's a priority to pursue, determine if you do it or if you should delegate it
I follow these steps on almost all decisions I make to the point where I can run this analysis in 10 seconds in my head. But it didn't start out this way. I would spend closer to an hour doing this on the big decisions until I've trained my brain enough to know how to do it in < 10 sec.
Let's get started:
Step 1: North Star
Let's start with taking the time to define your North Star and/or your company values. If you haven't done this for your company, you need to take a day off from the day-to-day operations, pull in your partners, and work on this. I can't stress how important it is to prioritize this. It's mission-critical for your whole team to get alignment on this before you can truly accelerate your business. I'll post another day on how to do this.
Once you know your North Star and you have multiple opportunities to pursue or problems to solve simultaneously, the first thing to do is verify if they're aligned with your North Star. If they aren't, drop them or add them to a backlog list like on Asana or Trello. Quickly eliminating "shiny objects" or insignificant problems it will immediately bring clarity to your efforts and release a massive burden off your shoulders.
Step 2: Cost-Benefit
Once you've confirmed the alignment of the opportunity/problem, move on to the cost-benefit analysis. Simply put, how much time, money, or resources are required to lead to a successful outcome, and what's the value of that outcome? If the benefits outweigh the costs, move on to the next step. If the cost are higher, then you should probably dump it or reframe the problem and start over.
Step 3: Probabilities of Success
From there, run the probability of the outcome being successful. If you do X (the cost) what's the % of the receiving the benefit? Multiply those two together, and that's your new value to the cost-benefit equation. Most people don't do this step, but it can completely disrupt the value equation. If you're pursuing something that isn't 100% guaranteed then you definitely need to factor this in.
Step 4: Opportunity Cost
Now look at the opportunity cost of doing something more valuable. If you're like most startups, resources are limited. You should only be focused on the highest value-yielding opportunities. Before diving into something that looks like it's worth doing, consider if something is more valuable pursuing.
Step 5: Delegate
Then look at delegation and the probability of the outcome of someone else doing it vs you doing it. This is an interesting one that most people don't factor in. Founders often feel they have to do everything in order to do it right, and while I hate acknowledging that is true, especially in the early days, it becomes overwhelming. Think about who on your team could do it, if the outcome is 70% of what you'd do, that's time and effort you could put towards higher value opportunities while still having a positive outcome vs not doing it at all.
Once you've run through this process, you'll have a clearer picture of what's worth doing yourself, what's worth delegating, and what's not worth your time.
Your task list will dramatically reduce. You'll execute the most important things that deliver results for your business and waste less time.
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