Prioritize Your To-Do List with Operational Excellence

The idea behind a to-do list is that it will help people prioritize and accomplish tasks. But a recent article in Harvard Business Review said that such lists can actually lead to procrastination. That’s because too many options make it difficult to know what to focus on first.

In the article, the author suggests starting with just one task to complete. And Operational Excellence has a way to help employees identify exactly what to work on next.

The Value of Flow

In most offices, workers use their own personal preferences, subjectivity, task lists, or other methods for prioritizing work.

When each employee looks at the work waiting to be done and picks and chooses what they’ll work on next according to their own priorities, it’s impossible to guarantee turnaround times. The randomness in selecting what to work on next at each activity makes response times to customers or other areas of the company unpredictable.