The A, B, C’s of Quality Work.

So many people find themselves having more work than time. It can lead to all kinds of issues: overworking to get it all done, crappy deliverables because that’s the best you could do in the time given, inefficiency because of the churn stress causes, missing deadlines, frustration, burnout, resentment… the list goes on.

One superpower of the most successful people and teams is the ability to prioritize which work to do, when to complete it, and the level of quality for each piece of work. So, how do we do that when there is more work than time?

If you are anything like me, the currently accepted answer to this question, the Eisenhower Matrix, is unrealistic and infuriating. Nothing makes me feel as hopeless as when influential business leaders and coaches talk about owning their schedule and work when we all know that is seldom the reality when you work for a company. In a corporate environment, there are so many things we have to do that aren’t urgent or important but require attention because someone else with different priorities has decided it. We have to do it even though it won’t have much air time or impact but the shit storm someone will create if we don’t isn’t worth saying “no”. On top of that, many of the important things we want to focus on and love about our jobs are longer-term and require taking chunks out of them every day. In a world where it all seems too much to sieve through, where do we even start?

There is a lot of talk about doing everything to the best of our ability, giving everything 110%, and never half-assing anything. It is a trap. Don’t fall into it. Giving 100% to any one thing means that you can't then give 100% to something else because you already gave it. We have a finite amount of time and energy; that means we have to decide where we spend it, understanding the opportunity costs are real. Also, there are just some things that need to be done that don’t need 100%, you absolutely can and should half-ass them.

Our best changes every day.

Our best was different yesterday than it will be today. If we are sick, our best changes. After a good night’s rest, our best changes. When we learn something new, our best is different. When we know we are capable of a certain “best”, it can be paralyzing to feel like we have to deliver at that level even when we aren’t having our best day. So, things get procrastinated or we don’t feel confident in it and it causes our best to be even less than it would be in that moment. The idea of being our optimum self at all moments is unrealistic. We don’t have that capability. Simply put, we are humans, not robots. When we let go of the idea that we have to be 110% on everything, it opens up the ability to unfreeze and start. It allows us to be where we are without the baggage of expectations. It frees us. Procrastination is often born out of this striving for our best because when our best isn’t as spectacular in a given moment as we think it could be then we justify a delay to starting until we are “at our best”. This attempt at only giving 100% prevents us from progress and completion. It creates shame when we are really just human. Be comfortable with where you are on any given day. Do what you can. Let it be less spectacular and know that on another day you’ll be more spectacular again. It is the continued forward momentum that is going to actually propel your success more than “perfect” work on that single special day you feel at your highest best.

Not everything needs an A+.

I can hear my college mentor, Dr. Clark, laughing in disbelief now. I was the straight-A student who had two Bs ever in my life. (Goodness, I even annoy myself with that crap.) Everything had to be an A. If it was a 95, it needed to be a 98. A 98? Well, I could get the 100 if I worked harder, right? He tried to convince me that a marketer with a 4.0 was too weird to be taken seriously. Maybe he was right. I’ll never know because I didn’t graduate with that 4.0. And, in all honesty, I was a bit older than I’d like to admit before I understood that not everything needed to be an A. Not everything was worth the time and energy.

If we look at every item we are working on, some things are just not going to see the light of day: an email reply to something, meeting notes, a creative brief, that RACI chart, and the list goes on. These things need to be done but we can shoot for a “C”, not an A+. It just has to get done. (Side quest: this is true for replying to text messages and phone calls in our personal lives too. Your sister does not need an A+ reply to her text so quit stalling because you think you have to have a perfect response.)

Now, on the flip side, a board presentation, an ad with impressions in the millions, how we pay our teams/accurate payroll: these need to be A+. Getting them wrong has grave consequences and excelling at them has tremendous benefits. This is where our time and energy need to go and where they will have the most meaningful impact. Not all work or deliverables are equally important and it is okay to treat it that way.

Most people’s lists should look a little like a bell curve. You have a few things that truly need the A+, the majority are in that B-C range, and there are likely a few things you just have to get done (the dreaded D) or that you can skip completely (take the F). Sometimes a client will spend an entire session trying to convince me that their entire workload is A+ type of work. B & S are the only letters I have for that line of thinking. A lot of what we do can benefit from less than 100%. Because, when we spend less time and energy on that B&C work, then we can make that A+ work shine while creating the capacity to get to the longer-term strategy work instead of just handling the day-to-day task work.

If this resonated and you aren’t currently using these techniques,

here is your homework:

Take your to-do list for today (or this week if you want to go big) and next to each item list what letter grade each item needs. Aim for the bell curve. If that is too radical of a shift for you, then pick one thing to do at 80% instead of 100%. Start with one and then build up to two, three, etc. Work towards the bell curve. Say “no” to a few things and if that sounds too hard then say “no” to just one thing. Then do this every day, every week, pressing closer and closer to that bell curve of work.

When you get into a groove of this then you can accelerate it by focusing on the A+ items when you are at your highest best and the items that just have to get done when you are in a less optimum state. Then you are working with your tendencies instead of against them and it increases the amount you can get done, raises the quality of your work overall, and lowers stress and anxiety about work in general.

It’s not pixie dust. It’s just working with yourself instead of against yourself.

If this resonated, share it with a co-worker or friend. And, if you give any of these approaches a try, let me know how it goes.