In my time as a PMO director, I’ve hired more than a handful of junior project managers. A funny recurrence in the interview process that has always stuck out to me is the candidates’ eagerness to share how much they like making lists. More than just making, they love crossing things off of lists.

I get it. Project managers are classically geared that way for sure. Ask a PM for a simple favor and he’ll dictate it onto a Trello board and assign it a level of effort. But the reason I bring it up as an odd part of the interview process is how ostensibly proud of this productivity quirk they are. It's a signal flare for someone trying to communicate that they value organization.

Well, here’s the thing. Everyone has a goddamned list. Most people have lists of lists. Everyone’s lists are too long and no one gets to cross anything off without adding two more bullets to the bottom. Transcribing action items is the easy part. Prioritizing those items is the crucial skill. Even the best multi-taskers can only juggle a small handful of obligations at one time--effectively at least. When lists get out of hand, anxiety paralysis overtakes productivity.

If you are a boss or are responsible for others’ workloads, an important part of your job is providing clear priority levels to the work you assign. Assigning a direct report two-dozen tasks all with the priority level of “ASAP” will lead to either burnout or, more likely, a hat-in-hand employee reporting to you that they were not able to complete everything. At this point you either unfairly reprimand them for not meeting expectations, or deliver a laissez-faire message that the action items aren’t actually essential, opening the possibility they never get done. 

Remove this undue burden and potential lose-lose scenario by associating priority to everything you assign. Diligently setting clear and reasonable expectations is a critical component to successful management, and urgency of assignments falls squarely into that rubric. It’s as easy as “Please complete this project before you start the others.” Or better yet, “Please aim to have this task completed by Monday and then we can start on the other department needs.”

Do you even list, bro?

Now, what if you’re on the receiving end of a disorganized list of competing priorities? Speak up and force prioritization! Use the tried and true tactic of saying what you’re going to do, then doing what you said. “These all sound like important initiatives, but I’ll start with Project A because it may influence how we approach the others. I’ll try to get that completed by end of week, and then move onto Project B.” Get it in writing and then get to work knowing you’ve set clear expectations.

And if you’re just a middleman distributing project assignments to a team? Well guess what: as a project manager, it’s your responsibility to articulate the priority. This means determining timing requirements with stakeholders or asserting your judgment to yield the best result with the deliverables and resources available. “We have to produce a few dozen digital assets for this upcoming campaign, but for now let’s just focus on this short list of deliverables that will require the most client back-and-forth.”

Everyone wants everything yesterday, but when pressed, we can all elevate priorities out of our priorities. Learn how to hang a velvet rope up outside of your to-do list, and keep out the riff-raff that doesn’t need to be worried about today. Become the voice of focus for your team and you’ll make friends as fast as you make real progress.