“Has anyone ever stopped to think how cranky, if not downright vicious, a barrelful of monkeys would be, especially once released from the barrel? – Tom Shales”

Dear Shawn –

I guess it is true what they say, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person”. Over the last few years, you have put in a ton of effort to prove your competence across the business. This extends well beyond the traditional boundaries of your job description and includes a ton of enablement and skills development. With your proven track record of getting things done you have found more folks than ever reaching out to you asking for some time to help them and even join their working teams.

While all of this makes you feel incredibly productive and a strong sense of purpose in helping others be successful you are also struggling to manage all these tasks. Specifically, you are finding that not only are there not enough hours in the day to complete your key tasks but the quality of your work is suffering due to the constant multi-tasking and task-switching that happens throughout the day. Outside of work you are finding yourself mentally drained and it is becoming incredibly difficult to focus on personal interactions without thinking or talking about all of the work that is still to be done.

I call this challenge the “Overflowing Barrel of Monkeys”. Think of the old game we used to play as kids where the goal was to hook up the longest chain of molded plastic monkeys without having it come apart. Now equate this to your day where you are trying to balance and chain together your own monkeys (your job and your life) and other people’s monkeys without having it all come apart.

Face the facts, successful people who have a proven track record of getting things done will always have huge demands on their time but here are a few tips on you can manage this more effectively?

1. Be clear on your “critical few monkeys” – hold yourself accountable to prioritize and deliver against those.
2. Don’t adopt other people’s monkeys – If folks call asking for help, ask them “how can I help” to confirm the role they are looking for you play (advisor, partner, leader, cynic). Be clear on what you can provide and by when and ensure that you bridge their expectations with what is realistic.
3. Abandon monkeys where your investment in time is greater than the anticipated return – This includes taking a hard look at your calendar and auditing where you spent your time over the last two weeks and which monkeys did not deliver a return.
4. Use the Eisenhower matrix to help prioritize the remaining monkeys based on their urgency (time sensitivity) and importance (strategic value). Asana does a good job of explaining the matrix in more detail here.
5. Close-off every day with a quick review of your monkeys, making notes on the key tasks that you need to get to the next morning. Documenting these actions will allow you more mental space to enjoy your off-hours.
6. Just say “no” when new monkeys show up – When your plate is full with priority items simply be transparent and let folks know that you cannot take any more initiatives. If they are critical, re-prioritize and delegate/defer one of your existing priorities. In times of doubt check with your direct manager to ensure you have prioritized things appropriately.

Ruthless prioritization and deep focus are much of what separates successful leaders from those barely treading water.

I credit these learnings to one of my colleagues Nathan H. who leverages ruthless prioritization every single day.