Leeds is the largest city in Europe without a metro system of some sort. It is a successful city which would benefit from a tram system, and everyone agrees. At times the local council or national government has spent money on the idea and agreed funding to build it but, so far, the decision has always been reversed later.
The Leeds tram is a Priority 2 problem. Most of the time people agree it is a good idea but right now… money is needed elsewhere, Leeds can wait a little while longer. The business case stands up and returns again and again but now is never the right time. On those occasions when it does fight its way up to funding it doesn’t last, something else appears which makes a more urgent case and the tram is pushed back.
Priority #2 problems are things you should do. Things that might be genuinely valuable and beneficial. Things that should not be left but which are not urgent. Things thats can be put off to a better time. Such things find it hard to fight to the top, and when you are doing them it can be hard to focus because you are thinking “Would I be better spending my time on something else?”
The problem with priority 2, P2s, problems is not just that important, worth, things don’t get done. They deserve doing we devote time and energy to trying to get them done. They increase our cognitive load and complicate discussion of what should we do.
Time, energy and resources which would should be productively spend on doing a P2 is spent deciding between P2s.
The P2 problem occurs when all the high priority 1s are done – and the lower priority P3s, P4s, etc. are discounted. How do you choose between multiple things all wanting your time and attention but none clearly more worthy than the others?
P2s are inescapable. P1s get done; P3s, etc. are easily ignored – and if you did get all the P2s done then the problem would occur at the P3 level.
And when you do decide, how do you keep focus knowing something else might be more worthy?
Everyday day I write an index card for what I need to do today. The priority #1 are obvious and get done: things with deadlines soon and things which are important enough to deserve attention. They get done. Next come the P2s. (More about how I organise my work here and in my unfinished Little book of Workflow.)
How do I decide between three, four, five things which are all needed and worth doing but are not urgent? Or clearly worth more than one another?
The P2 problem wastes my time. I agonise about what work to do rather than doing it. It delays work getting done. It delays the benefit of that work and it saps my energy. I’ve lost hours, even days, deliberating between which of several P2s should get my time.
And when I do decide between P2s it is hard to stay focused. I continue to wonder: shouldn’t I be doing something else? I’m sure this isn’t really important enough…. one wants a to make a rational choice and do the most important/valuable thing, but when its not clear what that is time is diverted into search.
(Actually, I prioritise by order, 1, 2, 3 so the P2 problem occurs when all the important stuff has been done and the unimportant has been discounted. These days, when I recognise a P2 problem I get out my dice. I number each P2 and roll the dice to decide. Even if I just give myself 20 minutes Pomodoro style I’ve broken the deadlock.)
While I’ve always assumed other people have P2 problems it is only recently I’ve realised that this occurs at organisational level and, as the Leeds tram shows, government level.
Unfortunately, while I may have solved the problem at a personal level I can’t solve it so easily at the corporate or government level. We don’t expect our Governments to roll dice, they are expected to make a justifiable decision between projects. And then stick with it.
(More about the Leeds tram. Tram photo (c) Kurt Rasmussen taken from Wikicommons.)