What to Do When Your To-Do List Is Holding Up Your Team

Bottlenecking puts your career and reputation at risk and takes a significant emotional toll. Here are four root causes of it — and solutions for each:

PLATE-SPINNING

— Ask your boss to help set priorities. Priorities can often be shuffled. You just have to ask.

— Organize your time and tasks. Organize your to-do list so you can quickly spot the most important tasks, and assign calendar blocks to each.

— Treat each day like a resume. Effective resumes list accomplishments, not activities. Similarly, decide in advance on your deliverables for the day and stick to the plan.

PEOPLE-PLEASING

— Clarify what you’re being paid to produce. Most of your time should be spent on your core job and existing commitments. Cull the rest ruthlessly.

— Set aside an overflow block. Reserve a daily or weekly block to tackle last-minute requests. By limiting the time you can spend on them, you will develop better criteria for deciding what to take on.

— Get good at saying no. Prepare a script: “I’m flattered you thought of me for this. But the company/my boss/the client is counting on me to focus my attention on Y. I couldn’t do your task justice right now.”

STRIVING FOR ‘PERFECT’

— Create simple policies for decisions you make regularly. Decisions take a cognitive toll, so preserve your decision-making for issues that are really worth your brainpower and create standard policies for handling the rest.

— Prioritize your contribution. Define three levels of performance for large tasks: the maximum, minimum and moderate contribution you can make, with specific steps and a time estimate for each. Choose the appropriate level of engagement given the stakes and everything else on your plate.

— Partner with a finisher. Pair with a colleague with a complementary skill set.

PROCESSING INTUITIVELY

— Identify building blocks. Break your work into clear stages and hand the heavy lifting off to others. Devote your time to areas in which you can make a unique contribution.

— Provide guidance. Ask yourself: “When this project is completed, what will I be looking for?” Communicate those criteria to the team.

— Don’t do other people’s jobs. Build in checkpoints to evaluate progress, make sure that things are on track and correct course if necessary — but let people do their own work.

(Julie Morgenstern, a time management consultant, is the author of “Never Check E-mail in the Morning.”)