Priority Flowchart — Managing Time, Tasks & Relationships
A framework to balance what truly moves outcomes and trust — not just what feels urgent.
Because in real work, “urgent” often just means “visible,” while the real priorities hide behind relationships and impact.
Priority | Focus Area | What It Means | Action Strategy |
🟢 1. High Impact + High Relationship | Key sponsors / senior stakeholders / critical clients | Work that directly drives outcomes and trust — the people or projects that define success for your team. | Respond personally. Deliver early. Keep visible communication. Protect quality even under pressure. |
🔵 2. High Impact + Low Relationship | Strategic, analytical, or technical work that matters but may not be visible to decision-makers | Core value-creation tasks that build credibility through results, even if not everyone sees them. | Block focus time. Avoid distractions. Communicate progress concisely. |
🟣 3. Low Impact + High Relationship | Requests or favours that maintain goodwill but don’t move business outcomes | These moments build connection and culture — small “quick wins” that support relationships. | Acknowledge quickly but don’t over-invest. Delegate or schedule around higher-impact work. |
🟠 4. Low Impact + Low Relationship | Routine admin, copied emails, repeated reports, or reactive “noise” work | Activity that fills time but rarely changes results or relationships. | Batch or defer. Simplify or automate. Release guilt for not treating everything as urgent. |
When a new request arrives, I give myself a short pause — just 30 seconds — to ask two questions:
1️⃣ What’s the real impact?
2️⃣ Whose relationship does this touch?
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