With so little time, how do I prioritize projects?

Here's a tip for all the harried creatives and project managers out there.

One question we regularly face is: what is the best way to use my time?

What we usually mean is, what work will produce the highest ROI on my time expense?

To answer this question, my company recently adopted a simple formula.

It's called the Impact Formula.

It's an easy formula to estimate the ROI you'll receive for any potential time expense. We instituted it a couple months ago and I just love it.

Here's the math:

Impact = number of people affected / time spent.

That's it.

Quick implications:

• The more people affected by your potential project, the higher its impact (since you're affecting more people. Hey, I already told you it was simple!)

• The less time you'll spend on your potential project, the higher its impact (since you'll now be able to do more in less time)

And there's another delight.

The formula works no matter your role or department.

The "time spent" part is self-explanatory. But the "number of people affected" part morphs to work with your responsibilities. Here's what I mean:

• If you're a marketer, "people affected" might mean people reached, impressions made, leads generated, etc.

• If you're in HR, "people affected" might mean the employees and their families benefiting from your beneficent upgrade in benefits.

• If you're an internal ops person, "people affected" might mean employees saving time thanks to this process improvement.

And so on.

The bottom line

This formula helps you do good work that maximizes your impact. It's an easy rule to stay agile in your time management and prioritize the right projects - even when your mental RAM is occupied by a thousand other things.

And my favorite part? It is so dumbfoundingly simple that even I can use it reliably.

Now go forth and go farther using this handy tool in your time management toolkit!

Your partner in thought,

Jacob