How do you decide which project you should be working on next, especially when you've got so many great ideas bouncing around in your head?
Well, in today's video, I want to show you a very simple tool to help you make the best choice. But first, I'd like to thank today's sponsor, Hygger.
Hygger is the project management tool which allows you to manage all of your tasks in any way, and in any view that you like. But what really sets apart Hygger from other software tools is its ability to prioritize. Do you want to view all of your tasks on a value versus effort matrix? Or perhaps you prefer the Eisenhower matrix and view all of your tasks from an urgent versus an importance category?
If you'd like to try Hygger for yourself, be sure to click the link in the description below.
So let's get some help on deciding which project we should start next. A number of years ago I read a book called "The $100 Startup." And near the very back of the book it included a Decision Making Matrix.
I decided to create my own matrix in a digital format so I could repurpose it, and I could also have it sum up some of the math and some of the numbers automatically.
Decision Matrix
So, how does the Decision Making Matrix work? Well, here on the left-hand side we have a number of different ideas, and these represent projects that I'm seriously considering undertaking in the coming year.
Now, it's best when using such a matrix to have probably a minimum of three different projects to evaluate, and probably not a lot more than maybe five or six. You don't want a huge list here; hopefully, you've already narrowed it down to maybe roughly four or five.
So I've got things like updating my website, building a new product, hiring more staff, buying a new customer relationship management system, and also writing a book.
And then in the next four columns, we have the different criteria in which we are going to be evaluating these projects. So first, we have impact. So how much of an impact will this project make on my business or my customers? And I have a nice little key here down below which gives you a description of each of these four criteria.
By the way, if you would like to use the Decision Making Matrix and use this for yourself, be sure to click the link in the description below, where you can have access to this exact sheet.
Now the second one has to do with effort, in terms of how much work and time is it going to take me to complete this project? And of course, we want to look at it from a scale of one to five in terms of what's going to cause a ton of work; we're going to give that a score of one all the way to five, which is going to cause very little work, almost no work. And as you can see here in the key down below, everything is going to get a value between one and five.
So let's continue on with profitability. Of course, that's important for any business or organization. Relative to the other ideas, how much money will this project bring in? So I'm going to start inputting my values, but just before I do, I want to give you one other handy tip that I typically use when I'm engaged with the Decision Making Matrix.
Of course here you can see that I've got an active total, which is automatically summing up these numbers here in the row to the left. But I don't want to be skewed by these numbers; I don't want to be influenced, negatively or positively influenced, by these numbers. So often what I'll do is I'll come up to this column here, and if I select the down arrow, I'm going to say hide column. And this can be very effective to hide that total column while I'm inputting these numbers. And it also makes it a little special for a big reveal at the end.
All right, so with profitability, updating my website, I'm going to give that maybe a two, might bring in a little more money. Building a new product definitely has more potential, so I'm going to give that a four. Remember, the higher the number, it's going to have the potential for the more amount of money to bring in for my business. Hiring more staff, maybe a three. Somewhere in the middle of the road. Buying a new CRM system, I'm also going to give that one a three. And writing a book, it certainly has the potential for more profitability, so I'm going to give that one a four in this particular case.
Now the last criteria that we want to use here is called vision. And this is something that I think we sometimes forget. Do these projects align with your business's mission statement, or the values that you have for your business? Or if these are personal projects, do they align with your personal beliefs? Right? Or your personal ethics?
So let's start off here with updating my website. It's sort of middle of the road, I think I'm going to give that maybe a three. Building a new product certainly does align with my vision, I'm going to give that one a four. Hiring more staff, though I do value a better work-life harmony, I'm going to give that one about a three. Building a new CRM system, yeah, it's important, but I'm going to give it a fairly low ranking. It's not really in line, there's nothing terribly special about that with the vision. And then writing a new book, you know, I might give that one a much higher one here. So I'm going to give that one five. Because I want to get my message out there, that's definitely in line with my vision.
Results
So now that I've given everything a score amongst these four criteria, let's go and reveal the total.
So if I go up here and hit this arrow, it's going to expand, and now I've got, oh interesting. I've actually got a tie. A 15 between building a new product and hiring more staff. And then on the opposite end, you can see that updating my website got a score of only nine.
Now, as part of a next step, it doesn't mean that I'm automatically going to engage with both of these projects. But what's so helpful about the Decision Making Matrix is that this is going to help me make the best decision. Maybe I love updating my website, and I get excited about that, but the Decision Making Matrix has told me that that's perhaps not the best use of my time right now. Especially compared to building a new product, or hiring more staff.
Again, if you would like to use the Decision Making Matrix, be sure to click the link in the description below, and plug in your own projects and see what you should be working on next.
And of course, I'd love to hear your comments and any of your feedback as to how you decide on which project you should be working on next. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
