Most Important Task

Your number one responsibility is to manage yourself.

Designer + productivity

• A product designer is responsible for many things. Your number one responsibility is to manage yourself. If you fail in that, you'll block your team.

• There are two types of tasks: Grunt tasks and most important tasks

• The first type is grunt tasks. It’s a task you can complete quickly and easily but not necessarily impactful. For example, replying to emails or answering Slack messages.

• Most of us like grunt tasks because they’re easy and satisfy us via dopamine. But that’s a trap. The common mistake is spending too much time on the grunt tasks.

• You have limited time and energy to get things done each day. So, how can you be smart about spending that time and energy?

Tool: MIT

The first tool for your productivity is the Most Important Task (MIT)—a critical task that will create the most significant results. By consciously separating grunt tasks from the MITs, you're taking control of your workload and focusing on what truly matters, empowering yourself to make a real impact.

Here are some tactical actions for you:

• You should have 2-3 Most Important Tasks (MIT) in a day. Try your best to achieve them first. You'll use your mental and cognitive energy to tackle them. Later in the day, tackle the grunt tasks. To identify your MIT, consider the tasks that will significantly impact your project's progress or the ones most aligned with your team's goals.

• If your team adopts a daily standup, this can be an excellent opportunity to share your MIT. By doing so, you're keeping your team informed about your priorities.

• Prepare it one day before. Preparing your tasks can cause your body to produce adrenalin and other hormones that create anticipation, which makes you feel more prepared for the next day.

Question to reflect:

• What are your most important tasks of the day?

• How can you structure your day to tackle the MIT before grunt tasks?

Here are some examples:

• Task: Create a rough low fidelity for the payment flow
  Purpose: So I can show it to the engineers and discuss the scope

• Task: Make the clickable prototype
  Purpose: So we can use it to test the usability with our users on Friday!

• Task: Think about the pricing strategy

  Purpose: So we can scrutinize the strategy together

• Task: Record a video explaining our scope

  Purpose: So the team understands why we decided to cut the scope

You can follow all the chapters of Product Design OS here.

Budi