Gregory ShepardArchitect, GregoryShepard.com · GregoryShepard.com · The Startup Architect | Author of The Startup Lifecycle

Impact vs Effort: How to Prioritize? | Gregory Shepard | Minute Mentor

5 Apr 2021 · 1 min

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In this brief mentor segment, Gregory Shepard shares his approach to prioritizing work using two complementary frameworks. First, he describes the "urgent vs important" concept, emphasizing that one should tackle important tasks before urgent ones, as urgency often stems from neglecting what truly matters. Second, he introduces the "impact vs effort" model, which involves plotting tasks in a four‑quadrant matrix and focusing on those that deliver the highest impact with the least effort. By combining these ideas, he advises viewers to prioritize high‑impact, low‑effort items that are also truly important, helping them allocate time more effectively.

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Real quickly, I wanted to give everybody some insight on one of the things that I use for priority. So I use urgent versus important and impact over effort. So urgent versus important is the concept of doing the things that are important first, not the things that are urgent, because urgent things are a result of ignoring the important things. And impact versus effort is the concept of doing things that have the highest impact with the lowest effort. You can do this by setting up 4 quadrants and then listing those things inside the quadrants. I hope that helps.