How to Prioritize Like a Pro

Tessa Author

Prioritizing is a vital skill for all lease admins. Here are five criteria to quickly identify what's urgent to stay on track and avoid wasting time.

Time management is a frequent topic for many of my conversations with fellow lease admins because there's so much to get done and never enough time to do it. If you feel you can relate, you're far from being alone.

According to the latest 2021 research, 82% of people don't use any time management system, while 25% "just deal with whatever seems most important at the time." These statistics are less than impressive, considering that time is the only truly finite resource we all share.

Luckily, time management in practice is much easier than you think when you have a system.

Time Management Systems

There are many systems and techniques to manage time and productivity, while books about the topic fill libraries worldwide. Four methods stand out the most for their simplicity and ease of use:

>> Planning your day in a journal

Writing in a daily planner (digital or paper) is the most commonly used method of tracking tasks and managing time, usually coupled with a to-do list. I use the Full Focus planner as a paper journal and Notion for my digital workspace.

>> Timeboxing (or Time-blocking)

Assigning a time block for an activity in advance and then completing the task within that time frame is a simple time management technique that's proven productive for many people.

>> Eisenhower's Matrix

Eisenhower's Matrix is the most successful system. It uses quadrants that range in importance and urgency to sort the tasks, where the highest priority goes to the urgent and important tasks.

>> Eat that Frog

This method urges users to tackle the biggest task (in scope and emotional weight) first. The proponents of the system claim that after completing the most challenging task first, you'll feel accomplished and better positioned to carry out the rest of your day on a lighter note.

Personally, I use all four of these. Albeit not as consistently as I'd like to, yet definitely to complete my most important projects because studies have shown that using a system (any system) will help you accomplish your goals faster.

Which Tasks are Important?

Your most important tasks should always support your company goals. For example, paying rent is always a priority in Lease Administration because it's your company's legal obligation to pay for the right to use the space on time.

If you're not responsible for paying rent, focus on the tasks with legal, financial, or compliance consequences and only those that align with your primary objectives or those of the key stakeholders you support.

On the flip side, having a neat inbox is not important as long as you don't miss any communications and can find the information you need quickly. Trust me, no one will grade you on how many emails are in your inbox.

Also, just because the task doesn't have the highest importance doesn't mean you must avoid it. If having a clean inbox helps your productivity (which should be a personal goal), work the task into a routine, setting time in your schedule to tackle it.

Or, if the task is not important to you, but is to someone else, work with the requestor to determine a manageable time frame to accommodate their request.

The key here is not to forego your priority items to address less critical ones. If it doesn't support your goals (company or personal), it's not a "drop everything" type of task.

Which Tasks are Urgent?

Five criteria define urgency in lease administration, where at least four must be present to designate a task as urgent. An affirmative answer to three or fewer questions below grants the task a "NOT urgent" status, so communicating and setting expectations with the requestor will help you avoid a "drop-everything" fire.

1. Is the source of request external to the company?

The goal here is that we want to preserve the company's reputation and address items that come from the outside first. Usually, external sources of issues and requests are the landlords, vendors,s and taxing authorities (or another municipal player).

Requests from internal resources, like project managers or accounting, are important but typically carry less urgency. To avoid rushed requests, ask for more lead time so you can work them into your schedule.

2. Was the request triggered by a breakdown in a process?

Breakdowns in the process create errors and need prompt treatment. Issues are typically urgent and will require short-term action to resolve the error and potentially a long-term project to prevent reoccurrence.

For example, a missed rent payment is a breakdown in the process to be addressed it as soon as possible. Alternatively, when the request is for a simple report (even if it's only going to take you 15 minutes to do), it's a routine request for information. Don't abandon your current plan. Instead, respond by setting reasonable delivery time expectations.

3. Is there an immediate risk of default?

An affirmative answer to this question is extremely rare. Defaulting the tenant takes time, money, and effort from the landlord, and they don't like to expend either unless provoked.

You risk default if you miss a rental payment, but it is NOT immediate. Suppose you're notified of an issue after you've missed six months of rent, then yes. In that case, there may be an immediate risk of default, and you need to look into it as soon as possible.

Alternatively, there's absolutely no risk of default when a project manager asks you for a lease abstract or an expense report.

4. Will the delay in resolution have a material financial impact on your company?

If you have to choose between the last day to exercise an early termination option or a missed rent payment, the impact of missing that option is materially more significant than one month's rent.

You prioritize the termination option because missing an opportunity like that could obligate your company to years of rent. In contrast, you will likely get the landlord to waive that late fee on the missed monthly rent by sweet talking and promising it will never happen again.

5. Is the delay in resolution detrimental to the relationship?

We're looking at both, external and internal counterparts. External reputation is crucial, and so are the relationships intercompany. You don't want to frustrate your peers from another department (especially if they're helping you with another primary activity, like setting up a vendor record).

As you can see, most of these criteria on their own don't make an issue urgent, but once you combine a few, it makes the urgency apparent and prioritizing easy.

Final Thoughts

As we wrap up, it's vital to remember that you don't have to do everything to succeed, only the right things. Spending 10-12 minutes to pre-plan your day can save you hours of wasted time and helps reduce stress, which is one of the most common consequences of poor time management.

Consider using one or more of the time management systems introduced here to plan your day tomorrow. And to help you identify the urgent and important tasks to tackle first, download the "How to Prioritize" summary cheat sheet.

Categories: : Process Improvement