Rapid context switching is one of the biggest inconvenience that engineering leaders need to get accustomed to while transitioning from an individual contributor role. An EM handles her team, manages projects, stake holders etc. (you can refer here for a short preview of an EM's roles & responsibilities).

Along with getting accustomed to rapid context switching comes the danger of losing focus. You need to build a framework to quickly decide which task to focus on, creating maximum impact.

Eisenhower Matrix - Framework for prioritising ToDo's and Meetings

For the uninitiated, you can read more about this Eisenhower Matrix here.

• Tag all your ToDo's in four buckets by their urgency and importance. Importance and urgency are always relative to your goals and role.

• Eliminate all tasks that are neither important nor urgent

• Delegate all tasks that are urgent but not important

• Schedule all tasks that are important but not urgent. Tasks in this bucket create maximum long-term impact. Try to maximise tasks which fall into this bucket.

• Act on tasks that are urgent and important. These tasks are unavoidable but often give opportunity to automate. Some of these tasks can be moved to the previous bucket of important but not urgent if planned ahead of time.

The following infographic from ToDoist.com summarises it nicely.

Bonus productivity tip:

I use todoist along with todoist for gmail chrome extension to quickly convert any email to a todo and track. More on it in another post.

Please share any specific decision framework that has worked for you.