Time Management & Prioritisation ⏱️

You will get more asks than you can do. That’s the job — not a sign you’re failing.

The three-question triage

When someone gives you a task, ask yourself:

How important is this? (to the team’s goals, not just to the person asking)
When is it actually needed? (ask if unsure — “by Friday” often means “by Monday”)
How long will it take? (double your first estimate — you’re new)

Saying “yes” to everything is saying “no” to your priorities

If your plate is full and someone asks for something:

“Happy to help with that. I’m currently working on A and B for [person] with a Friday deadline. Should I pause one of those, or would next week work for this?”

You’re not saying no. You’re making the trade-off visible. Managers love that.

The daily “top 3”

At the start of each day, write your top 3 priorities. Not 10. Three.

At the end of the day, honestly check: did I do them? If not, why not? What derailed me?

Estimating your own work

You will get estimates wrong for the first ~6 months. That’s fine. To get better:

Track how long things actually take vs. how long you thought they would.
Break big tasks into small ones (< half a day each). Big estimates are always wrong.
When you slip, tell your manager early. Not the day of the deadline.

Deep work vs. shallow work

Deep work (writing, coding, reading, thinking): needs uninterrupted 60–90 min blocks. Protect these. Turn off notifications.
Shallow work (emails, chat, admin, standups): batch it. Do 2–3 chunks a day, not continuously.

You cannot do deep work while replying to Slack every 5 minutes. Nobody can.