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Good morning. Time feels like our most precious—and most limited—resource. Every day brings a flood of tasks, from addressing resident care and family inquiries to meeting compliance deadlines. Here’s the hard truth: not everything on your to-do list is equally important.
This morning, I want to share a simple framework to help you focus on what truly matters. It’s a tool I use regularly when my own workload starts to feel overwhelming, and it has made a world of difference in how I manage my time.
Elevate your Leadership
The Time Management Trap
One common mistake we all make is treating every task as if it’s urgent or equally critical.
For example, responding to non-urgent emails (we've all been there) may feel satisfying in the moment, but it shouldn’t take precedence over tasks like resolving a resident’s care concern or addressing a compliance risk. Yet, without a system to sort through these priorities, it’s easy to let less meaningful work consume your day.
So, how do you avoid this trap? By breaking your to-do list into four clear categories, using the 2x2 Decision Framework.
The 2x2 Decision Framework
This approach categorizes tasks based on their urgency and importance:
1. Do Now (High urgency, high importance)
• These tasks require immediate attention and directly impact outcomes.
• Example: Responding to a resident safety concern or resolving a staffing shortage before the next shift.
2. Schedule (Low urgency, high importance)
• These are meaningful tasks that don’t need to be done right away but will drive long-term success.
• Example: Preparing next quarter’s operational reports.
3. Delegate (High urgency, low importance)
• These tasks need to happen soon but don’t require your direct involvement.
• Example: Scheduling the food order for this weeks town hall meeting.
4. Delete (Low urgency, low importance)
• These tasks add little value and can be removed altogether.
• Example: Spending time hearing a sales pitch for a product you know will not be adopted.
How It Works in Practice
Here’s an example of how you might apply this in your role:
• Task: An unexpected maintenance issue requires immediate action.
• Decision: Do Now – Resident safety is at stake, and the problem can’t wait. Get involved and ensure it is resolved.
• Task: Updating policies for an annual review that’s still months away.
• Decision: Schedule – This task is critical but not urgent today.
• Task: Organizing a team meeting for next week.
• Decision: Delegate – Provide an agenda and assign the task to a high performer looking to stretch and grow.
• Task: Responding to non-urgent marketing emails.
• Decision: Delete – This can wait or be skipped entirely.
By running your tasks through this framework, you create space to focus on what really matters—without getting buried in busywork.
The Key to Making It Work
The real challenge isn’t categorizing tasks—it’s sticking to your decisions.
• When you mark a task as “Delete,” let it go without guilt. It is important to follow up with stakeholders to ensure they understand they "why" behind your decision to bypass the task or project.
• If you decide to delegate, trust your team to handle it. Take the time up front to set expectations, clear the path, and define success.
• And when something belongs in the “Schedule” category, resist the urge to bump it into “Do Now” unless circumstances truly change. Schedule time on your calendar and move on.
The beauty of this system is that it’s simple and flexible. It doesn’t require fancy tools—just a willingness to prioritize with intention.
This framework will ultimately lead to you doing less; it’s about doing the right things that drive the most value to your community or organization. When you focus on what truly moves the needle, you’ll not only accomplish more—you’ll find greater satisfaction in the process.
Make today a day of intentional progress.
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About Prime Care Technologies
Prime Care Technologies provides integrated data and technologies to make real-time, performance-impacting decisions—an Atlanta-based company and industry-leading data warehouse. Empowering senior care operators to achieve care goals.
Check out their solutions HERE.
Whenever you're ready, there are a couple of ways I can help you.
- Leverage our partnership with CEUSrEZ and purchase NAB-approved, online, self-paced, continuing education courses at a 20% discount here.
- Check out our free AI Chatbot trained on thousands of pages of regs and industry best practices. It’s like having a surveyor on your team. Try it out here.
- Coming soon in 2024. Stay tuned!
