Coaching practices for Which Projects Matter Most
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Which Projects Matter Most, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Looking back over the last few months, the projects I was sure would be huge mostly went nowhere, while a couple I barely planned for turned out to matter most
- I end most days exhausted and still feel like I touched nothing that matters
- I stay busy all day chasing whatever feels most urgent in the moment, and then I look up at the end and the work that actually mattered never got touched because the loud stuff kept winning.
- If something has a deadline it instantly feels important to me, so I chase whatever’s ticking loudest and only later realize I poured my day into a small thing while the work that actually mattered sat untouched.
- Every project I’m juggling lives in one giant shared list, so when I sit down to focus on one thing I have to mentally sift past everything else first, and I can never tell how far along any single project actually is.
Practices that may help
- Run a project-level Pareto analysis quarterly
Every quarter, analyze which projects generated 80% of your meaningful progress and let that drive next-quarter commitments.
The Pareto Principle: 80/20 for Personal Productivity - Sort by importance before urgency
Ask "does this matter for what I’m actually trying to achieve?" before asking "is this due soon?"
The Eisenhower Matrix and Delegation - Order the six tasks by genuine importance, not urgency
Rank your six tasks from most to least important — and keep that order fixed through the day.
The Ivy Lee Method, Made Practical - Sort by urgent vs important
Ask two separate questions of every task: does it matter, and does it need to happen now?
The Eisenhower Matrix, Made Practical - Keep each project’s Action Steps physically separate from other projects
Mixing action steps from different projects in a single list increases context-switching cost and makes progress harder to see.
The Action Method, Made Practical - Apply the 80/20 rule
Find the few tasks that produce most of the value, and make those your frogs.
Eat That Frog, Made Practical - Set one organization-wide priority per quarter
Identify the single most important thing the company must accomplish this quarter, and make it everyone’s top priority.
The Rockefeller Habits: Scaling Up with Rhythm and Focus - Circle your top 5 without negotiating
From 25, choose exactly 5 — the ones you’d feel worst about not doing.
Warren Buffett’s Two-List Strategy - Apply the 80/20 principle to ongoing commitments
Identify the 20% of your commitments producing 80% of your results and protect them; cut or delegate the rest.
The Not-To-Do List - Define "important" explicitly as a team
Before sorting tasks, align on what "important" means — which goals, for whom, over what time horizon.
The Eisenhower Matrix for Teams
Related concerns
- 80 20 Project Management
The Pareto Principle observes that roughly 80% of outputs tend to come from 20% of inputs — a power-law pattern documented across many domains. Richard Koch’s "The 80/20 Individual" applies this to personal effort: identify and multiply your highest-leverage 20%, then radically reduce the rest. The distribution is real; the exact 80/20 split is a rough heuristic, not a precise law.
- Company Top Priority
Identify the single most important thing the company must accomplish this quarter, and make it everyone’s top priority.
Set one organization-wide priority per quarter
- Defining Importance
Before sorting tasks, align on what "important" means — which goals, for whom, over what time horizon.
Define "important" explicitly as a team
- How To Prioritize Goals
Choose one task that, if completed, would make the day a success regardless of everything else.
Identify the single most important output for today
- How To Prioritize What Matters
Choose one task that, if completed, would make the day a success regardless of everything else.
- Pareto Principle Tasks
The Pareto Principle observes that roughly 80% of outputs tend to come from 20% of inputs — a power-law pattern documented across many domains. Richard Koch’s "The 80/20 Individual" applies this to personal effort: identify and multiply your highest-leverage 20%, then radically reduce the rest. The distribution is real; the exact 80/20 split is a rough heuristic, not a precise law.
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