How to Manage Up and Prioritize When Everything Is Important
Slow down, it’s okay. The work isn’t going anywhere, and there’ll always be more to tackle.
Hi hello! You’re reading Productivity, Without Privilege, a newsletter that’s mostly about surviving in the working world, especially the creative world, as a member of any marginalized group, whether that means your race, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender, or all of the above (and then some). I’m Alan Henry, your host and author of Seen, Heard, and Paid: The New Work Rules for the Marginalized, and this time I’m back with some practical tips that I’ve covered a long time ago, but wanted to reiterate for a new audience and a new era.
One thing I’ve always struggled with is micromanagement. I hate it. I’m not a micromanager: when I give my team a task, I try to make sure they have all of the information they need to complete the task or do the job I ask of them, and if they have questions, I encourage them to ask me so I can either answer them or find out what the answer is. I also generally expect that same courtesy from people who manage me, although, of course, I don’t always get it.
The most frustrating managers have been the ones who react to my (or your, because I have a feeling you’ll agree) work as though I didn’t do what they asked because of a litany of things they didn’t actually communicate in the first place. Managers who ask for one thing, and when you do what they ask, come back and ask for a ton of other things that they assumed you would just know they wanted you to do without actually telling you. The only thing worse (and generally part in parcel) is a manager who’s okay shoveling work in your direction but makes no effort to help you prioritize and understand how the work you’re being asked to do fits into your overall team goals.
So let’s talk about that this time around: how to prioritize work when everything seems important, and when you don’t feel like you have all of the tools you need to do your job.
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First, let’s talk about managing up.
When I wrote Seen, Heard, and Paid, I decided on a whole chapter about managing up because it’s such an important—and untaught—skill in today’s workplace. That goes double for marginalized folks, because we’re more likely to either be underestimated by our managers, excluded from important conversations, or pushed to the side without much in the way of direction or support.
So, what is managing up? The short version is essentially asking your manager proactively the kinds of questions that you need answers to in order to do your work well, and to understand how your work fits into the big picture, all with the understanding that you won’t get that information otherwise. It involves giving yourself the understanding that your boss probably has, but isn’t inclined to share, and then organizing your own work in order to fit that understanding.
In a way, it’s about asking your boss the kinds of questions you need the answers to, and thinking about your job from the perspective of your manager. What, among the tasks on your plate, are likely to have the biggest impact on your team and your overall performance? What are the most high-impact things you have to work on right now, even if it all seems like endless busywork? If you don’t have that level of clarity from your boss, or even from regular team meetings with your manager and your peers, use your 1:1 meetings with your manager to ask about it.
What’s that? You don’t have 1:1 meetings with your boss? You should definitely ask for them. I know, I know, they’re a pain, and trust me, as a manager I don’t particularly enjoy them either, but I do try to at least keep them on the calendar, even if they’re just a couple of minutes and a way to check in with my team (if I don’t otherwise know what they’re working on.) I also like to have an opportunity to just gossip a little bit—whether it’s just to get a temperature check on how they’re feeling, what they’re worried about, and where their concerns are. I also try to clue them in to what I’m hearing about our overall priorities, how changes in the industry impact us specifically, and what to be aware of that may be coming down the line from upper management in the future. I could dedicate an entire newsletter to 1:1s, why you should have them, and how to make them better. Maybe I’ll do just that.
In the meantime, though, take those meetings, or even casual catchups (if you can get them) with your boss to chat a little less about what you’re working on, and more about what your manager is hearing. Ask about the big projects they’re excited about, or what their priorities are, or what their big initiatives are. Of course, if you can get a sense of how they’re evaluated on their own performance, you can also align the work that you do with the things that make them successful. And as we all know, if you make your boss look good, odds are higher that they’ll appreciate that work.
It may sound like an arcane form of sucking up, and in a way, it is. But the bottom line is that you’re there to do a job, and the measures of success and failure at your job are in the hands of your manager, who in turn is judged by their manager (or managers.) If your boss won’t explicitly tell you what those measures are, you owe it to yourself to find them if you can, rather than stumble around blindly hoping that you’re doing a good job.
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Now let’s talk about how to prioritize your work.
If you do a little managing up like I mentioned earlier, you won’t have many questions about what tasks on your plate are the ones you should focus on, and which ones should slide to the back burner. Of course, the projects that matter the most to your boss, and in turn to their boss, will be those that are most urgent and important, because they’re the ones that have eyes on them. Even if it seems like other things are more important, or are more important to you, it doesn’t mean that they’re important to the people who decide if you’re doing a good or bad job.
Trust me on this one. I used to be a project manager working in IT. I know what it’s like to get more praise for rolling out shiny new expensive hardware than for fixing core security and functionality issues that could have collapsed our infrastructure. If that means that you get the sneaking suspicion that helping launch a new column, or pitching a new idea, or in my industry, coming up with an idea that might make some money or bring in new readers, is a better idea than the drudgery of beat reporting or pitching stories based on news events, you’d be right.
So even if—especially if—you’re told that everything on your plate is important, try to read between the lines a bit. I’m willing to bet that everything may be important, but your boss asks after some things more than others. Or maybe someone on your team has definitely heard about that one project you’re working on, but has no idea about another. Those are all clues that will help you prioritize your work, even if it’s not according to what you think is most important, or even the best use of your time and skills.
Finally, affirm those priorities with your boss. Whenever you can, reiterate to your boss what you’re working on right now, and what you’re planning to get to next. If they ask you what else you have on your plate, be ready to rattle off the rest of your to-do list. (You may be tired of hearing me say this, but a work diary works wonders here.)
The best analogy I have for this is asking your friend, roomie, or partner what they want for dinner. They’ll inevitably say they don’t know, and turn the question back to you: “I don’t know, what do you want?” But if you start the conversation with a list of options, either based on your own tastes, theirs, or some combination of the two, you’ll probably come to an agreement much more quickly. Give your boss the same treatment. Instead of asking “which of these tasks is most important for me to work on first,” try “I’m going to work on X and Y today, and prioritize finishing them this week, if that works for you.” That gives them the opportunity to interject with another project or task that they’re concerned about, or to suggest changes to your schedule.
That way, you’re kind of doing their job for them: you’re telling them what you’re doing, and giving them the opportunity to make changes. You set the priorities and they adjust them, rather than them having to remember or come up with your priorities for you (even if that’s actually their job).
Why Are Black Neighborhoods Underwater? Science Points to the Wealthy, by Adam Mahoney: One of the worst immediate effects of climate change is the fact that many communities are experiencing weather events in very different ways than they used to, and in ways that they—and perhaps more importantly, their wealthier, white neighbors—have little interest in mitigating unless it impacts them directly. And this isn’t just a city-by-city problem; it’s a global one. This piece in Capital B News looks at the problem directly, and references a study recently published in Nature Climate Change that highlights something that I think should be clear to everyone at this point: The wealthiest are the biggest contributors to climate change, but of course, they’re least likely to feel the effects. And as with everything else, that’s by design.
19 Black Americans’ Skulls Return to New Orleans After 150 Years for Memorial Service, by Curtis Bunn: Did you know that in 1872, the dismembered heads of 19 Black Americans were stolen from their bodies and shipped to Germany, in the hopes of finding evidence that Black people and people of African descent were genetically inferior to white Europeans? Eugenics and “race science” haven’t gone anywhere since then, sadly, but they remain lacking in evidence, and even the German scientists who scrutinized the skulls in the years before World War I came to the same conclusion.
Race science has long been debunked for the pseudoscience that it is, right up there with phrenology and ESP, but that’ll never stop those interested in it from committing atrocities to try and prove it. And sadly, what’s left is over a hundred years of pain and generational suffering that even this article frames as a healing homecoming—which, fair, I get it, but as Malcolm X said, “You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches and then pull it out six inches and say you're making progress.”
New York Times Podcast on Youth Trans Care Leaves Out the Patients, by Evan Urquhart: Surprising absolutely no one who’s been paying attention to the rabid transphobic campaign that my former employer seems to be on (resulting in at least 6 citations by the U.S. Supreme Court as they eviscerate civil rights for trans people), every time The Times seems to be interested in approaching the topic of trans people or gender-affirming care, they seem intent on leaving the very people they’re talking about out of the equation.
Instead, they send reporters on missions that are less fact-finding and more justifying, looking for evidence that supports predetermined conclusions rather than seeing where the actual evidence and science lead, and purposefully avoiding even discussing their coverage with the communities they’re covering. Both of these things are damning journalistic sins, and if the topic were anything other than trans people, every reporter and editor at The Times would agree (and I say, yet again, I know people who still work at The Times! Wonderful people and talented writers and editors trying to do the right thing! But I also know that they, like I did when I worked there, know what’s really going on, and I guarantee they agree with me, but know they can’t say so because they’ll be retaliated against if they do.) But this piece, published at Objective Journalism and co-published with the wonderful Assigned Media, tries to make some sense of the whole thing.
Back when I wrote for Lifehacker, I used to take joy in finding and trying out tons of little apps designed to help you find your flow and be more productive, focus on your tasks, and get things done. A lot of those services are gone now, partially because a lot of companies like Apple and Google essentially bought them and incorporated them into their platforms, or just built their own. The ecosystem for things like to-do apps and pomodoro timers has shrunk considerably from the heydays of the 2010s. But that doesn’t mean they’ve all gone away. You can still find great apps like Todoist (a personal fave), Trello, and Asana out there, and easy to use.
But this time I want to recommend Spirit City: Lo-Fi Sessions, which is part to-do app/habit tracker but also part video game. If you want a preview, you can check out the linked Steam Store page, but you can also find people co-working using the app on Twitch pretty often. (And if you’re reading this before the end of the Steam Summer Sale, which I think will end on July 11th, you can grab it for about $8 USD.)
Essentially, you create a character that looks like you (or however you want to look), and you can use the app to build your to-do list and check off individual tasks as you complete them. You can also use the built-in Pomodoro timer to help you stay focused on your work and remember to take regular breaks, and even do some freeform journaling using the journal tool.
Personally, I use the built-in music player to listen to some chill lo-fi beats while I’m doing things like writing this very newsletter that you’re reading, and the game has multiple areas in your home that you can post up in to get some writing done, work on your laptop, read, meditate, or even just relax or game. I may stream myself using it sometime if I do some coworking streams (follow me for notifications when I go live, by the way), but often it’s just a fun little gamified way to get some work done. As you work, your spiritographer level increases, and you unlock things like additional decorations for your home and little spirit companions that will keep you company while you work.
If that combination of gamified to-dos, collectable elements, and productivity sounds good to you, give it a try! And let me know if you like it. I love hearing about people’s characters and favorite spirits.
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Also, consider this a bit of a soft launch, but I started a Patreon! It’s really just for people who want to support me, but there is a tier that gets early access to this newsletter, and to any other media commentary that I post over there. You’re by no means required to sign up, and this newsletter will always remain free, promise. If you don’t like the idea of a subscription but would love to support me otherwise, drop me a tip here.
That’s it from me this time around. If you have any stories I should check out, or recommendations for the Try This section, don’t hesitate to send them to me! Just hit reply and drop me a line. I’ll absolutely read it, even if I don’t always have time to reply.
Take care of yourselves, stay safe, stay informed, and I’ll see you back here soon.