Focus and prioritisation: make room to finish
Too many commitments already? Use this page to decide what to finish, pause or renegotiate—and protect capacity for the work that matters.
Too many commitments can leave everything partly done. Focus means agreeing what matters now, limiting work in progress and protecting capacity—not simply asking people to concentrate harder.
Choose what matters now
- Name the result. What needs to improve for customers or the organisation? Look for what is limiting progress, rather than assuming the busiest person is the constraint.
- Make commitments visible. Include projects, routine work, support, rework and promises already made. Check shared people, dependencies and deadlines.
- Decide what to finish, pause, decline or renegotiate. Keep only as much active work as the team can handle reliably. Use PICK to compare ideas—not to justify starting every attractive one.
- Give someone authority to make the trade-off. Agree what will not get done and tell those affected. Check cash needs, contractual duties, safety and essential service before stopping work.
Not every useful change must address one constraint. Some work protects safety, meets obligations or enables later improvement. Make these reasons explicit.
Protect focus without cutting people off
Work needing sustained concentration benefits from fewer avoidable interruptions. But customer conversations, cooperation and urgent concerns are part of the work—not automatically distractions.
- Create a clear first response. Agree who receives requests, what they can resolve and when expert help is needed. Keep a fast route for urgent risks.
- Protect time and leave room to respond. Batch non-urgent questions and agree realistic focus periods. Do not allocate every available hour; variable demand needs response capacity.
- Learn from recurring requests. Improve information, tools and skills; investigate failure demand rather than merely moving it to another team.
Two needs seem to conflict? Explore TRIZ separation: scheduled focus periods with urgent cover (time); shared response duties with expert escalation (space); a fast route for safety concerns (condition); or a common service with specialist options (whole and parts). Test whether both needs are met without shifting the burden elsewhere.
Optional: share the functions, not just the interruptions
A small team might share four functions: receiving requests (“Goalies”), delivering focused work (“Builders”), investigating recurring problems (“Investigator”) and improving tools (“Toolmakers”). These are optional labels, not mandatory job titles or separate departments.
People can combine or rotate functions. Give the first-response team training, authority and access to expertise. Keep customer understanding and technical knowledge connected; do not create an overloaded gatekeeper or isolate the experts.
Make saying “not now” workable
Agree simple acceptance rules: what work fits, what capacity it needs, and who can approve exceptions. A new commitment should trigger a decision about what moves or stops—not silently become another priority.
For example: “We accept this bespoke request only after checking delivery and ongoing support capacity. If accepted, we agree which existing commitment changes.” See standardisation and customisation.
Review the rules when circumstances change. A boundary should protect reliable delivery, not become a reason to ignore customers or reject every opportunity.
Check whether focus helps
Agree the expected result and a review date. Track completed work and waiting alongside quality, customer experience, workload and effects on other teams.
A suitable chart or Bootstrap CUSUM analysis may help identify a performance change. A change point does not prove the new arrangement caused it; no detected change does not prove no benefit. Check implementation, timing, data quality and other explanations.
Choose useful measures →What’s your next useful question?
What one commitment could we finish, pause or renegotiate to release capacity now?
Compare improvement ideas with PICK →Return to Where might the difficulty lie? →