You're Prioritizing Your Work WRONG - How Consultants Actually Do It

Summary (business / prioritization execution focus)

A former McKinsey consultant (Heinrich) explains how consultants prioritize a cluttered workload using simple decision rules designed for speed, client impact, and enabling others—using a steering-committee project as the context.

Prioritization playbook (implied ranking + rationale)

Given a to-do list presented in no particular order, the principles effectively rank tasks as follows:

• Deprioritize (last)

  • Travel expense submission (admin/internal) Rationale: “admin tasks… should not be a priority” unless there’s an explicit deadline.

• Deprioritize (early vs. mid)

  • Feedback session with a junior colleague Rationale: important for leadership/development, but lower immediate priority than client/operations-facing work.

• Prioritize (mid)

  • Client data analysis for the upcoming steering committee Rationale: client-facing and likely required for near-term milestones. Dependency insight: can be done without waiting on others (assuming the dataset is already received).

• Prioritize (very early, because others depend on it)

  • Storyline writing for the next steering committee document Rationale: creates the “inputs” other team members need to produce slides/document deliverables.

  • Briefing for the internal research team Rationale: without this briefing, internal research can’t produce the analysis needed for the steering committee.

• Act immediately

  • Quick response to a senior client email Rule: tasks taking < ~5 minutes should be done right away, not added to the to-do list. Management pattern highlighted: senior/most successful partners respond extremely fast—even if only to acknowledge and provide timing (e.g., “I’ll get back to you tomorrow”).

Timeline / sequencing guidance (concrete operational dependencies)

• Early tasks (positions 2 & 3 in his ordering): tasks that unlock other people’s work

  • Decide which comes first by lead time:
    • Prioritize the work that requires more time from the other team.

• Later tasks (position 4 and beyond):

  • Things that can be done solo or close to the deadline (e.g., data analysis after data is received; admin items last unless urgent).

Key “rules of thumb” (process framework)

• 5-minute rule: if it takes ~< 5 minutes, do it now and remove it from the queue.
• Admin last: internal admin (like expenses) goes to the bottom unless deadline-driven.
• Enable others early: start anything others need (storyline/briefing) early to maximize their available time.
• Lead time drives order: when tasks are dependent, choose the one whose required partner time is longer.
• Client responsiveness as leadership behavior: fast acknowledgement/updates to senior clients is a recurring trait among top performers.

KPIs / metrics mentioned

• No business KPIs (e.g., revenue, CAC, churn) are discussed.
• Only time-based operating thresholds are used:
  • <5 minutes → immediate execution
  • Response behavior measured in “minutes or so” for senior-client emails

Example case (embedded scenario)

• A typical consulting-like cadence:
  • Steering committee occurs every ~2–3 weeks
  • Work is organized around producing:
    • the steering committee storyline
    • the internal research briefing
    • client data analysis
  • Sequencing is determined by dependency timing.

Presenters / sources

• Heinrich (former McKinsey consultant, later C-level roles in industry/tech; channel “FirmLearning”)