As a manager, you are often faced with too many immediate tasks and you have to decide in what order to tackle them - how to prioritize all them.

The Scenario

In this dilemma, you return to your office around 3:30pm after attending an out-of-town regional meeting. As you enter the office...

One of the machines has broken down and all production has been halted in the factory. Your boss has left a note on the door letting you know she wants to chat with you. There is an employee with a problem waiting outside your door.

You have 30 new emails in your inbox and 2 are marked urgent.

Your phone rings. The area code denotes it is from California where the company's most important customer resides as well as your mother.

You have not eaten lunch.

The Dilemma

You need to decide in what order to tackle these items so the question is...

What would you do?

The Guidelines

Your analysis of this dilemma should consist of 5 paragraphs.

Paragraph 1: Set the context and preview the top three items you would tackle first. Paragraph 

2: Identify the first thing you would do and give a clear and detailed explanation of why you would do this first. 

Paragraph 3: Identify the second thing you would do and give a clear and detailed explanation of why you would do this second.

 

Paragraph 4: Identify the third thing you would do and give a clear and detailed explanation of why you would do this third. Paragraph 5: Give a clear and detailed explanation of why you would wait to tackle the remaining three items.