why are you doing what you’re doing and not some other thing?
why did you write that email instead of updating that doc? why did you get that project wrapped up on friday and save that other thing for monday? why is your team building that new thing in q3 instead of fixing that old thing?
why are you doing this with your life instead of doing that?
because you have prioritized this over that. the one over the other. given something your attention instead of something else. consciously or unconsciously.
there are many methods to prioritization. you have a method whether you know it or not. and after much due diligence, the american product institute has officially determined the most universally applicable method of them all.
the moscow method.
the moscow method
moscow is a secret acronym.
the o’s are non-essential - it’s all about the m, the s, and c, and the w. you might see it stylized as MoSCoW for that reason, but the style guide of the american product institute largely prohibits the use of capitalization so you’ll continue to see it here as simply “moscow.”
the method itself is quite simple.
any list of todos should be sorted into four categories:
the must-dos
the should-dos
the could-dos
the won’t-do-right-nows
there are things you must do. get them done.
there are things you should do and things you could do. don’t confuse them.
and there are things you won’t do right now. don’t get distracted by the things you won’t do right now.
on every time horizon - the hour, the day, the week, the sprint, the month, the quarter, the year, the decade, the career, the lifetime - at every one of these you’re making choices. sorting potential action into what you must do, what you should do, what you could do, and what you don’t do right now.
be conscious of your priorities. be honest with yourself. be ruthless with your attention.
the musts - the shoulds - the coulds - the won’t-right-nows.
moscow.