In the book, Do More Great Work.: Stop the Busywork, and Start the Work that Matters, Michael Bungay Stanier shares his inspiration and techniques to help us do more work that matters.

These are some of my favorite takeaways from reading the book.

Map 8 What’s the Best Choice?

In this chapter, Michael talks about how we can confidently choose our Great Work Project.

He recommends we take the following steps:

From the homework we have done in the previous steps, pick between three and five possibilities for our Great Work Project.

Develop a range of criteria by which to judge these possible ideas. Some possible criteria can include:

• It is easy to do.
• It would have the most significant impact on what I am trying to do.
• I want to do it.
• It excites me.
• It is fun to do.
• It is the best use of my skills.
• It is the most efficient use of resources.
• It is financially feasible.

Winnow the criteria list by using the three to five most critical criteria.

Measure each Great Work Project option against the criteria. Please give it a score of 1 to 10 for each criterion.

We can give our criteria different weights to add more flexibility to the process.

Finally, add the numbers and determine which idea scored the highest. Does this choice feel like the right one?

In summary, our goal is not to find the perfect place to start, as it might paralyze us. Our initial goal is to take our best guess and choose something that will enable us to say the following:

“This will do for the time being. This has potential. This is a good place to start.”

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