Every Project Cannot Be a Top Priority
Sounds obvious doesn’t it? Projects aren’t all equally important.
But it’s not uncommon for agency teams to be working on three or more projects at once.
With team members jumping between completely different challenges and clients regularly. Under pressure to keep everybody happy and get regular updates out the door.
There are several driving factors.
Deadlines loom
There are always deadlines in agency land. Projects mostly have agreed endings, with an associated date.
Thankfully those dates are rarely the same for multiple projects. At least not for agencies who’ve been burned by it before.
But as the deadline approaches, the pressure for visible progress increases.
Some clients pay more
Few agencies offer every client the same rates.
When there’s an opportunity, the rates will be higher. Those who pay most often have greater revenue potential, and so are more important.
When there’s an opportunity, the rates will be higher. Those who pay most often have greater revenue potential, and so are more important.
Technology and tools evolve
Tools, software, licenses and agreements can force the order of an agency’s actions.
End‑of‑life systems. Required upgrades. New integrations. Other dependencies.
It’s rare an agency is working in a bubble. External factors can force prioritisation of specific work.
The Single Most Important Project
When really pushed for it, you can always choose the genuine priority.
A Single Most Important Project, or SMIP.
And that priority project often remains that way for several days, or even weeks at a time.
Focus leads to better outcomes
The focus this offers is always positive.
Staying in the zone on one thing is amazing for a delivery team’s morale, output and quality.
When all levels of an agency acknowledge and embrace the benefits of this focus, great things can happen.
More plates spinning encourages risk
When your mind is across many things, you make mistakes.
You aren’t thinking deeply about any of them.
Your mind goes into survival mode. The real priorities become buried by the many choices.
Context switching leads to delays
Jumping between things takes time. Documenting where you’re up to, or handing things over, then getting your mind on the next thing. It doesn’t happen immediately.
There is a time cost to the regular switches.
Fewer projects create better work
Ultimately, being spread across fewer priorities is better for your project, the team, and your clients.
Priority Project Progress as a measure
So how can you encourage a focus on fewer projects?
One way is to measure a team’s focus with where they spend significant chunks of time.
Priority Project Progress (3P) is this metric.
It’s a great, easy way to ensure progress is meaningful and valuable.
When to use Priority Project Progress
It’s a lever in support of genuine focus.
3P helps when a team need to all be pulling in the same direction. It ensures the most important deadlines are hit.
It shines a spotlight on scheduling challenges and opportunities.
And as an added bonus, it stops silos forming and boosts quality levels.
How to measure it
Assuming you’re already tracking time, the calculation is simple.
If you’re not tracking time yet, for 3P your team only needs to start tracking time in two buckets:
Working on the priority
Everything else
For the hours measurement, you can simply add everybody’s hours together to get a total number.
This won’t work when people are on leave, or the team makeup changes though, which is where 3P% comes in.
What’s 3P%?
It’s the percentage version of the 3P hours measure, and is often preferred for reporting.
It works in all team sizes and handles leave and team changes well.
The simplest calculation of 3P% is:
A: Total team hours worked
B: Total team hours delivering the SMIP
3P% = (B / A) × 100
So if a team logs 120h for a week and 78h go to the SMIP, the 3P% is 65%
How to begin implementing it
So what do you do with it?
As a target
Aim to improve on it weekly until it’s at a significant and sustainable level.
Then review regularly to ensure it doesn’t slip and old habits don’t return.
On real‑time dashboards
Show it in places it will be seen often. Ensure it encourages the right behaviours.
Consider both the daily number, and the cumulative number by week and month.
If the number slips, review what about that day or week caused it to drop.
As a retrospective data point
When something goes wrong, 3P can help point to whether enough focus was on the failed project.
Again, a review by week and month can help find causes.
Summary
When your team’s attention is scattered across many “urgent” tasks, overruns, rework and eroded margins become the norm. Declaring a Single Most Important Project (SMIP) creates a sharp point of focus, and measuring Priority Project Progress (3P) ensures the team’s time actually flows toward that priority.
Why it works
Clarity: Everyone knows where to invest their best hours, reducing context‑switching errors.
Predictability: 3P surfaces scheduling clashes early, keeping deadlines realistic.
Profitability: Deep focus ensures cleaner deliveries and less rework - protecting the margin you planned for.
Your first step
Pick an SMIP for the coming week. Track time in two buckets - priority and everything else - and plot your daily 3P%.
Review the number in your next stand‑up, make small changes to your ways of working, and watch delivery smooth out over time.
Focus drives profit; 3P should keep you honest.