When tasks come up, the logical consequence is that people start to work on them. The presence of a task sometimes leads to the idea that its presence justifies doing the work. And people have learned to follow up on all the should they have been told about.

A simple way to interrupt the cycle and at least put the task into a context is to ask “what it is for?”.

But, it’s also a question people will have a lot of answers to. To figure out if that task is relevant and belongs to the work the team has to do the question will be aligned with the team’s priorities. The question then becomes “does this task contribute to our priorities?” and if there is a need to choose, asking “how?” will add clarity.

But if the answer is, that it doesn’t serve the team’s priorities, the follow-up question is “why do you do it then?”

After a while, it will become clear where time disappears.