How to be energy-smart? Part 3: Introducing RITES/E framework
Discover Katya's RITES/E framework for life and work task prioritization - elevate your plans, your product roadmaps and more!
Welcome back to Katya Cares, a fresh Substack space where we discuss new technologies, remote work culture, art, psychology, and joy. Katya shares what she is learning about because sharing is caring. This week, Katya is learning about energy optimization.
In part 2, I provided more practical advice, including how to track your energy cycles.
In part 3, this post, we will delve deeper into managing tasks and product features with energy-smart strategies in mind. By utilizing the RITES/E framework, created by me, you can prioritize tasks effectively while keeping energy levels and enthusiasm at the forefront. I start this post with explaining the framework. After, I show you how I use it to prioritize tasks for my life, work, and my projects such as Reframe bot.
How to prioritize tasks while being energy-smart?
The first and most important step to being energy-smart is understanding your own energy cycles. Once you are familiar with your energy levels, you can make better daily decisions. By keeping your energy in mind, you can plan your day and work more effectively.
As the Director of Product at a tech company, I enjoy planning and organizing everything.
For my job, I created my own framework for prioritizing product features. I noticed that other people's frameworks did not take into account energy or enthusiasm, which realistically affects prioritization. Based on my years of experience in product management, my framework is both more realistic and productive.
Introducing the RITES/E Framework
The RITES/E framework, created by me, is a unique approach to task prioritization that factors in energy and enthusiasm. It is a points-based system that evaluates tasks based on the following criteria:
Reach - How many people will this initiative reach?
Impact - What is the potential impact on users?
Timing - Is it the right time to start the task?
Energy - Is the team energized and enthusiastic about the task?
Special people - Is there a special client who needs this task completed?
Effort - Estimate the effort required to complete the task.
Each criterion is assigned a score based on the task's relevance and the team's current situation.
Reach
Approximate the number of individuals impacted by this initiative:
1 point: Limited reach
2 points: Moderate reach
3 points: Extensive reach
Impact
Estimate how much the task will affect users:
1 point: Low impact
2 points: Medium impact
3 points: High impact
Timing
Consider if it's the right time to start the task:
1 point: Bad timing, underprepared
2 points: Fine timing, prepared
3 points: Perfect timing, overprepared
Energy
Assess the team's energy and enthusiasm for the task:
1 point: Low energy
2 points: Medium energy, indifference
3 points: High energy
Special people
Identify if this is a special request. Does a special client needs the task?
1 point: This doesn't hold distinct significance for anyone special
2 points: Yes, there's a special client or person needing this
Effort
Assess the size and complexity of the task by estimating the duration required to complete it.
Note: This should never be 0, as no task takes no effort.
1 point: Small project, short duration
2 points: Medium project, a few weeks to months
3 points: Large project, several months or longer
Applying the RITES/E Framework
Once you've scored each criterion for a task, divide the total score by the effort required to complete the task. This will give you the RITES/E score:
RITES/E Score = (Reach + Impact + Timing + Energy + Special Client) / Effort
The higher the RITES/E score, the higher the priority of the task.
By using the RITES/E framework, you can prioritize tasks based on a combination of factors that contribute to their overall value and feasibility. This helps ensure that the most impactful tasks are tackled first, while also considering energy and enthusiasm.
Template for RITES/E Framework
If this framework sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to try it out and let me know what you think!
Here is my template for the RITES/E prioritization framework. You can either view the document or duplicate it for your private use for free.
How Katya is prioritizing her own days:
Currently, I am juggling the following:
Working as a Director of Product
Writing for this Substack
Developing Reframe bot
Working on other side projects 🤫
Improving my painting skills
Practicing yoga daily
Walking 8,000 - 10,000 steps
Managing household tasks, such as cooking and cleaning
Being a good older sister, daughter, and friend
And this isn't even a lot. Life will only get more busy.
Quick summary of Katya’s last month:
Work hard:
Deployed an important product at my job - AI-powered e-commerce quizzes
Worked hard and focused on my job in general, given the competition in AI
Experimented with Chat GPT-4, Bard, Bing
Read as much as I could on AI
Cooked almost every meal
Attended daily yoga classes
Read a 700-page novel
Worried a lot about everyone impacted by the SVB collapse, the Ukraine-Russia war, etc
Watercolored a creepy Miami scene
Worked on Reframe bot
Wrote a lot of Substack content
Play hard:
Participated in a BBQ party where my Hinge profile was blasted on the big screen
Celebrated Women’s Day with the best sushi and best bar on my side of town
Got yelled at by a restaurant owner for ordering too little pasta
Went on a couple of dates
Walked around Central Park with many awesome humans
Saw a play at Soho Playhouse called "1+1" and partied with the cast
Saw my little sister’s play
Celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with my friend performing at a bar and also attended her party
Celebrated a close friend’s birthday, tried caviar bumps
Celebrated another friend’s birthday with a professional clown
Explored Fort Greene, Brooklyn with a close childhood friend
Attended Seders where gratitude and literature were discussed
I have stories about all of the above! Feel free to ask. I am not offering any more details on this post because I recognize my “single girl living in NYC on a tech salary” vibes.
As you might notice from the above, I am prioritizing the following three major buckets:
My career: pushing it forward at my main job and beyond.
My health: both physical and mental.
My loved ones and community.
Every day, I work on all three buckets. I suggest that you also choose three buckets to focus on, as you can't prioritize everything. Currently, I'm not giving as much priority to the hobbies that bring me pleasure, such as art or dance, as I would like to. However, this is an active and informed decision, so I don't let myself feel regret.
How did I choose those buckets?
I have thought through my life using my own framework RITES/E:
Reach - Focusing on AI career & projects right now will allow me to reach and help the most amount of people.
Impact - I need to prioritize what will have the greatest impact on my life going forward. By focusing on advancing my Product career in AI, I can set myself up for long-term success. However, I also need to prioritize my health and social connections in order to maintain my overall well-being.
Timing - This is the right moment to focus on AI, so I need to concentrate my efforts in that area. Since I am not currently a mother, I can devote more attention to my own personal growth and development than I may be able to in the future. Additionally, my habits and lifestyle choices now will have a significant impact on my future health.
Energy - I currently have the energy and motivation to learn new things, read extensively, and work hard. However, I do not feel as energetic about creative pursuits.
Special people - My work team members and my loved ones are currently the most important people in my life. They all depend on me to succeed so that I can support them.
Effort - Balancing my career advancement with my personal health and social life is challenging and requires significant effort. However, I am committed to putting in the effort to achieve my goals based on the considerations above.
How Katya is prioritizing her own tasks within the buckets:
My career: I use RITES/E to prioritize work features. I use RITES/E to prioritize Reframe bot features.
My health: I try to do the same routine every day that involves cooking, walking and yoga.
My loved ones and community: I accept important invitations and check up on my people.
Prioritizing Reframe Bot:
If you need a practical example of using RITES/E for product or project management, I can walk you through how I prioritized Reframe Bot tasks.
In February, I launched reframemythoughts.com an AI-powered mental health bot that helps stop negative thought patterns. I use it daily and find it very helpful. You can read about this project on earlier blog posts.
Requests from Reframe bot:
First, I gathered as much feedback as I could on Reframe bot.
I did this through posting a Survey on the website reframemythoughts.com
Reframe Bot Survey updates:
People are slowly but surely taking my survey!
One learning is that most people do not feel any embarrassment or shame using the bot!
I cried a lot while reading the feedback. One person said, "Thank you SO much for making it! It's incredibly helpful and makes me feel hopeful ❤️." I cried while pasting that quote into this blog post. 😭 There is no greater motivator for me than helping other people feel hopeful!
I listened to the Survey feedback & made a long list of improvements:
Someone mentioned that if you don't put a period at the end of your thought in the text box, my bot will continue your sentence. This can be confusing because you do not expect the bot to continue your thought. Instead, you want the bot to reframe it. I hope to fix this.
For example, my teenage sister attempted to troll the bot, but instead, the bot finished her sentence. The joke was on her, as she had misspelled the word, and my Reframe bot trolled her in return.
Someone asked me to build a reminder for using the bot that reminds you to write something twice a day. I like the idea! For the first version, I can send text reminders. Would anyone be interested in signing up for this? Let me know in the comments!
I need to improve the website's SEO so that people looking for help can find it more easily.
I need to fix Google Analytics to track how many people use the bot. I still won't track "who" or "what", only "how many".
I could switch to a cheaper API, although I received a lot of traffic and only paid 0.70 cents for the last month! I'm not going broke yet.
I was asked to include resources to act on the advice given. I am working on this. I'm a little anxious that it might recommend the wrong/fake resources, so I am taking this request seriously. Either way, I can include mental health resources that I trust on the website.
Prioritizing Reframe bot requests using RITES/E:
I use my RITES/E framework. I put in all the requests into a spreadsheet, score the tasks, and make decisions based on the calculations.
Next steps for me:
Start working on the above Reframe bot requests, in order of priority.
Keep learning about AI.
Keep writing Substack.
My next post is different - we imagine the future together.
I also will follow up with Reframe Bot updates when I have them.
Keep following health routine
Keep prioritizing loved ones. It is birthday season for my family!
Next steps for you:
Let me know what you think about RITES/E or this post!
Comment on post or reply to email or send me feedback directly in whatever way works best for you
If there is someone in your life who might benefit from this framework, especially a product manager, send them this post!
You can also try out the brand new Notes feature on Substack and share parts of my blogs with the world!
This concludes my 3-part blog post series on how to be energy-smart. I discussed the importance of energy, how to track it, how to use insights in your life, and how to prioritize tasks while keeping energy in mind. I hope this was interesting!