It's Not Rocket Science - 2

This might be difficult for some to understand, but in almost every job there are approximately 1-5 tasks which determine the success of the individual in the position, but approximately 100-1000 tasks which somehow need to be accomplished.

One of the first things to do in ANY job is to determine which out of all the many tasks, will be the ones which define success (TWDS - tasks which define success), and make those a priority.  This is NOT rocket science, but it is probably one of the most ignored principles.  It is also one of the most challenging because often the TWDS are not clearly differentiated from all the others.  Sadly, in some cases the Supervisor can't even clearly articulate the TWDS, even though intuitively he/she knows when you are succeeding or failing based on these nebulous TWDS.

You can identify the TWDS by starting with the position description and listing out the potential TWDS from that document.  Next comes sitting with the Supervisor and discussing priorities, such as: "if there is only so much time, which of the following do you feel should be the higher priority?"  Finally comes experience; in performing the actual work, which tasks seem to have the greatest propensity for institutional success if accomplished well, or failure if neglected or performed poorly.  This process should identify at least some of the TWDSs.  Keep refining it - there are rarely more than five, and then build the rest of your job around making sure these get done.

The individuals who succeed and are promoted have already figured this out.  There are many others who work just as hard or harder who never seem to be appreciated and are never promoted.  It's not rocket science, it is simply identifying the TWDS and then making sure they are the top priority.