The LNO Effectiveness Framework was created by Shreyas Doshi, previously a Product Manager at Stripe, Twitter, Google and Yahoo, as a way to “avoid the trap of doing a great job on all tasks”. Shreyas proposes splitting all tasks on your to-do list into three categories and then approaching tasks differently depending on their category.

LNO Task Categories 

Leverage

• Leverage tasks are the most crucial and require your utmost focus and attention. These types of tasks are your opportunity to use your skills and experience to drive significant change for the benefit of your organisation. 
• Leverage tasks let you 10x your impact.  

Neutral

• Neutral tasks are regular tasks that you would typically do in your job. They don’t require any special skills, but they still need to be completed perfectly. These tasks are essential to maintaining day-to-day operations. 
• Neutral tasks are, by their nature, time neutral. One hour spent gives you one hour of benefit. 

Overhead

• Overhead tasks are important, but they don’t require much effort in terms of quality. They are tasks that you need to do but don’t contribute much to the core objectives of your job.   
• Time spent on necessary Overhead tasks provides very little benefit.

Applying the Right Amount of Effort to the Right Tasks

These categories show that not all tasks are created equal. Therefore, if we’re putting an equal amount of time and effort into each, we run the risk of over-applying ourselves to certain tasks and underapplying ourselves to others. 

Shreyas created the LNO framework with Product Managers in mind, but it works equally well for Marketers. It’s particularly useful for those in more strategic marketing roles, like Marketing Director, where you sit between the task-oriented delivery teams and the c-suite in their slower pace layer*.  

As a Marketing Director or Manager your role requires many difficult balancing acts, for example:

• The needs of those setting the businesses’ objectives vs the needs of those implementing the marketing activity.
• Long term strategic planning vs short term implementation challenges.
• Challenging annual targets vs your desire to not suffer a nervous breakdown. 

With finite hours and energy levels you must master prioritisation, not just in terms of tasks, but also in terms of effort. Using the LNO framework, even just for a few weeks, is a great way to reset your approach to tasks and to avoid unhelpful perfectionism. 

Does the LNO Framework Help You Delegate?

The purpose of the LNO Effectiveness Framework is not to skip or delegate tasks which are less important, it’s to pay attention to how much time and effort we put into tasks we must complete. To choose which tasks to swerve completely use the Eisenhower Matrix first and then use LNO with whatever tasks remain on your to-do list. 

But Why Am I Doing Pointless Tasks?

You might hope that your working week is largely filled with activity which is extremely important and with which you can drive significant benefit. A quick peek at your calendar and to-do list will begin to dispel this notion. Looking back at tasks you’ve completed, including those sneaky ones which don’t fit on to-do lists, will shatter it entirely. 

Unless you’re in a position where you have a PA who looks after your admin tasks (and probably even if you do) you’ll have Overhead tasks. You’re probably so used to doing them that you might not even notice them.

So, You’ve Got Loads To Do and Not All of It Feels That Useful, What Now?

We now need to split the tasks in our to-do list into the three categories and start to treat them differently. This is where we abandon the idea of doing everything to the best of our ability and start phoning it in (honestly, bear with me).

Leverage tasks require your full attention and every bit of effort you apply to them will provide a tangible benefit. Grab a coffee, close your email and get to work. Spend the time you need to, in order to do the very best you can, safe in the knowledge that you’re doing your best work.

Neutral tasks require that you do a good job. Doing anything more than that will not be worthwhile and will waste your time. Perfectionism is a trap and the enemy of Actually Doing Stuff. Hurry up and get it done then let it go. 

Overhead tasks just need to be done. There’s no benefit to doing them well, or giving them much attention. Just get them done and even, as Shreyas says, “actively try to do a bad job”. Do these tasks just well enough that you can say “yes” if asked if you have completed them and then move on. 

A side note: building a better process or creating a shortcut, can often turn an Overhead task into a Leverage one. Four hours spent on building a process might be more worthwhile than spending 30 minutes a week on a basic task for the rest of your time in your role. Just be careful that you’re not using this as procrastination. Building a process or workaround can feel productive but if it’s not on your to do list is it actually helping you to finish on time on Friday?

Adding LNO Annotations to Your To-Do Lists

Once you have categorised each task it’s worth noting which category it falls into on your to-do list. I know that I’ll confuse myself by using “L”, “N” or “O” so I’ve been using ↑ for Leverage tasks, → for Neutral ones and ↓ for Overhead tasks. This quick shorthand allows me to consider which tasks to work on first depending on my state of mind and time restraints.  

More About the LNO Framework

You can see Shreyas’ original Twitter thread about LNO here.

Here is a good write up by Aakash Gupta

*Pace Layers (of SEO) by Tom Critchlow