Impact and Effort Rating Sheet

Client has generated a rich list of goals — personally meaningful, professionally legitimate — and cannot proceed because every item feels equally urgent. Sessions circle the same territory because without a prioritization mechanism, the client has no way to decide where to put energy. The Priority Scoring Sheet's Activity/Impact/Effort table creates a structure for ranking that removes the subjective charge from the decision.

Frame this as decision engineering, not priority-setting. 'You have a good list. The challenge isn't the list — it's picking from it. This tool gives you a way to score each goal against two variables and see what the math suggests. You can override the result, but you'll have made a more explicit choice.' Clients who are stuck in priority paralysis often resist structured tools because they fear the tool will tell them to deprioritize something that matters to them. Name it: 'The scoring doesn't make the choice for you. It makes the implicit explicit.'

Watch for goals that score high on Impact but high on Effort — these require the most scrutiny. The client's willingness to accept high-effort, high-impact goals tells you something about their tolerance for sustained work versus quick wins. Also watch for goals that score low across all three dimensions — Activity, Impact, and Effort — but the client insists belong on the list. These are usually goals held out of obligation rather than genuine investment. They will not survive the first obstacle.

After scoring, ask the client to read the top two or three goals by score. Then ask: 'Does the order feel right?' If it does not, explore why — the scoring surfaced something that conflicts with a value or assumption the client holds. That conflict is the coaching conversation. If the order does feel right but the client has been unable to act on it, the problem is no longer prioritization — it is the commitment mechanism.

Client makes clear, articulate commitments during coaching sessions that do not survive the week. They report back with credible explanations — schedule disruptions, competing demands — but the pattern has repeated enough times that the explanation is no longer sufficient. The scoring tool creates an accountability for the original choice that makes it harder to abandon without examining why.

Frame this as a commitment audit. 'Before we add any new goals to the list, I want to understand why the previous ones have not held. Let's score the goals we've been working on and see what the scores tell us about why they might be losing to your week.' This reframes the tool as diagnostic rather than generative. Clients who are serial commitment-makers resist this because it names the pattern they have been managing around. Name the resistance: 'I know it is more comfortable to start fresh. What I want to understand is what has been getting in the way of the goals we've already set.'

After scoring existing goals that have been abandoned, watch for goals that score high on Impact but that the client rated as easier than the evidence suggests. The gap between the effort score the client assigned and the actual effort the goal required is the most diagnostic data point. Also watch for the client who consistently chooses goals that have high scores on paper but low personal stakes — goals that would be good to achieve but not devastating to leave incomplete.

Start with the gap between the scores and the outcomes. 'You scored this goal as high impact, medium effort. It has not happened despite three weeks of trying. What does that tell us about the scores?' Then: 'What score would this goal need to get your consistent attention even when your week is difficult?' This reframe shifts from scoring as an assessment tool to scoring as a calibration tool.

Client has goals that intersect significantly with another person's priorities — a life partner in discussions about relocation, a business partner in discussions about strategic direction — and wants a way to move from competing preferences to a shared framework. The scoring tool provides a structure that both parties can apply to the same goal list and compare results, which reveals disagreements about Impact and Effort that would otherwise surface as interpersonal conflict.

Frame this as a shared calibration tool rather than a conflict resolution technique. 'What I'd like to try is having both of you score the same list independently and then compare where the scores differ. The differences are where the real conversation needs to happen.' This works best when the client has already tried and failed to reach alignment through direct negotiation. Some clients will be skeptical that a scoring tool will change anything. Name the skepticism: 'I'm not suggesting the scores will solve the disagreement. I'm suggesting they will show you what you actually disagree about, which is more useful than the conversation you have been having.'

When reviewing the independently scored lists, watch for systematic differences rather than goal-by-goal differences — if one person consistently rates Effort higher across all goals, they may be carrying more of the implementation burden and know it. If one person consistently rates Impact higher, they may be more invested in the outcome. These systematic differences are more informative than the specific goal scores.

Start with the goals where the scores are most different. 'You scored this as high impact, medium effort. Your partner scored it as medium impact, high effort. What's underneath that difference?' The scoring difference is not the conversation — it is the entry point into the conversation about values, capacity, and who carries what.