It’s Friday afternoon and you’re wrapping up your week. You look at your to do list, and after five days of nonstop work, it seems none of your main priorities actually got done. How is this possible?
“Urgent” requests and shifting tasks often pull focus away from high-impact projects. This isn’t just a personal productivity issue – it’s a widespread problem affecting individuals, teams, and entire organizations.
I lead the Teamwork Lab at Atlassian, where our behavioral scientists design best work practices for modern teams. Through our research, we discovered one surprisingly simple solution: budget your priorities weekly, then rework your budget with your manager. We call this the $10 Game, and here’s how it works.
The “$10 Game” experiment
The $10 Game encourages employees to budget their time like they budget their money. Imagine a scenario where you have a limit of $10 to allocate across your various tasks and projects for the week. Ask yourself, How would I spend the money? Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to play:
A cohort of 34 Atlassians volunteered to play the $10 Game with their manager for one week. We surveyed participants before and after the game, comparing responses from direct reports to assess changes. We also analyzed post-game survey data from 16 managers who played with their direct reports.
Our data shows that after playing the $10 Game, participants were:
- Clearer on goals and more confident they were prioritizing the right tasks
- Better aligned with their managers
- Making better progress on top priorities
Increase goal clarity and prioritize with confidence 🎯
After playing the $10 Game, goal clarity among direct reports rose by 9 percentage points, with 88% of participants reporting a clear understanding of their weekly goals – a significant increase from the previous week. Notably, direct reports also felt a 27% boost in confidence that they had prioritized the right tasks.
Boost team alignment 🤝
Transparent goals ensure every team’s work is aligned with company priorities. After playing the $10 Game, alignment between managers and direct reports increased by 23 percentage points, specifically regarding how direct reports spent their time. Direct reports felt more in sync with their managers on task prioritization, and 88% of managers agreed they had a clearer understanding of their direct reports’ focus that week.
Accelerate progress on top priorities 🚀
After playing, 91% of direct reports agreed that they made progress on top priorities – an increase of 38 percentage points. This shows that knowing what to focus on – and focusing on fewer tasks at a time – boosts progress and enables better decision making.
No wonder 89% of direct reports would recommend the $10 Game to their colleagues and six out of 10 plan to continue implementing it in their workflows.
The granularity meant my manager and I could have a really accurate discussion about my work.
Jacob Hayes, Tax Manager
Why the $10 Game works
How does a simple game have such a big impact? Aside from breaking the “set it and forget it” trap of traditional goal-setting, the $10 Game is designed to help directs and their managers overcome cognitive biases that impact decision-making and result in misguided work priorities.
A cognitive bias is an error in thinking and judgment that happens when we improperly consider information when making decisions.
Here’s how the $10 Game helps counter cognitive biases that impact true productivity.
Invest your time with confidence, then do the work that matters
The next time you find yourself feeling uncertain on what work to prioritize, try playing the $10 Game so you can bid farewell to analysis paralysis, procrastination, and aimless work that isn’t that important after all.
Remember, productivity is not about doing more, it’s about doing what truly matters. Start prioritizing with confidence by playing the $10 Game with your manager, then watch your productivity soar.
Read more on how you can increase productivity by focusing on the work that matters most and intentionally designing your workday.