It’s no wonder that we struggle with prioritizing tasks. With growing responsibilities, and countless distractions that try to steal our attention constantly, it becomes harder than ever to have enough clarity of mind.
Prioritizing tasks, however, reduces stress levels (because we know that our most important tasks get done), helps us focus, calms our FOMO, and generally supports our ability to stay productive and plan our time well.
Prioritizing quickly reveals that some tasks we think are urgent are not, and that there are others, important but less urgent, that we keep putting off. There are days when clients and colleagues dictate our agenda. Then there are days when we are able to promote our projects despite competing forces.
Organizing tasks according to importance is a remarkably simple technique. However, in practice, you will find that it is not always so easy. When we have a lively flow of tasks, prioritizing them should be a part of how we manage ourselves.
This article includes some helpful techniques that will help you systematically prioritize your daily tasks, plan your time, and focus on the things that are most meaningful to you.
Start with a task list
If we don’t have an organized and convenient view of all the tasks that fall under our responsibilities, prioritizing tasks can be very difficult. Despite sounding trivial, I have noticed that a lot of people skip this basic step and rush forward without any planning. Instead, I suggest reviewing all the projects and compiling an orderly list of tasks. It is recommended to break down large and complex tasks into smaller, more manageable ones.
Having outlined the tasks before us, it is a good time to add some more details. For example, the approximated duration and the level of importance or urgency of the task. Later in this article, we will discuss what important and urgent actually means.
Now that we have a comprehensive picture of the situation, we begin to calm down. We understand our responsibilities at the moment and what requires our immediate attention. This is our master list that contains all the raw materials that make up our working hours.
The list is still in the preparation phase and we are not yet prioritizing. You can manage the master list for your convenience in any of the task management applications (Todoist, Trello, etc.) or simply with a notebook and pencil. Technology here is less critical. It’s more about technique, attention, and awareness. What is really crucial is that you can update your list easily and comfortably as your schedule change.
When we derive our schedule from the master list, we can more easily consider significant and long-term tasks that are often ignored when we are constantly completing small, usually less important tasks.
Let’s reduce the number of items
In a way, this is already a phase of prioritization. But before we adopt a prioritization method that suits us, I’d like to eliminate whatever possible.
How do you do it?
Identify tasks that fall into one of the following categories:
- Do it now: If it’s a quick task that needs to be done now, don’t hesitate. If it takes less than two minutes, go for it. It’s a shame that it will compete with more difficult and significant tasks.
- Delegate: If there is something that someone else should do, or if you are waiting for someone else’s response, take the burden off your shoulders. Make yourself a reminder to follow up.
- Delete: When a task has been in your hands for too long, there’s a reasonable chance that you won’t do it anymore. Give it up (it’s probably not that important) and enjoy the mental energy that will be released. Check closely, there may be tasks that you are not supposed to do (not to mention – that are already done).
- Schedule: The following tasks will remain with us and will be prioritized.
Here are four strategies to help you prioritizing tasks
The list below summarizes some of the most effective ways to prioritize tasks. I invite you to experiment and see what works best for you.
An urgent-important table (AKA Eisenhower matrix)
I’ll start with some history. Eisenhower, the 34th president, was known for his productivity. During his tenure, he made a wide range of historic moves – from the establishment of the Space Agency to the end of the Korean War.
During a 1954 speech, Eisenhower said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent”.
In his book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey applied this approach and insight into a simple and effective tool called the Urgent-Important table.
As shown in the table below, our tasks are divided into four categories:
Important and urgent: Do it now
Important but less urgent: Schedule
Urgent but less important: Delegate to others
Not urgent and not important Delete from your task list
In general, urgent tasks often make us feel that we have to take care of them now, even though nothing will happen if they wait. This includes, for instance, instant messaging – emails, WhatsApp, missed phone calls.
As a contrast, important tasks are often valuable in the long run, drive us towards our vision, and are based on our values and intentions. Despite their importance, we tend to overlook them.
This approach enables us to easily determine if a specific task is indeed essential for us. It allows us to differentiate between what wastes our time and what we really need to handle soon.
Start with the most important task (eat the frog)
I try to make a difficult and boring subject like time management into something you’ll remember and take with you. For that purpose, nothing beats a story.
Famous writer Mark Twain once said that if you swallow a live frog in the morning, the worst is behind you. A wise man named Brian Tracy took this idea to another level and wrote a book titled “Eat The Frog.”
Tracy recommends, in the spirit of Twain’s words, starting the day with the most important and challenging tasks.
Our usual response to a challenging task is either to procrastinate and to finish small, urgent tasks first. In this script, we won’t finish what’s truly important and will feel guilty about ourselves.
In many cases, the morning hours are the most productive hours of the day (not for everyone, I know). By starting with a substantial and impactful task, we can make sure we have done something meaningful at the end of the day.
In her research, Professor Teresa Amabile discovered:
“The most important thing for increasing awareness and motivation during a working day is to make significant progress at work”.
ABCDE method
Instead of settling for one index, another method by Brian Tracy gives us a more detailed way to rate how important a task is.
This method works by ranking each task according to its importance. A is the most important task, and H is the least important task. We then add a number to indicate the order in which the tasks are performed.
It’s simple at its core, but if you try it, you’ll see that it allows you to look at things at a smaller resolution, which is helpful for prioritizing.
The Ivy Lee Method
Even though we try our best, there are sometimes quite a few urgent and important tasks that need our attention. In these situations, we have no choice but to dig a bit deeper and understand the true significance of the task.
Now for some more history (as explored by James Clear).
Charles Schwab, one of the richest men in the world, contacted Ivy Lee, who was a productivity expert at the time.
During a meeting with Schwab executives, Ivy Lee shared the following daily productivity routine:
- Write down your top six priorities for tomorrow at the end of each workday.
- Rank these tasks according to their true importance.
- Focus only on the first task tomorrow. Work on it until it is complete, and then move on to the next.
- At the end of the day, move any tasks that you didn’t finish today to tomorrow’s list.
- At the end of the day, repeat this process.
By using this method, we are forced to focus on a maximum of six tasks per day. We can focus on what is important, and finish one task at a time.
Task prioritization and time management work hand in hand
Prioritizing is Great. it gives us great satisfaction at the end of the day because we accomplished some of the things that are truly worthwhile. However, just prioritizing isn’t enough, and we need to actually sit down and do the work.
After you have prioritized your tasks, cross reference them with your calendar. If you combine the insights of this article with the Time Blocking method, you will be on a wave of productivity.
When you manage your daily tasks in your calendar, you can ensure that you balance important and urgent tasks correctly, that you leave yourself enough breathing room (another thing to prioritize!), and that you meet your goals.
Final thoughts
In addition to the approaches I have brought here, you will also find approaches elsewhere that have their own styles, emphases, and core ideas.
With practice and time, prioritizing tasks will become a much easier process, and it will become natural for you to do.
Everything we learned today is critical – but reality is dynamic and changing. Prioritizing tasks is a practice and an approach that maintains a high level of awareness of the different parts of our work.
You are on the right track in progressing towards your goals, and in the big picture, everything is just fine.
