6 Ways to Start Prioritizing More Effectively

Prioritizing is an essential function of productivity. Whether you’re at work, in the classroom or at home, learning to prioritize effectively can be the single most important factor that determines how productive you are. It’s important to understand that prioritizing is not a one-time deal; it’s an ongoing process that needs to be reviewed, revised, and adapted to your situation, current goals and resources at hand. There are many ways to prioritize effectively and many factors to consider. The process or combination of processes you choose will depend on your personality, preferences and work style.

Prioritizing Methods

Before we move on to the discussion of the different ways to prioritize, we need to think about how you’re going to maintain your task list. You can’t even begin to prioritize until you know what exactly has to be done. You can certainly use the old-fashioned paper and pen method, and simply make a list of everything you need to do. The problem with a paper list is that it’s difficult to revise and to reorder your tasks according to their priority. It’s much easier to manage an electronic task list. Choose an app on your smart phone, a program on your computer such as Outlook, or an online platform such as Google tasks. There are numerous options available and many of them can be combined to create an effective system that works for you.

Deadline

The most common way a people prioritize their tasks is by deadline. First, you need to know if the task has a firm deadline. Then you can use that deadline to prioritize your tasks according to their due date. Determine which tasks must be completed today. Those will be your top priority. Then work your way forward in order of future due dates, tasks due this week, in two weeks, and one month and so on. If your tasks don’t have fixed due dates, you can assign them due dates yourself based on when you’d like to complete them. The added benefit of prioritizing by due date, is that you can be fairly confident that you’ll never miss a deadline.

Questions to ask:

• Does this task have a deadline?
• What are the consequences if I fail to meet that deadline?

Impact

There will be times when you know you’re not going to be able to get everything done. If you have many different tasks demanding your attention and there’s no way you can get them done, you may want to consider the consequences of not completing the task. Not all tasks are created equal. Some have more value than others, some have more impact on achieving your goals, some are more critical to your employer, and some may affect the productivity of others. For example, a task that is due immediately but has minimal consequences or a negligible impact might be able to be put off for a few days. On the other hand, a task that is not due immediately but has a larger impact could be a high priority item.

Questions to ask:

• Will completing this task help me achieve my goals?
• Am I doing the tasks that have the highest value?
• Will doing this task save me time in the long run?
• How important is this task to my employer, education, or life?
• Does my completing this task affect others? Is someone waiting on my action?

Difficulty

If you prefer, you can prioritize your tasks by their degree of difficulty. This can be done either up or down. If you’re the type of person that likes to get the most difficult tasks done first when you are fresher and have more energy, then make the tasks that require the most effort high priority, put them at the top of your list and work your way down. On the other hand, if you prefer to get the easier tasks out of the way first so that you don’t have to think about them, put them at the top of your list. For some people this makes it easier to focus completely on the more difficult tasks later.

Questions to ask:

• How difficult is the task?
• Do I have readily available the resources necessary for completion?
• Do I prefer to tackle the more complex tasks first?
• Or do I prefer to get the simple tasks out of the way?
• When do I have the most energy and focus?

Time

A very simple way to prioritize your tasks is by the amount of time they will require. You may want to group the tasks that require minimal time together so that you can get them done in one batch. Again, the choice is up to you, you can choose to do the tasks that won’t take much time first and get them out of the way, or you can choose to complete the time intensive tasks first to get them off your plate. It’s also important to consider whether a time intensive task can be broken down into smaller portions that can be spread out over several days. This is especially important for students or workers who have large projects to complete, for example white papers, reports, or presentations. You may want to work on these types of projects or tasks in blocks over several days or weeks, so that the shorter tasks aren’t neglected.

Questions to ask:

• How much time does this task require?
• Do I prefer to do the less time-consuming tasks first?
• Alternatively, do I prefer to do the longer tasks first and save the short ones for later?
• Is this task a part of a larger project? Can I complete it in several blocks over time?

Stress

Certain tasks may weigh heavily on your mind, causing you a great deal of stress. If that’s the case, you may want to consider making those tasks that cause you anxiety a higher priority. Often when you have tasks that seem to be hanging over your head, nagging for attention or causing you stress, it’s a good idea to put these tasks at the top of your list. If you don’t, you may not be able to accomplish much else because you are anxious and preoccupied. By completing these tasks and getting them off your mind, you will be able accomplish more because you will be less stressed and better able to focus.

Questions to ask:

• What tasks are causing me the most stress?
• Am I preoccupied with tasks that are nagging at me or weighing heavily on my mind?
• Are these tasks interfering with my focus and my ability to complete the important tasks?

Enjoyment

If you are a person who is motivated by passion or gratification, then consider prioritizing your tasks by the amount of pleasure or satisfaction they give you. This means that you will prioritize your tasks by their level of appeal or enjoyment. Once again, this method of prioritization can go up or down. You can make the tasks that you are excited about a high priority and complete them first, or alternatively, you may want to put the tasks you dread at the top of the list so that you can get them out of the way and more fully enjoy the tasks you like later.

Questions to ask:

• Do you want to “Eat Your Frog” and get the tasks you dread out of the way?
• Alternatively, does doing the tasks you enjoy first put you in a better frame of mind to tackle tasks you dislike later?
• Instant gratification or delayed gratification?

No one way of prioritizing is better or worse than others. What’s essential is that you use some process of prioritizing. Attacking your tasks randomly is not productive. You can prioritize in one way, or with a combination of several. It’s important to remember that prioritizing is mostly mental, not physical. Choose the method that most appeals to the way you think about tasks, your personality, and what will allow you to work most effectively.