How can you prioritize

If you absolutely had to stop working after doing only one task, which would you do? It's a really tough question to answer since we all have so many things to get through each day, but I've found it's a good way to realize which of your tasks provides the most value when it's finished. As you practice being ruthless with your to-dos, you'll find it gets easier, and you'll be able to pick the right method at the right time.

And hopefully, you'll find that ruthlessly prioritizing tasks can actually be quite liberating. Originally published in June , this post has been updated by Jessica Greene with some additional prioritization techniques, plus a few new tools that help with the different techniques. Related reading:.

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Belle Cooper Belle B. Personal productivity. Improve your productivity automatically. Use Zapier to get your apps working together. Sign up See how it works. However, filling your day with tasks that have no impact on an ultimate goal is time wasted. Be honest with yourself about the lasting value of each task, and always have the end-goal in mind.

Your to-do list should provide full visibility of deadlines, helping you to identify which tasks must be completed promptly and to plan ahead according to future deadlines. This strategy can also be helpful in increasing productivity and reducing procrastination. In his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , businessman and keynote speaker Stephen Covey suggests tasks should be categorized and then prioritized according to importance and urgency. This strategy involves creating a separate list of just three tasks that must be done that day.

These tasks should be chosen more for their importance than their urgency. To decide, ask yourself goal-oriented questions: What tasks will have the biggest impact on the end result? What can I get done today to further my progress toward that goal? However, as difficulty increases, research shows people who are in positions of power are more likely to prioritize a single goal, whereas people in low-powered positions will continue to try and manage multiple priorities.

A tactic for staying focused on one important task at a time is identifying likely distractions—concurrent tasks or ad-hoc requests—and actively avoiding them throughout the day. A strategy to overcome this involves evaluating tasks according to the effort required to complete them. If your to-do list is becoming too burdensome, prioritize those tasks that require minimal time and effort and move through them quickly.

This clearing of tasks will give you some breathing space and generate a sense of accomplishment to propel you throughout the day. To effectively prioritize your projects, you need to identify how urgent and how important all your different work tasks are, and rank them accordingly.

Important work should align with your long-term goals and mission, whereas urgent work simply needs to be done as soon as possible. Prioritizing work involves making difficult decisions about the importance of your ongoing jobs. Follow these seven steps to learn how to prioritize work effectively:. Set long-term goals that clearly demonstrate what you hope to accomplish in your career and personal life.

Once you have your goals written down, keep them close at hand so you can easily refer to them. Revisit and revise your long-term goals whenever you need to.

The next step in prioritizing work is identifying all the tasks you have ahead of you. Create a master list that includes all your current and future tasks. Start by creating a monthly list from the master list that identifies everything you hope to accomplish for the month. It can include personal priorities in addition to work obligations. From your monthly list, pull the tasks you can finish each week into a weekly list and from there create daily to-do lists.

Urgent tasks are those that need to be completed quickly, for example, a report that a client needs by the end of the day. Important tasks are those that bring you closer to your long-term goals and mission. When you have a list of your urgent tasks and you need to decide which to give priority to, it can help to assess the value of each task.