The art of prioritising

When time is short and demands seem overwhelming, it can feel as if things are
spiraling out of control very quickly and you do not know where to begin.
However, there are still ways of regaining control: prioritising is essential.
Done well, it can enable you to identify and remove the less important tasks, make
everything seem much more doable and so reduce your stress levels.

1. Make a long list

Or, for those of you who live by lists, get all your lists together and review them!

2. Theme your list

Look at the sorts of items that are on your list. How could you logically group
them together? What are the common themes?
For example: work / kids / house / fitness / holiday / etc. or the different work
streams relating to a work project.

3. Group your actions

Put the actions into groupings under your headings.
Get into the habit of using this system and writing actions down under each section,
rather than in one long disorganised list. You can then see tasks that can be done
together to save time.

Simply re-organising things in this way this will make them seem much more
manageable.
 The art of prioritising
4. Urgent vs Important
Urgent
C: Urgent but not important
D: Not important & not urgent
Here is how to use the above grid:
At the start of each week, review each
section of your list to identify 'priority'
tasks (i.e. tasks that fit into quadrant
A: Urgent & important).
Assign a rough date to the rest of the
tasks to indicate when you will action
them (so you know they are not forgotten).
Prioritise tasks in quadrants A and B
Where on this grid do your actions fit?
Are you focusing your time on A (urgent &
important)?
A: Urgent & important
B: Important but not urgent
Important
Are you giving enough attention to B
(important but not urgent) - so that this
doesn't become an emergency later?
Are you being distracted by time-wasting
activities in C & D?
Have a quick go at re-working your 'to
do' list now:
What is on your to do list?
Put the items on the grid above
What will you de-prioritise?
What are your top 5 priorities?