3 Techniques to Effectively Prioritize Your Tasks

In our bustling world, it's easy to get carried away and respond to everything that comes your way. You might respond to every little thing that pops up and give it your full attention until something else gets your attention.

That's just plain insane! Losing control over the tasks and deadlines ahead of you is enough to throw anyone off their game. Even if it doesn't, those lingering incomplete projects will definitely come back to haunt you.

You may reclaim some of your control by setting and sticking to a timetable. But once you've got it set up and all your tasks laid out, you still need to figure out what to tackle first once you're done. Which of these tasks deserves your time first? And which ones can wait?

When we don't set priorities, we take the path of least resistance and quickest gratification. This suggests that we will prioritise what needs to be done based on what's easiest, putting off the harder and less pleasant tasks for "later," which might never come in many cases. Or worse yet, they might come right before their deadline, throwing us into a whirlpool of hard work, stress, and regret. That's where prioritisation comes in handy.

3 Techniques for Effective Prioritization

Now, let's discuss three basic approaches to setting priorities, each suited to a specific personality type. The first approach is for the procrastinators who keep putting off tough tasks. The second is for the achievers who thrive on achieving small victories to get through the day. The last one is for analytical minds who must objectively ensure they tackle the most crucial tasks at any given moment. Now, shall we explore these approaches?

1. Start with the Big Fish, Even If It's a Tough Catch

Renowned author Brian Tracy starts his famous book Eat That Frog with a gem: "If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that it is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long." In other words, tackling the big, tough task first thing in your day sets you up for success.

The premise here is plain and simple: tackle the biggest, most important, and most challenging task head-on, knowing that the worst has already passed.

So, when you have a "fat old frog" on your plate—a daunting and crucial task ahead—tackle it right away and stick to it until it's done. Don't procrastinate or wait for the "perfect time" to start working on it, and avoid the pitfall of endless planning and mental preparation if you're a seasoned procrastinator. Remember the above tips; just get yourself in gear and start working as soon as possible. Otherwise, you might talk yourself out of doing anything at all.

2. Tackle the Tough Tasks

You might not be as swamped as you think you are with tasks, but rather someone who procrastinates and wastes time on trivial matters. You might seem busy and constantly hustling, but somehow, it feels like you're not getting anywhere.

Let's clarify this with a little analogy: Take a container and fill it with sand, then try to fit some rocks in it. You can't, right? There's simply not enough room.

If those rocks are really important, you need to put them in the container first, then try adding some pebbles and watching how they fill the gaps, and finally, add some sand.

The container represents the time you have in a single day. You could spend all of your time on trivial tasks and never have time for anything important, or you could start with the larger pebbles and work your way down to the smaller ones, making the most of your free time.

Try it tonight: before hitting the hay, list the top three tasks you must accomplish tomorrow. Don't overload yourself with all you need to get done; focus on the three most crucial tasks.

Next morning, tackle the first "big rock" or task on your list and keep going until it's done. Unless you get it done, you won't be able to get anywhere. Then, move on to the second and then the third.

Once they're all done, you can start on less critical tasks, knowing that you've made significant progress on the important ones. Even if you can't get to the smaller tasks, you'll still feel satisfied because you know you've completed three major ones.

Ultimately, nobody wishes to spend ages rearranging their drawers instead of writing their novel or printing postage labels instead of landing a big client.

3. Stephen Covey's Grids

If you can't rest until you're sure you're working on the most important task each time, then Covey's grid system from his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change could be incredibly helpful for you.

Covey suggests dividing a piece of paper into four sections with intersecting lines, then categorising your tasks into each section according to the following criteria:

• Important and Urgent Tasks.
• Important but Not Urgent Tasks.
• Not Important but Urgent Tasks.
• Not Important and Not Urgent Tasks.

The third and fourth grids encompass trivial matters that eat away at our time, like phone calls, interruptions, meetings falling into the third grid, and busywork, small talks, and other time-wasters falling into the fourth. While some of these may have social value, you should eliminate them if they interfere with your ability to accomplish meaningful tasks.

As for the first and second grids, they contain the tasks that matter to us, where crises, impending deadlines, and other tasks that must be done now and have serious consequences reside in the first grid.

If you master your time management, you can minimise the tasks in the first grid to a minimum, but you can't eliminate them. Someone might get into a car accident, fall ill, or face a natural disaster, all of which require immediate action and are rarely planned for.

You should spend as much time as possible completing the tasks in the first grid, finishing the important tasks while truly immersing yourself in them and achieving the best work possible. We get distracted from accomplishing these tasks by spending time on the ones listed in the third and fourth grids. So, after you've listed your tasks on Covey's grid, based on what you believe matters and what doesn't, work as much as you can on completing the tasks in the second grid (and tasks from the first grid as they arise).

Find the Right Technique for You

Spend some time experimenting with each of these techniques to find what suits you best. Determining what works best for any person is challenging because what suits one person perfectly may be too rigid and chaotic for another. You should also take the time to figure out what makes something important to you, what goals drive your actions, and what tasks are, at most, time-wasters or deceptions.

Ultimately, setting priorities is like a self-discovery exercise; you need to know which tasks you enjoy accomplishing, which ones you struggle with, which tasks lead you towards your goals, and which ones distract or waste your time and hold you back.