Prioritize tasks

  Prioritizing is about identifying what is important to you. In the work setting it refers not only to what is important to you personally but also to your employer. A common technique used to categorize tasks in order of importance is called ‘ABCD analysis’. Tasks are categorized into groups on the following criteria:

A = Urgent and important tasks

B = Important but not urgent tasks

C = Urgent but not important tasks

D = Neither urgent nor important tasks

  Start off by making a ‘to do’ list of all the tasks that you have to do and then categorize each task into one of the groups A, B, C or D, according to how urgent and important it is. Once the tasks have been grouped the order of priority within each group can be further refined by ranking the tasks in each of the groups. This is done by giving each task a score from 1 to 10 (1 = urgent/important; 10 = not urgent/important at all). These are then ranked into a hierarchy and the top priority items (i.e., the A1 tasks) can be tackled first and the others lower down the hierarchy (i.e., A2, A3 … A10) tackled later on. Once the A category tasks have been done, you can move on to the B category and C category tasks. D category tasks are those which are neither urgent nor important and unless you have the luxury of some free time to do them, they can be dropped. Do not be a slave to tradition. Challenge anything that you think could be wasting your time and do not simply do it just because it has always been done that way. It is also important to remind yourself that other people’s priorities are often not the same as your own. They may flag tasks up as being urgent and requiring immediate action in terms of their priorities but these tasks may be quite low on your own list. Where this is the case you may need to negotiate a mutually acceptable compromise. Also, some people are simply impatient and want something done immediately when next week will really do. Recondition the expectations that other people may have about your time and availability. Give them the message that your time is precious also. The grid shown in Table 5.1 may be helpful to you when prioritizing tasks into a ‘to do’ list.

Table 5.1 Grid for prioritizing tasks

 

Be organized

  You may have all the other time management strategies in place but these can be sabotaged if you are not well organized. It is often said that the state of a person’s desk reflects the state of their mind. The more paper that is on your desk, the more likely you are to be inefficient. Office workers can waste a lot of time simply looking for papers in a badly organized office. See your desk as basically a place to work and not a place to store your work on. Of course, busy people do make a mess from time to time but it is important that the mess does not lead to disorganization. If you do not have a good filing system, then make one. Try to deal with each piece of paper as it comes in, rather than allowing papers to accumulate in a pending tray. File things that you are going to deal with later and make use of a ‘bring forward’ system in your diary to ensure that you do not forget them. Shred or bin out-of-date or irrelevant papers. If you do not have someone to help you, make some time in your weekly or monthly routine for filing and getting rid of rubbish, so that it does not get a chance to accumulate. Also try to be organized in your work. Do not start lots of jobs at the same time. Manage your emails and telephone calls rather than letting them manage you. Dealing with your calls and emails all in one go can be a more efficient way of managing your time. Ring-fence time slots in your daily routine when you make calls and reply to emails and when you will be available to receive calls. During these time periods, make arrangements not to be disturbed by other activities and stick to the allocated time slots.