Whether you run your own business, work for somebody else or don’t work at all, we all have things we need to do. But what stops us from getting the most important things done? It’s likely that we have a to do list and within this to do list we acknowledge the tasks that need to be done urgently but we gravitate more towards the tasks that are easier to achieve and tick off which leaves the more important tasks at the bottom of the list.
In this post, I am going to give you some strategies that will help you identify your priorities and how to better organise them so they are the first tasks you complete.
Identify your Priorities:
When working out your to do list, ask yourself the following questions:
What do I NEED to get done this week/today?
What would be IDEAL to get done this week/today?
What can WAIT until next week/tomorrow?
Asking yourself these questions when going through all the tasks you need to complete will enable you to identify your top priorities, your tasks that can be done once you have completed your priorities and the tasks that can wait and that aren’t as urgent.
When going through your to do list, it may be useful to use different colours to highlight which task links to each question so the tasks can be easily identifiable.
Actions to Achieve:
Now you have identified your important tasks for the day/week, you need to look at ways in which you can implement organisation into these to ensure that the tasks are getting complete. Below I have listed some ways in which this could be applied.
To Do List -
Write yourself an overarching to do list for the week and then break this down into to do lists for the day. Even though some tasks will be marked as priorities you may have due dates for these which are more urgent than others. So marking the tasks that are due on the day or the following day will be more of a priority than those tasks (that are still a priority) but are due towards the end of the week.
When writing your to do list, make sure the tasks that are a priority are located at the top of your list and then other, less urgent tasks listed below
If your to do list doesn’t have a tick box to fill in once the task is complete then I would suggest drawing one in at the end of each task to give yourself some reward and fulfilment towards completely the task.
Priorities Spreadsheet -
If your working with a team and some priority tasks require more than 1 person to be working on them, then you may consider perhaps setting up a spreadsheet so the tasks can be shared with the team.
Some headings you may want to consider when drawing up your spreadsheet are: topics/categories, priority (with a drop down list of high, medium or low), when the task was given to you, any comments or a description of the task, due date and who is working on it.
Having the above spreadsheet will enable you to then visually see an outline of the priorities that need to be actioned and when they need to be actioned for.
Setting Reminders -
Having the reminders app on your phone is beneficial as you can set yourself reminders in advance of the task due date to keep you accountable and on track to achieve the priority.
Once you have completed the task you can then clear it from your reminders and have the feeling of relief when you tick the little circle to say it’s complete!
We all lead busy lives, but getting the priorities complete prior to starting any tasks that we would like to do or achieve will help reduce any stress and help lift a weight from your shoulders as you’re not constantly feeling underachieved by not completing the priority tasks on time.
Let me know in the comments how you identifying tasks that are more of a priority than others.
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