8 Strategies to Become a Master at Setting Priorities

This was supposed to be a blog post on different income streams or passive income sources or wealth creation. But the magic of life is that not everything goes by a plan and not everything should be planned. My last month has been a rollercoaster. Historically, March has been very busy for me and (drum roll… surprise!) – nothing has changed! On the odd occasion you are a hot mess, and have to accept that (we all have those moments.). Nevertheless, one thing got me through this time: my list of PRIORITIES!

When your to-do list is miles long, how do you determine which are your priorities for today, week or month? This is not only a common job interview question but also demonstrates how you get your sh*t together when needed without breaking into crying in your car. Not only that but you have to decide how to prioritize your career, education, life, financial goals, your time and still maintain your mental health in check (basically, making Mission impossible possible).

This past month has been good to let me test out all the prioritization strategies I knew off, I found out about and could come up with (I wish to think so). Nevertheless, the month is close to the end and has resulted in me taking 2 days off to get me in check. Taking these 2 days off for myself feels exhilarating and gives me time to reflect and be grateful for what I have achieved and my progress towards my goals. In addition, it shows how important it is to be mindful and listen to your needs.

And know, let’s talk about the tried and tested prioritization strategies. Forget about multitasking, start prioritizing! You can achieve everything you want at the right time using these strategies!

Prioritize!

1. Your List of Goals RELOADED

I want to start with an approach that seems to be most suited for my style of decision making. Whenever my to-do list seems unmanageable, I’ve noticed I become more efficient. And why? Because I prioritize to reflect my goals and reach for a sense of achievement. To do any evaluation of the tasks at hand, you have to know the WHY. Your priorities have to align with the goals you’ve set for yourself or your team.

2. Create a Master List

Based on David Allan’s methodology described in his book Get Things Done (GTD), create a master list where all current and future tasks will be stored. Once you have a list of things, you want to do, break them down based on your monthly/weekly/daily goals. What’s interesting is your monthly list will be brought down from the master list, however, your weekly goals will be deducted from your monthly list of tasks.

3. Evaluate the IMPACT

• High impact vs. Low impact.
• Urgent vs. Important.
• More vs. Less time-consuming.
• Deadlines.

These are a few categories that I employ when determining the value that each fulfilled task will bring. The questions I consider usually are similar to “Is this important to finish my project or is it urgent since it would let other teams finish their outline and bring higher value overall?”; “Will doing it now vs tomorrow impact the result?”. Important tasks bring value in the long-term, urgent tasks make you feel like you need to react to them right away.

Essentially, you are doing two things:

1. Measuring your ROI (Return on Investment), the investment is your time;
2. Creating importance (value)/ urgency matrix.

For example, everyday routine tasks are something that have to be done but are unurgent. Writing a blog post vs. studying for CFA exam, though are 2 large projects that represent my 2019 goals. Yet, CFA exam preparation comes with a deadline, thus ultimately gets prioritized in the task list.

4. Narrow Your To-Do List to 3 to 6 Items

Narrowing down my daily list of priorities increases my efficiency significantly. I know where is my focus, what I have to achieve during the day and how it will bring me closer to my goals. This makes my day clutter free and I am at ease with the job set for the day. In addition, you can go to sleep with a sense of accomplishment.

5. Eat That Frog!

“Eat that frog” means tackling the heavier, more difficult tasks first, before all other tasks.

I’ve discerned two things about myself: 1) I am much more productive in the mornings; 2) despite the popular belief, small tasks are a warm-up before the “frogs” for me. However, the most important factor is that you are fully focused on fulfilling this task so that your day is much more positive.

I believe for me it’s more like a “snowball effect”. I gain momentum fulfilling a few small tasks and go fully in to a deep zone finishing more difficult priorities on hand.

I have never been a fan of multitasking. Setting clear priorities has revealed to me how I can be more productive, spend my time more efficiently and have fewer opportunities to procrastinate.

These are methods that have worked for me, yet, there are many more that you can try for yourself as well. I’ve described the most popular examples below.

6. Eisenhower Matrix

Eisenhower matrix helps you to divide tasks within the Urgency-Importance Matrix. Similar to what I use, the matrix defines four categories:

• ‘Do first’: High Importance, High Urgency.
• ‘Schedule’: High Importance, Low Urgency.
• ‘Delegate’: Low Importance, High Urgency.
• ‘Don’t Do’: Low Important, Low Urgency.

Dividing your master list into these categories gives you a clear game plan on how to approach your ever increasing task list without losing your sanity.

When prioritizing, always be mindful about the tasks that bring the real value and never forget to prioritize time for yourself. Reflect, reevaluate your goals and progress and you’ll be able to see how setting priorities improve the result of your efforts.

7. Ivy Lee Method

This is a great method if your day is full of conflicting priorities.

1. Initially, you are required to dig deeper into each task to define the first top 6 tasks for the day.
2. Prioritize these tasks into the list based on their true importance.
3. Concentrate on the 1st task until it’s finished. And only then switch to the 2nd priority.
4. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.

Single-tasking your way through priorities limits your distractions, but also might be very overwhelming. That’s why it is nice to mix it up with smaller tasks in between.

8. ABCDE method

Different from Ivy Lee method, ABCDE refers to a similar level of importance. Here’s where Brian Tracy’s ABCDE method works wonders.

Instead of keeping all tasks on a single level of priority, this method offers two or more levels for each task.

Here’s how it works:

• Examine your list and give every task a letter from A to E (A being the highest priority).
• For every task that has an A, give it a number which dictates the order you’ll do it in.
• Repeat until all tasks have letters and numbers.

While the method is simple, it also gives you a vision where your focus lies. Thus, bringing you back to the question of whether your sense of priorities matches your goals.

As bonus material, I have also added a list of my Top 3 books on productivity. Hope you enjoy!

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