Prioritization is a key skill that you need to make the best use of your own efforts and those of your team. It helps you allocate your time where it's most needed, freeing you and your team members from tasks that can be addressed later.
Prioritizing helps you allocate your time where it's most needed, freeing you and your team members from tasks that can be addressed later. By knowing how to prioritize you can stay on track with commitments.
Prioritization can also be a challenge when you're working in a group, because each team member wants to have a say in what's most important. Knowing how to prioritize your tasks is an essential skill, because all of us have demands on our time and attention. With good prioritization (and careful management of reprioritized tasks) you can bring order to chaos, massively reduce stress, and move towards a successful conclusion.
At a simple level, you can prioritize based on time constraints, on the potential profitability or benefit of the task you're facing, or on the pressure you're under to complete a job.
Most people prioritize what they need to do based on each task's urgency and importance – they focus on the most pressing, important jobs first, and do the others once these are complete. Although this is a good start, the reality is that there are sometimes other factors to consider. So using specific prioritization tools can make more sense.
When we talk about setting priorities (prioritizing), we are also talking about efficiency. Efficiency generally defines the extent to which time, effort, and cost are well spent on a planned task or purpose. Working effectively is important, In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without waste.
Below are 8 tip to effectively prioritize your tasks:
At the beginning of each day or week, create a to-do list that reflects what you want to get done. Try and set realistic expectations/goals too so you avoid disappointment if you haven’t completed your tasks by the time you set.
By regularly reviewing your workload, you’ll likely tick off several completed list items, giving you that feeling of accomplishment. Checking things off your list feels good and motivates you to do more.
Follow the 80:20 rule of workloads; 80 per cent of our work contributes less than 20 per cent of its value, so focus on the most important 20 per cent in order to complete the most crucial tasks. This should increase your performance at work as the most important jobs are complete.
It is important to accurately estimate the time each task will take you to do in order to achieve and gain that sense of satisfaction. If you are too optimistic, this will only lead to disappointment.
This may be difficult to allow for as you don’t know how many interruptions you will have but if you are likely to have some during a particular time of day then do the more urgent work during the times you are less likely to get interrupted. That way you can focus better and complete the tasks quicker.
It is best to deal with each item on your list one at a time so you don’t chop and change between different tasks
Allocate a time to check your inbox to avoid interruptions each time you receive an email.
By keeping a log of your work, you will learn how long each task you do takes which will help when you plan your week ahead, especially when setting realistic time scales for your all-important to-do list.
During a crisis, cognitive overload looms; information is incomplete, interests and priorities may clash, and emotions and anxieties run high. In the field of working with people in crisis situations, efficiency and prioritization are therefore even more important, as many factors in the aid process are especially dependent on these two skills.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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