Prioritising is all about putting the tasks in order from most important to least important.

The aim of doing this is to get you to focus on completing the ‘must do’ tasks first to help you to stay on top of things. While it would be great to prioritise first all the things you love doing, this only works if you really actually need to do those first. That’s why it’s helpful to sit down and write down all the jobs you have to do and then number them according to how vital it is they get done.

“I have to mow my lawns first!”
That’s ok. If your lawns are the most important job you have to do, then go ahead and mow them. It may be that they are something you can’t stand to see growing long and having them short means you are able to concentrate on your other jobs better.
Everybody has different priorities, so I am not here to tell you which stuff you need to do first because that would be just my opinion. But rather I’m here to get you to think things through and help you make informed choices.

Prioritising work when everything is important

I am totally certain that you have several important jobs which need doing. While you may be thinking that it’s impossible to decide, they all can’t be number 1, you are going to have to make that call. Here’s some steps to take and questions to ask yourself when ordering your jobs:

1. Make a list of everything you have to do within a set time frame, such as one day.
2.  Identify if each job is urgent or important. If it absolutely must be done within the next few hours or there will be major consequences, it is urgent and ranks higher than a job which is important.
3.  Assess the value of the job. Check out all of your important jobs and decide which ones will bring a greater value to your business. So any work for your clients or customers needs to be done before work for yourself and managing your business. You can also say that jobs which will affect more people are more important than ones which will only impact one person.
4. Think about how long a job will take you to do. If you are feeling motivated, start bigger jobs first. But if you feel like you can’t focus, concentrate on the shorter ones instead.
5. Stay flexible and ready to change. Stuff happens, so be prepared to throw your ordered list out the window if you need to.
6. Draw a line in the sand. You can’t do everything all at the same time. So make sure your to-do lists reflect this too. Leaving things off your list is ok, you can always work on them tomorrow. It’s like purging, which is a great thing to do and you can read why I did it in my Information Purge blog article.

Do it your way

If pretty coloured boxes are more your thing than numbers, how about trying a prioritising matrix? Here is a link for you to download one into which you can put your jobs into Do Now, Do Next, Do Later and Do Never. Might be a little bit airy fairy for some, but hey, if it works, all kudos to it. I also completely recommend reading Bev James “Do It or Ditch It” to really get focused on what even needs to be on your priority lists in the first place.
What do you have trouble prioritising? Let me know in the comments below!