Some Hints On Prioritising Effectively

One of the best skills that has to be learned in mastering time management is that of prioritising. If you are completing non-urgent, routine tasks because they are easy or even fun, and letting the deadline-orientated, deal-breaking tasks slip from your radar or get turned in late, that's bad time management - and a lack of priority in your workload.

The mistake many people make

Here's an example of the classic prioritising mistake. Let's say that you decide that you need to manage your time better, so you walk into work as usual first thing in the morning and write down all the tasks you need to do that day. This is the first mistake - some tasks will be leftover from yesterday, some will be part of a bigger project that started ages ago but has a completion date next week. Prioritising does not mean the things you have to do that day - it means everything in your working life, AND your personal time! As you get better at time management you will be able to prioritise between personal (having lunch with your colleagues) over workloads (should you really have taken the extra hour to finalise a report due that afternoon?). Time management goes on all, day, every day - a bit like time itself.

So what's a priority?

You should identify pieces of work or tasks - present or ongoing, that have a "domino effect". That is, recognising those tasks that if they are delivered late or not at all, it affects other tasks (or other people) negatively, like dominoes falling down. If you are a photographer providing pictures for a new website, for example - if you're late taking the pictures, you're late handing them to the designer (the first domino), then the designer has to extend his deadline (the second), and then the website launch may be delayed too (the third). Domino effects are to be avoided, and these tasks should take priority. If you had to clean your email out as one of your tasks - this is not a priority, because a) it can be done at any time, when you have the time and b) only you are really affected by it and c) everything will continue working while the task is waiting to be completed.

Remember that categories of tasks aren't static

This is another mistake commonly made: once people have a "to do" list, they like to cross things off it but forget that new tasks crop up during the working day, and some will shift priority. Be flexible. A report that might have been requested by your boss "to do by the end of the month, no rush" may suddenly get bumped up if they run and say "could you do it this week? I have a board meeting!". This is another time management skill - not keeping your deadline "up to the wire" all the time, meaning that if something crops up that needs more of your time, you HAVE the time to use instead of working late or panicking due to the workload.

Practise makes perfect prioritising!

Everyone will make mistakes the first time they have to organise their working life in such a uniform way - to do lists, diary entries, calendar reminders and prioritising all seem daunting until you make it part of your routine. It gets better, and the more you do it, the easier it will be come, and the less time it will take - and that, of course, is the added bonus. Make time for it now, and you'll save a lot of it later.