It can is often the case that colleagues and clients will have given you a long list of tasks. Each person categorised his or her own task as urgent, but there are too many for you to complete in one day. This can lead to you feeling overworked, guilty and out of control. In order to regain control over your workload, it is necessary to learn how to prioritise the work. There are many factors which will affect the priority you give to a task and it is important to remember that the actual priority may conflict with the priority the person who requested it has suggested. Part of the process of prioritising tasks is therefore dealing with the people who gave them to you.

I once worked in a company where colleagues could make a request for information and set a priority code of 'critical,' 'urgent' or 'non-urgent' themselves. The team would have to deliver the critical tasks within three hours, the urgent tasks within five hours and the non-urgent tasks within two days. This led to almost every request appearing as urgent since people just wanted their items worked on first. They were concerned that everyone else's items were going through as urgent and therefore their non-urgent items would not be considered unless they marked them as urgent.

Obviously this led to a complete breakdown of the system. This issue was partly resolved by a member of the team being assigned the job of getting requesters to justify the reasons for a task being considered critical or urgent. You should not be afraid to do this, as it may be the only way to gain control and let people know that tasks must have a rational status. It may be possible to downgrade the task and then free up your time for truly urgent tasks allowing you to manage your time more effectively.

So what factors should affect your decision when assessing the status? Begin by examining the purpose of the task and the consequences should it not be done immediately. Usually money is a top priority so if something is necessary to achieve a sale then it will be more urgent. If you do not complete a request that someone needs leading to a major problem within the company then this may be traced back to you. For example, if a sale is missed because you did not provide the sales team with the information in time then questions about your competence and commitment may be raised. It is practical to prioritise fairly while considering your own personal gain and loss.

Consider who will be affected by a decision to delay completion of a task. Who will be affected by the completion or delay of a task? This may not be the fairest way of doing things, but it is unrealistic to suggest that politics do not play an active role in the decision making process. If a person who is always helping you has asked you for help then it may be wise to give that task top priority to ensure a good working relationship continues, although not at the expense of genuinely urgent issues. If the head of the company wants something done then it may be in your interest to prioritise that task rather than a task that someone further down the chain requires.

It may be the case that a task is dependant on another task being completed first. You should be aware of any interdependencies and prioritise accordingly. It is possible that someone else needs to act before you begin working on something in which case you may need to set reminders to follow up. It would be unwise to leave things to other people without checking up since they might prioritise their part of the work as not urgent. If they leave it too late, will your task become urgent? It is worth giving the other person a realistic time frame so you can manage your work.

When a task is considered as critical, it may be due to mistakes made by someone else. Was something requested too late? Was a mistake made that now needs an urgent correction? If happens then ensure that you talk to the people involved and create a solution to ensure that it will not occur again. If critical tasks can be prevented then you will be able to manage your time instead of having to complete everything in a rush.

Once you have a thorough understanding of the priority of the tasks, organise them in a to-do list format. Collate information such as due dates and the approximate amount of time it will take you to complete each one. Put a number next to each item on the list so you can calmly work through them in order. Use a software package such as Microsoft excel so that any new urgent items coming in can easily be added to the list. This method will allow you to feel in control of your workload. It should reduce the need to rush and panic and will reduce mistakes.