How to Prioritize Work

By Lisa Qi, Account Supervisor

When we ask people or search online for tips on productivity such as how to stay focused, boost motivation, or do time management, there is one simple idea – prioritize your work.

Steven Covey once said, “the key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” Yeah yeah yeah, prioritizing is very important. We all get that, but the question is how do we do that?

No worries!  Below are effective steps for you to practice when prioritizing.

1. MAKE A LIST

Before you start diving into work, collect a list of everything you think you may need to do for the rest of your day. At this point, there is no need to worry about the order.

2. EVALUATE REQUIRED TIME

Make a fair evaluation on the required time for each task. For example, you are going to attend a meeting somewhere, make sure to count the commuting time. Or, if you are going to write a paper, consider how much research you will have to do and whether or not you will need a break in the middle.

3. VISUALIZE YOUR FREE TIME

Map out your disposable time on a 24-hour timesheet. To do so, you simply need to cross out some occupied time like time for sleep, meals, classes, appointments/meetings, and so on. This is an easy way to set a realistic goal, so that you won’t set yourself up for failure.

4. CATEGORIZE WORK

Divide your to-do items into the four quadrants of the time management matrix by Dwight D. Eisenhower: The Eisenhower Matrix

The fundamental principle is to move from urgent to not urgent, and from important to unimportant. Do the most urgent things first. Keep investing a little bit of time and effort in important, but not urgent things on a regular basis. Delegate the work that doesn’t require your expertise, but consumes a lot of time. Also, avoid distractions as much as possible. 

What do I do? I have a morning routine which includes a fixed workout time because being healthy is important to me (important but non-urgent). For class assignments and client projects, they have clear deadlines, and have to be 100% perfect. I make sure to schedule all assignments for the semester right after I receive my syllabuses, even when the due date is not for a long time (urgent and important). When I am studying or at work, I put my phone away, so I am not distracted by social media or entertainment apps. I  treat them as rewards after I finish my assignments (unimportant and non-urgent). I usually spend 15 minutes or so in the morning answering emails. And for Saturdays “my recharge days”,  I normally write reviews from the past week and make plans for the upcoming week. This includes trip and meal prep planning. 

5. SCHEDULE YOUR PRIORITIES

After you have the basic knowledge of all the work, your available time, and the quadrants, select proportional work to put in your timesheet. Sometimes, people tend to overestimate their efficiency and list out too many items on their schedules. The problem is that when they fail to reach their goals, their anxiety soars and confidence level lowers. My go-to strategy is: don’t put more than five things on my to-do list.

6. ESTIMATE EFFORT

What if you have several deadlines on the same day? My advice is to do the easier things first to clear up the pressure and to build a little bit of confidence before digging into the harder projects. For example, if I have an 1000-word academic essay and a 100-word social media post due on the same day, I will do the social media post first.

7. 80/20 RULE

Lastly, determine the things that bring greater value, and put more effort and time in them. The Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto developed the 80/20 rule, also known as the “Pareto Principle”. It states that, “for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.” We all  have a lot to do every day, but what are the things that can really make a difference? What really deserves our energy? I tend to ask myself these questions more and more, which I find very helpful for me to put my effort in the right place.