a lot of people struggle with prioritization because the way they match their priorities
is that they actually don't they just dump all of their tasks into a to-do list
sometimes on their phone sometimes on their laptop and then they measure their progress
during the day based on the number of tasks that have been completed but very few people actually
go through the work of looking at this list and figuring out if today i could only do one thing
what would that be what tasks are more important than others what are the quick ones the things
that i could do very quickly this morning and that would actually move the needle people don't do
that they just go in order task after task and uh yeah that's not managing your priorities it's not
because it's on your list that it's a priority so i think this is definitely a big problem
the lack of priority management can cause lots of problems for people at work the first most obvious
one is the impact it has on productivity because if you don't define your priorities you can find
yourself at the end of the day feeling like you've worked really hard today but the important things
haven't been done and then you move all of these tasks back onto the next day rinse and repeat and
you end up at the end of the week feeling like yes you worked for many hours but you haven't
moved the needle you haven't done something that has contributed to actual progress towards your
goals so that's the first main problem but the other one beside productivity is the impact it
has on people's mental health it creates this constant cycle of anxiety where artillerists keep
on getting longer and longer we feel like we have this endless stream of work sometimes meaningless
work that keeps on piling up and even when we try to close our laptop on fridays and go and
take a break during the weekend we still have this like dark cloud above us which is our never-ending
to-do list so i think people would really benefit from managing their priorities better
because they would both be more productive but they also would have a better mental health
there are two simple methods that i really like in order to start managing your priorities better the
first one is called the moscow method just like the city in russia and it stands for
must should could and want must are the things that really need to get done today as soon as
possible very important and if there's really only one thing that you must do that day that's the one
number one priority then if you have a little bit more time should those are the things that
would be important that would actually contribute to your progress and bringing you closer to your
goals but it's fine if you have to push it back to tomorrow it's okay not a big deal could are
the things that are the cherry on the cake the little icing the things that are going to maybe
make the product you're working on better that maybe are going to make your life slightly easier
but it's really not a big deal if it doesn't happen at all you should always start with must
and then should and only really if you had an incredibly productive day still have time still
have energy still feel like working you can tackle a couple of your good ones and ones are the ones
that you are not going to do and that's something we forget sometimes with to-do lists it's that
not everything has to stay on there some of them you can just remove there are things that you
added in there because a colleague mentioned that that maybe that would be a good idea you wrote it
down those are maybe ideas that you had when you were on a walk you can look at them and move them
onto an idea page or anything else that you can look at later on for inspiration but these do not
belong in your to-do list ones are all of the ones that you remove and you can clean up your to-do
list a little bit this way so that's the first method incredibly easy incredibly quick you can do
it in five minutes every morning when you look at your to-do list the other one that i really like
is called the azenoware metrics of prioritization also super simple it's a 4x4 metrics where you
place your tasks based on whether they are important and urgent important and non-urgent
non-important and urgent or non-important and non-urgent what's great about this metrics is that
it's very actionable depending on where you put your tasks you already know what you're going to
do with it if it's important and urgent just do it right now you take a bit of time block it in your
calendar and just make it happen because it means this is something that's going to have an impact
on the business and that also needs to be done as soon as possible if it's important and non-urgent
block time in your calendar for later that week it means that you do need to get it done but it
doesn't have to be today if it's non-important and urgent it probably means that it needs to
get done but not by you so in that case a good thing to do is to delegate it to someone who can
work on it while you focus on the important stuff and if it's not important and non-urgent why is
it on your to-do list you should just remove it it means that it doesn't even need to get done
and you can have the satisfying feeling of removing something from your list and making it a
little bit shorter of course i love frameworks but i think it's also really important to take into
account how you're feeling and your environment so there are also three factors that i always try to
take into account whenever i'm trying to manage my priorities the first one is the environment
where am i at the moment if i'm at home with kids running around and making a lot of noise i'm not
going to work on the same tasks as if i was at a coffee shop or if i was in a co-working space so
i can decide to work on tasks that don't require a lot of focus for example then i think about the
time that i have same you're not going to work on the same tasks if you only have half an hour in
front of you and where you can block that and do something quick maybe a few emails or if you have
two hours of luxurious time to yourself to work on something creative then maybe you'll try to
tackle something a little bit more ambitious and finally your energy levels how are you feeling
you are also not going to work on the same things if you're standing really tired you don't have a
good night of sleep whether compared to if you're feeling like full of energy and very creative
and again that may be a good time to block to work on something a little bit more creative
you