Are you going through any of this ?

1. You keep losing track of work ?

2.You often get confused with what to do first and what to do next ?

3.You are stressed often?

4.There are a lot of issues pending and it takes a lot of time to complete the tasks ?

Then you must read this post because I have some smart tips to share with you which will help you :

Prioritize smartly
Improve your efficiency and performance. accomplish tasks much faster than you can think and,
Keep you free from unnecessary stress.

But before you get started ,let me explain what is prioritization and why it is important.

Get these 23 Productivity Hacks to Work Smarter, Get more done and find Fulfilment and Balance Here !

WHAT IS PRIORITIZATION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT ?

Prioritization is a process which helps you to determine the most important things in your life that must be dealt with first.

It is important to prioritize because all things seem to be important, and if you treat all things as important, then nothing is really important.

To be more successful with your productivity, you need to be strategic with what you do.

Prioritization is a process of determining the most important things in your life that need to be dealt with first.

It is important to prioritize because at first glance all things seem to be important, and if you treat all things as important, then nothing is really important.

By prioritizing your tasks :

You can give your attention to things that are vital to your life and stay in control.
You are more organized and calm.
It saves time and energy and helps you work more efficiently.
You will be able to use your potential optimally and feel more fulfilled .
You can focus on the less important tasks later.
It prevents you from unnecessary stress.

By not prioritizing , You end up :

1. Being stressed.
2. Are not able to finish things on time.
3. Experience frequent panic and pressure, which is detrimental for your mental, physical, and emotional health.
4. Waste a lot of your precious time and energy.
5. Are unable to make the best use of your potential.

Prioritization is done on 2 different basis :

1.The urgency of the task -if they are time-sensitive and have a serious consequence, like missing a tax deadline will cause you to pay a fine. Or neglecting a toothache may lead to more serious dental problems.

2 . Importance – in terms of how vital they are to our life and work. Like setting new goals for our life and career, planning, getting clear with our values, nurturing relationships with our colleagues, employees, family, and friends.

Here are three most common ways to prioritize-

1 One is to have it outlined as goals for the year.

2 Having your daily priorities outlined and

3 Rank tasks in order of importance, when you have multiple tasks competing for your attention.

So let’s get started!

Tip #1 –Keep a Master’s list and a To-do list.

Set aside sometime each month to capture all your priorities in a master list.

A master list is important to have because:

It gives you a bird’ eye view of things because you have all the ideas captured in a file.
Makes you feel more confident, organized, and calm and do things more efficiently.

Make small to-do lists from the master list by prioritizing the most important and urgent tasks.

It is good to follow the rule of 3.

Identify one big priority for the quarter, and break it into 3 chunks or stages one for each month.

Take one which should be done before everything else and further break it into 3 and sequence them in order of priority. Take the first one and break it into 3 to 5 for the week.

Ticking off tasks will give you momentum and keep you motivated.

Tip#2 Rank Your Tasks

Make small to-do lists from the master list by prioritizing the most important and urgent tasks.

There are two things you can do to rank your tasks.

Use a simple system of ranking like 1,2,3, or A, B,C to rank your daily tasks. and the other is to segment tasks based on Urgent and Important.

Urgent tasks are those which are a crisis like a dental problem, a pipe leaking at home, which if not attended to will grow into a serious problem.

Important tasks are your goals, projects, relationships, family, finances etc.

So separating the tasks based on urgency and importance with the help of a simple Urgent /Important matrix will help you balance the urgent and important tasks.

It is essential to differentiate between the urgent and important tasks because :

You will be able to pay more attention to important tasks that will help you make progress in your career.
20 % of your tasks determine 80%of your results. It will help you to keep up your performance and success.
You will feel less pressured with the less important tasks and feel more in control.

Tip#3 – Break large tasks into smaller chunks

Break tasks into small doable chunks and scatter them in your schedule, one task per day.

Eg -if you are making a presentation on a topic, the tasks will be, making an outline, organizing matter for the topic, drafting the matter, editing it, selecting slides, and designing them. The final thing to do will be to run and test the slides and upload them.

You can break your tasks like this and set aside 90 minutes each day to work on one task per day.

Breaking tasks helps you to:

Accomplish them faster than you can think. You save a lot of time thinking about what to do each day.
It keeps you organized and on track.
You get the momentum and ticking one task each day keeps you lighter, focused, and motivated.
It saves you from unnecessary overwhelm. You get that feeling of easiness and are more efficient.

Tip #4- Structure your workload:

Structure your workload by categorizing the tasks. There are 3 things you need to do to structure the workload.

1.Batch similar tasks and work on them batch-wise. Identify similar type of tasks and categorize them .You will be able to accomplish them faster and it will require less energy .

2.Prioritize them and block specific time in your schedule to do them.

Schedule tasks that require heavy effort and high intensity at those times when your energy is at its peak. After you have done heavy work, schedule some lighter work.

Eg –I have the first time block of 90 minutes in my schedule to work for marketing tasks each day of the week. The next 90 minutes are reserved to work on my projects.

After this, I have an hour set aside to answer emails. And the last hour is reserved for networking and answering comments on social media.

3 Delegate hard slogs. Delegate tasks that are hard to do to someone else who is an expert at doing them. In this way, you give a structure to your tasks.

Structuring your tasks is beneficial because :

You are more focused on your effort and more efficient.

It prevents multitasking and the quality is much better.

NOTE –It is important to restructure your workload regularly.

Tip # 5 – Have a realistic estimate of time and keep a work log

Do you estimate the time taken for each task?

By estimating the time taken for each task, I mean having an idea of the amount of time a task will be completed in, in terms of weeks, days, and hours and keeping a note of the day of start and tentative day of completion.

You can make a simple spreadsheet in word doc or google sheet with tasks, dates of start and finish, and the name of the person doing the task.

By having a realistic estimation of time you will –

Have a realistic idea of the time taken for each task and you can make a fair estimation

Of the time that will be taken to do a similar task in the future.
You will find it easy to keep accountability of work and be on track and keep your team on track.
You will be in the know of things and can help your team whenever a crisis arises.
It will prevent unnecessary chaos, delay, and missing deadlines.
You can easily ask for more help or outsource some tasks if anyone is unable to finish the work due to some personal emergency or if the deadline is coming near.
It gives you a sense of satisfaction at the end of the working day and helps you accomplish tasks on time.
You and your team are more efficient.
It becomes easy to set clear expectations.

Tip #6 Review Your Workload Regularly

Review your task list and workload regularly .You never know what may come in the way .

If you review your workload regularly, You can then become flexible and adaptive .

You can also get better ideas along the way and eliminate or edit some ideas .

Reviewing helps you to-

Have a real eye view of where you are.
Helps you to understand what is going on well and what is not going on so well ,so that you can think on what to do differently to get it done .
You stay on track and in control of things.
You can restructure the workload to get things moving fast .
You escape the risk of missing out on important things.
By ticking tasks done on your to do list , you feel motivated and feel like doing more .

So reviewing is very important.

NOTE –If despite reviewing your list from time to time, you find that you are putting off a task quite a several times, then delegate it to someone.

Tip # 7 -Block time for high priority tasks

Time blocking is essential for accomplishing high priority tasks like a project or goal.

By not blocking uninterrupted time for these tasks ,you run the risk of allowing too many interruptions , which will delay your own progress and make you slow and inefficient .

According to research from the University of California, Irvine led by Gloria Mark, it takes 23 minutes or more to refocus after an interruption.

Even if the interruption was only 5 minutes, you lose 28 minutes of productivity. Your work suffers in quality as well as quantity.

A Michigan State University study shows that even short interruptions, like checking a text on your phone, make you twice as likely to make mistakes in your work.

It’s not possible to eliminate all interruptions at work. It’s not practical either.

Some things you can do to minimize interruptions are :

Switch off phones and turn off desktop alerts .
Work in a separate location if you can avail one .
Reserve a separate time block to attend to your employees and co workers and help them with their issues .
Set aside separate blocks of time to answer emails and phone calls.

To know how to prioritize your tasks to make effective use of your time ,read the article , ”HOW TO BE MORE EFFECTIVE WITH YOUR TIME .”

CONCLUSION:

By now you must have got a clear idea of the little things that go a long way to help you prioritize smartly and work more efficiently and accomplish things on time .

Make it a regular habit of making master lists , segmenting tasks ,batching and breaking them.

Schedule your high effort task at your peak productive hours when you have maximum energy and alternate with lighter tasks .

Keep accountability of tasks and structure your workload so that you are able to stay on track and in control of things .

Block times for uninterrupted work, time with colleagues and answering emails and phone call.

These little things will make you a master at prioritizing .

The best thing you can do is to start with one day at a time and switch over to a week’s task .

It will make it less overwhelming for you because it takes some time to build new habits .

Now that you are aware of some smart ideas that will help you prioritize smartly ,which idea did you like the most ?

Are you going through any of this ?

1. You keep losing track of work ?

2.You often get confused with what to do first and what to do next ?

3.You are stressed often?

4.There are a lot of issues pending and it takes a lot of time to complete the tasks ?

Then you must read this post because I have some smart tips to share with you which will help you :

Prioritize smartly

Improve your efficiency and performance. accomplish tasks much faster than you can think and,

Keep you free from unnecessary stress.

But before you get started ,let me explain what is prioritization and why it is important.

Get these 23 Productivity Hacks to Work Smarter, Get more done and find Fulfilment and Balance Here !

WHAT IS PRIORITIZATION AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT ?

Prioritization is a process which helps you to determine the most important things in your life that must be dealt with first.

It is important to prioritize because all things seem to be important, and if you treat all things as important, then nothing is really important.

To be more successful with your productivity, you need to be strategic with what you do.

Prioritization is a process of determining the most important things in your life that need to be dealt with first.

It is important to prioritize because at first glance all things seem to be important, and if you treat all things as important, then nothing is really important.

By prioritizing your tasks :

You can give your attention to things that are vital to your life and stay in control.

You are more organized and calm.

It saves time and energy and helps you work more efficiently.

You will be able to use your potential optimally and feel more fulfilled .

You can focus on the less important tasks later.

It prevents you from unnecessary stress.

By not prioritizing , You end up :

1. Being stressed. 2. Are not able to finish things on time. 3. Experience frequent panic and pressure, which is detrimental for your mental, physical, and emotional health. 4. Waste a lot of your precious time and energy. 5. Are unable to make the best use of your potential.

Prioritization is done on 2 different basis :

1.The urgency of the task -if they are time-sensitive and have a serious consequence, like missing a tax deadline will cause you to pay a fine. Or neglecting a toothache may lead to more serious dental problems.

2 . Importance – in terms of how vital they are to our life and work. Like setting new goals for our life and career, planning, getting clear with our values, nurturing relationships with our colleagues, employees, family, and friends.

Here are three most common ways to prioritize-

1 One is to have it outlined as goals for the year.

2 Having your daily priorities outlined and

3 Rank tasks in order of importance, when you have multiple tasks competing for your attention.

So let’s get started!

Tip #1 –Keep a Master’s list and a To-do list.

Set aside sometime each month to capture all your priorities in a master list.

A master list is important to have because:

It gives you a bird’ eye view of things because you have all the ideas captured in a file.

Makes you feel more confident, organized, and calm and do things more efficiently.

Make small to-do lists from the master list by prioritizing the most important and urgent tasks.

It is good to follow the rule of 3.

Identify one big priority for the quarter, and break it into 3 chunks or stages one for each month.

Take one which should be done before everything else and further break it into 3 and sequence them in order of priority. Take the first one and break it into 3 to 5 for the week.

Ticking off tasks will give you momentum and keep you motivated.

Tip#2 Rank Your Tasks

Make small to-do lists from the master list by prioritizing the most important and urgent tasks.

There are two things you can do to rank your tasks.

Use a simple system of ranking like 1,2,3, or A, B,C to rank your daily tasks. and the other is to segment tasks based on Urgent and Important.

Urgent tasks are those which are a crisis like a dental problem, a pipe leaking at home, which if not attended to will grow into a serious problem.

Important tasks are your goals, projects, relationships, family, finances etc.

So separating the tasks based on urgency and importance with the help of a simple Urgent /Important matrix will help you balance the urgent and important tasks.

It is essential to differentiate between the urgent and important tasks because :

You will be able to pay more attention to important tasks that will help you make progress in your career.

20 % of your tasks determine 80%of your results. It will help you to keep up your performance and success.

You will feel less pressured with the less important tasks and feel more in control.

Tip#3 – Break large tasks into smaller chunks

Break tasks into small doable chunks and scatter them in your schedule, one task per day.

Eg -if you are making a presentation on a topic, the tasks will be, making an outline, organizing matter for the topic, drafting the matter, editing it, selecting slides, and designing them. The final thing to do will be to run and test the slides and upload them.

You can break your tasks like this and set aside 90 minutes each day to work on one task per day.

Breaking tasks helps you to:

Accomplish them faster than you can think. You save a lot of time thinking about what to do each day.

It keeps you organized and on track.

You get the momentum and ticking one task each day keeps you lighter, focused, and motivated.

It saves you from unnecessary overwhelm. You get that feeling of easiness and are more efficient.

Tip #4- Structure your workload:

Structure your workload by categorizing the tasks. There are 3 things you need to do to structure the workload.

1.Batch similar tasks and work on them batch-wise. Identify similar type of tasks and categorize them .You will be able to accomplish them faster and it will require less energy .

2.Prioritize them and block specific time in your schedule to do them.

Schedule tasks that require heavy effort and high intensity at those times when your energy is at its peak. After you have done heavy work, schedule some lighter work.

Eg –I have the first time block of 90 minutes in my schedule to work for marketing tasks each day of the week. The next 90 minutes are reserved to work on my projects.

After this, I have an hour set aside to answer emails. And the last hour is reserved for networking and answering comments on social media.

3 Delegate hard slogs. Delegate tasks that are hard to do to someone else who is an expert at doing them. In this way, you give a structure to your tasks.

Structuring your tasks is beneficial because :

You are more focused on your effort and more efficient.

It prevents multitasking and the quality is much better.

NOTE –It is important to restructure your workload regularly.

Tip # 5 – Have a realistic estimate of time and keep a work log

Do you estimate the time taken for each task?

By estimating the time taken for each task, I mean having an idea of the amount of time a task will be completed in, in terms of weeks, days, and hours and keeping a note of the day of start and tentative day of completion.

You can make a simple spreadsheet in word doc or google sheet with tasks, dates of start and finish, and the name of the person doing the task.

1. Being stressed.
2. Are not able to finish things on time.
3. Experience frequent panic and pressure, which is detrimental for your mental, physical, and emotional health.
4. Waste a lot of your precious time and energy.
5. Are unable to make the best use of your potential.