How to Prioritize Tasks

Sometimes it feels like the whole world is falling apart. Work and school start to pile up, then responsibilities and chores, plus promises to friends and family – there can’t be enough time in a few days for all of that. If you know how to prioritize properly, you can become a more productive person, while saving time, effort, and stress. Learn how to organize your work into categories and difficulty levels, then start tackling like a pro. Please see step 1 for more information.

Table of Contents

Make a To-Do List

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Choose a time frame for your listing. Are you going to have a really busy week? Or a dusty day with work? Thinking about everything that needs to be done before the year is over can drive you crazy. Whatever your commitments, choose a time frame for your to-do list so you can manage those things and turn the pressure into meaningful action. ^{[1] X Research Source}

Short-term goals often include things from many different categories. Maybe you have a lot of tasks to get done before the day is over and errands to do before you go home, and then a lot of chores to do when you get home. You may have a pressurized list of things that need to be done in a few hours.
Long-term goals can include larger ambitions and need to be broken down into steps that you also need to prioritize. You can put the goal of “getting into college” on your long-term to-do list, which includes many smaller activities. However, breaking it down will simplify and clear the way for the implementation process.

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Write down everything that needs to be done. Start by breaking things down and writing down exactly what needs to be done, regardless of the order. Within a certain stressful time frame, make a list of all the big and small tasks that need to be done. List projects to be completed, decisions to be made, and miscellaneous things to do.

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Categorize things to do. It’s helpful to break things down into separate categories, making lists for different areas of your life. Housework can fall into one category, while school or work projects fall under another. If you have an active social life, there are bound to be many weekend events that also need to be prepared and prioritized. Make separate lists for each category.

However, if you find it helpful to list everything in one place, then consider making a complete to-do list, including chores and duties, work commitments, and more. work and activities in your social life. If you feel overwhelmed by too much, this list will help you put everything together so you can see the importance of each when compared to the others. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Sort the list in order. Identify the most important activities or urgent tasks on the list and rewrite those at the top. Everything is related to you and the topics on the list, so you may decide to make school activities more important than work projects, or vice versa.

However, if everything is equally important and necessary, you don’t need to sort it out and start doing each thing alphabetically or randomly. When actively ticking “done” on the list, you are completing the tasks.

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Keep the list in a visible place. Especially for long-term lists, keep them in plain sight and use them as reminders of what needs to be done, and cross or mark things off.

If there’s a similar list on paper, hang it somewhere you’ll often see it, such as on the refrigerator door or a bulletin board on the front door, or on the wall in the office.
Alternatively, you can leave the list on your desk while you’re doing other things. That way you will always remember and delete when done.
Post-it notes are great for reminders while you’re at home. If you stick sticky notes on your TV screen, you’ll remember to do more important things than waste time doing less productive things.

Classification of Projects

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Sort by importance of each task. What are the most important things on your list? In general, you can put work/school duties ahead of household chores and social activities, although there are exceptions. For example, eating and bathing are essential, while laundry can be done another day, after you have completed an important project.

Decide on different levels of importance, perhaps three levels, to categorize the different tasks and criteria in the list. The simplest and best way to categorize them is to rank them by high, medium and low importance. You should consider carefully when grading.

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Sort by the urgency of each task. Consider upcoming deadlines and the possibility of completion within them. What needs to be done as soon as possible? What needs to be done during the day? What could take a little longer?

It’s important to consider the amount of time it takes to complete each task, and you can even set a time limit for certain tasks. If exercising every day is a priority, but you have a ton of things to do, then give yourself 30 minutes to work out and find somewhere to plug it in.

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Sort by difficulty of each task. It may be important to go to the post office at the end of the day to drop off your items, but it’s not a difficult task. Sort everything on the list by difficulty so you know how to put the tasks in relation to each other.

Sorting tasks by difficulty, medium, and easy can be more effective than trying to think of them in relation to each other. Don’t worry about ordering the tasks before assessing the extent of each, if you find it helpful to do so.

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Compare all the tasks and put them in order. Prioritize the most important and most urgent tasks that require the least amount of effort for maximum effectiveness in the allotted time for that task.

Make the List

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Do one thing at a time and follow through until it’s done. It will be very difficult to complete the list if you are picky and do a little bit of each task. If so, after hours, your list will look exactly the same: unfinished. Instead of doing a little bit of each thing, do one thing until it’s done and then move on to the next one after a few minutes of rest. Don’t move on to other things on your list before you’ve done the first and most important thing.

Also when looking at the general list, look for tasks that can be combined effectively. Maybe it’s not a good idea to study math while doing history, but taking advantage of studying while waiting to finish washing clothes in the laundry room can save you time to complete more important tasks. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Determine what should be delegated to others and what should be left out. If the internet is out at home, you may want to go to the library, use wi-fi to figure out the problem in the first place. But that’s not the way to go if you have to cook dinner, have dozens of files to get done by tomorrow, and hundreds of other things to do. Is it better to call the internet service provider?

It’s fine if you determine a task isn’t worth your time, or assign it to someone else at an acceptable cost relative to the time it takes. You may have to spend money to buy a new fence, or you can make your own fence by painstakingly rummaging through a pile of scrap for hours in the hot sun, but it turns out to be only a few bucks. Then maybe it’s better to buy a new fence.

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Substitute different work items in the list. Switching activities can help you regain the spirit and energy to continue on with tasks and complete lists faster. Instead of continuing to do your homework, you can switch to doing housework for better results. Do different types of work and take a short break in between tasks, you will always feel healthy and productive.

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Start with the least exciting or hardest job. By nature, perhaps when you’ve done something you least enjoy, your morale will be better. It doesn’t have to be the hardest or most important thing, but excluding it first and leaving more pleasant activities to do later can work for some people.

The English essay is probably more important than the math homework, but if you really hate math, then you have to get rid of it first so you can focus on your essay.

Supplies

Pencil
Paper
Line marker

Advice

Consider breaking a long-term task into more short-term tasks. Short-term tasks are less tiring and easier to complete.
Be realistic in calculating the time it takes to complete a task.
For a school project, things that can earn more points or have an earlier deadline should be prioritized.
The right amount of time to focus on a task is half an hour to an hour, after which you need to take a short break.
Set aside some time for the unexpected.
You need to pay particular attention to scheduling a longer period of time to complete tasks that require more effort.
If you have two tasks that are equally important and urgent, prioritize the one that requires less effort.
Help and guide others. If you have completed your tasks ahead of time, offer to help family and friends. Your parents can reward you by increasing your allowance.
Eliminate or postpone tasks that are not very important and require a lot of work.
Use a wordpad or spreadsheet program on your computer. That way you won’t miss copying the list again.
You must be able to manage your time and upcoming plans, and also keep a positive attitude, do not procrastinate.

Warning

Your safety and that of others comes first, above all other duties.
Your personal life, happiness and satisfaction should be at the top of the priority list.

Steps