Life is a road map of little things that we repeat almost every day. If you think minutely about your entire day, you can hardly find any significant differences from the other days in that following week. However, we still strive for the best in accomplishing all the to-do tasks listed. It needs no explanation that you consider everything with the same priority and have sorted a definite time interval for a particular job.
However, it’s a paradox that you need to judge every task with the same priority. A transparent list of priorities would keep your life untangled and ease your day-to-day lifestyle. Be it your workplace, life, health, or anything else, and priority should be given to the required factor considering the urgency.
Today, I’ll share my experience with the prioritization factors, how to decide them, and what effects they brought to my life. Well, I’m not a philosopher. But I think you guys should know when to follow and UN-follow any strategy depending upon the circumstances. Let’s get started.
Priority Philosophy that I Used to Follow Blindly
Before I start, I want you to talk about a few things related to my lifestyle. I am a 30-year-old employee in a renowned corporate industry. Usually, my day starts with prepping up for the office, having breakfast, finally leaving my home after cleaning services Dubai is done.
I reach my office at sharp 10 o’clock and my entire day is spent managing my IT responsibilities. Additionally, I have to handle countless clients in person, over the phone, and in virtual meetings.
So, you can easily presume that I am not a different persona than a regular IT employee. And, I have to complete thousands of tasks regarding the latest technology projects. Well, I have recently switched to this company. I got in touch with my project manager in the former company, who advised me on diverse prioritization tips. The tips worked miracles for me when it comes to time management or completing urgent tasks. Here are the set of prioritization tips that helped me in my crisis management:
1) List your Tasks on a Master Sheet:
If you don’t arrange the tasks according to the priorities, everything will pop up unexpectedly in your head. And, they are enough to puzzle you and keep you suffering from the lack of management. After all, you have only 24 hours per day. So, get started with listing all your daily, weekly, or monthly tasks.
You can use a spreadsheet, document, or a notepad to keep track of all your upcoming duties. Moreover, you can use a specific tool to write everything down and to remind you of the orders of the jobs. Thus, you would never miss out on any single task. Besides this, such management would make you feel like an achiever.
On an interesting note, you can utilize all your busy hours and productivity to sort out the deadliest of tasks. This management policy would keep the priorities unbiased. Moreover, you can take advantage of the divided schedule based on daily, weekly, and monthly preferences.
2) Pick the Urgent one:
Well, your to-do list or master sheet should contain not only the tasks but also the deadline. Hopefully, you have mentioned the deadlines alongside every assigned job. This trick would keep all the non-urgent tasks at bay. You can simply identify which task needs to be accomplished first. Then, you can plan the leftover time to move on to the less urgent tasks.
So, don’t skip on mentioning the deadline. Even if the task doesn’t come with a so-called deadline, opt for a date by which you should submit the work. You don’t have time to waste on silly things, right? Therefore, utilize your time and effort to accomplish tasks that are urgent and require immediate action.
3) Set Realistic Limits:
Expectation and reality are not the same. The reality is that you might not be able to fulfill all the daily tasks proficiently. Staring at your master sheet won’t get the tasks done, and you put effort into achieving those works, undoubtedly. If one or more tasks remain incomplete, you need not be anxious or depressed.
To avoid such a burden over your mental health, you should set realistic goals or jobs on a daily basis. In case your to-do list has got too many elements, then I have a simple trick for you. You can priorities those tasks that need comparatively minimal effort and time. As soon as you clear those tasks, you will grab breathing space to concentrate on the tedious tasks.
Mistakes Derived from a Particular Priority Set of Rules
With the three rules discussed above, I was able to overcome almost every priority dilemma. The algorithm seemed pretty simple until I conquered faults with the tug-of-war between urgent and important tasks. To prioritize urgent jobs, I started neglecting the important tasks. Maybe, I skimped the urgent vs important theory from my ex-project manager.
Whatever the reason be, it left me with a minimum amount of time to focus on important things. And, the consequences were not good. After all, important to-dos require comparatively more time and endeavors. And, I began treating them at the end of the day when I was kind of exhausted. It affected my performance graph in the long run. However, I realized my mistake and revised the set of priority lessons. So, you can avoid the mess-up with the counter-solution that I discovered quite later.
Learn to Differentiate between Important and Urgent Tasks
Well, it might appear that you need to complete only the urgent tasks, but set your prioritization goals with respect to both important and urgent tasks. You can taste your true success when you would learn to differentiate between the urgent and the important one. Whether it’s about your project completion, change of the career path, or a promotion, never underestimate important things just because of urgent jobs.
On the other hand, both the tasks can seem to be the same and equally important. So, here’s a quick guide that can help you when you need to prioritize any task in the following aspects:
- Both important and urgent: Make sure that you complete these task before anything
- Important, not urgent: You can set a schedule for accomplishing this job when you are surrounded by loads of urgent cases.
- Urgent, not important: You can assign the task to your one of the team member if you can’t make time for it; especially if you are busy with an important task
- Neither important nor urgent: You can remove the task from the list
Therefore, try to discriminate between the importance and the urgency of the task. The sooner you would understand, the better you can prioritize your work ethos at your workplace. In addition to this, you can try this formula, and I find this very useful.
However, it’s not for all of us. In case you’re into a job that’s quite predictive in nature, then you can note down all the tasks that you need to complete the very next day.
Don’t forget to set the tasks according to their priorities: those are importance and urgency. When you arrive at your workspace, take a look at your list of to-dos. Now, you can focus on your daily tasks without thinking too much about priorities and all.
Finally, Embrace your Lifestyle
Our life is a gift from God, so take care of your health, family, and friends besides devoting yourself to your workplace. Importantly, learn when and how to stand out for yourself, your family, and everyone around you. Prioritise your life goals, relationships, and everything you adore. Because you won’t find everything written in the books, life will help you to learn. Hence, prioritize your life, too.