Tip of the Week: Three Questions to Help Arrange Your Priorities

The typical workday is filled with tasks—oftentimes, more than can be handled in the span of a day and all given the same priority level. As I’m sure you’ve realized at some point, this just isn’t a sustainable way to operate. To minimize this issue, we’re going over a few tips to help you prioritize the tasks that you’re given.

How to Assign Value to Your Tasks

If you want to make the most out of the time spent each day, one of the best ways to do so is taking some and determining which of your tasks should be given priority over the others. This can be accomplished through a simple evaluation of what you have on your plate, conducted through the framework of a few questions.

What Will Be the Result of Finishing a Task?

Or in other words, which task will net the most benefits once completed? Will one bring you closer to your goals, or enable you to make the most of your time? Which task will wind up serving the biggest benefit to the rest of your team? Once you’ve identified which will provide you and the business with the most good, you’ve identified which should likely come first.

How Long Have You Been Considering a Task?

Whether you’ve been actively planning or postponing a task for whatever reason, try prioritizing it instead. Regardless of what challenges the task itself will present, finishing it will certainly pay off with greater rewards than what are to be enjoyed with it hanging over your head.

Even If a Task Isn’t Pressing, Will It Enable Progress in Something That Is?

You may have some of those odd tasks clogging up your itinerary that may not be quite as important as some of the others. However, some of these tasks may assist you in completing these others. In these cases, prioritizing such tasks can make it simpler to work through your schedule effectively. The others may be able to be delegated to someone else, assuming you have the authority to assign tasks in this way.

How Have You Kept Your Tasks Organized?

Don’t be afraid to share your methods in the comments! For more help with your IT and how to use it to your advantage, feel free to lean on Horne & Benik at any time. Give us a call at (603) 499-4400 to find out more.