AIBU to ask you for your best prioritisation strategies?

[TheRealGussieFinkNottle]

AIBU to ask you for your best prioritisation strategies?

I'm rubbish at prioritisation. At the moment, my only strategy is to write a 'to-do' list and then rank everything on the list as '1' or '2', with '1' being most urgent and '2' being less urgent. Even then, I never seem to manage to actually decide what I can/should do first

Thanks :)

Heh, me too. Supposed to be working now but it's too hard and boring so am procrastinating.

The pic is what you're supposed to do (have known this for years, never managed it properly yet).

I tend to run 2 to do lists - an overall one and a "today" one for everything that has to be done that day. I try to order the today list by urgency and note how long I think each job will take, to make sure it's realistic.

My very effective former boss used to set herself deadlines for matters - an hour for this, two for that, and stuck to it ruthlessly. I try but rarely manage it...

1. life or death urgent
2. jobs/tasks that can be done relatively quickly ( I need to tackle these so I can sit down and think)
3. longer jobs or tasks then broken down into subtasks (start and working on) hopefully it quickly goes into category 2 and finishing up is a rather quick job.

Thanks everyone for your replies - just bumping this :)

Hi OP - good thread :) I find using an
Eisenhower Matrix really helpful.

Yes eisenhower matrix...

Some people thrive on ridiculously long to do lists...
I find them stressful...

I use pomodoro technique - look up app... Focus completely for 25 mins... Break for 5 mins, then start again..

BUT every day allocate one pomodoro to all the tasks which can be done in less than 5 mins...

Many of my tasks don't get even as far as a list

Ooh thanks good idea about Eisenhower Matrixes and the Pomodoro technique - I'll look them up.

Just bumping this :)

Start with the easy stuff. I do this at work - before I go home each night I write a list of where I am, what I need to sort the next day, even if it's just "reply to Fred's email about that invoice". Then when I get in in the morning I pick the easiest stuff first, just so I have the sense of achievement that I did deal with that email, I did finish that minor task. After that it feels much more achievable to move on to the more challenging stuff.

i use outlook, and put the tasks in as an appointment. If something comes in that ismmore important i shift the tasks around. so much easier to see and manage. plus a bullet journal.

Other systems such as Kanban... Which is a visual system.. The most basic has 3 vertical columns.. With a backlog, work in progress, done columns...I find it useful in that I put quite a lot(which I may forget) in the backlog pile. You have stickers or some such, you can see what you have to do... Then you move stickers to other columns as you do the task... It's dynamic and completely visual! You can use trello to do this electronically

I tend to use the outlook task list. I put time for significant, time-consuming tasks into my calendar and then add slots to deal with all the smaller itty bitty tasks in one session. The biggest challenge that I have is dealing with interruptions tbh. My team are constantly coming to me with questions or problems and I find it really hard to say no, so end up getting dragged away from my priorities much more than I would like. I want to be an approachable and supportive manager, but I want to use my time effectively as well. Haven't got the balance quite right yet.

Weigh up how fucked you are if you don't do it vs how long you've got left before you're fucked. Prioritise accordingly.