Do you effectively prioritise your workload? Have you ever implemented a strategy, but perhaps it's not working successfully? Take a look at a strategy we used here.

1. Because All Tasks Are Not Created Equal
How to
Prioritise Your Task List

2. And with prioritisingbeing
something many of us don’t always
think about, or give it the attention it
deserves …
Client Strategy
Following is the strategy a client and I
worked out to help him achieve more
out of his day with the help of some
prioritising….
I wanted to share this with you

3. Make a List of All Your Tasks
• the must-get-round-to
Asana is a web and mobile application
designed to enable teamwork without
email
• the urgents
• the need-to-do
In this case:
• We made a task list and popped
these into ASANA then synced that
with his calendar

4. Identify vs Important
Urgentbeing work that, if not completed
by the end of the day or in the next several
hours, willhaveserious
negative consequences
s
In this case:
• A missed deadline
• Research required for a meeting that afternoon
• Finalising a proposal

5. Rule
This argues that typically 80% of your
outcomes come from 20% of your
inputs
In this case:
• We looked through the clients tasks (20%) and
identified which ones had the greatest outcomes
(80%) once complete

6. Assess
Look at important work and
identify what carries the
highest value to the business
In this case:
• Billable work before lead generation
• Newsletter before his next blog returning missed calls
before email etc
We created rules to help recognise exactly which types of
tasks have top priority over the others

7. Tasks That Take Most
Effort First
Sometimes it’s a nice mix to
interchange the lengthier
tasks with quick ones
Closing completed tasks = Important satisfaction element
Do all you can to keep your momentum

8. Accept there are times
priorities will change this allows you
to become focused and
committed
In this case:
• This client had times where troubleshooting can
seriously impact his day
• We allowed time for these in his calendar and I
emphasised, be flexible and adaptable

9. Sometimes you don’t have a
chance of getting to
everything on your list
In this case:
• We prioritised tasks and checked the calendar
• Client scheduled the balance through the rest
of the week (according to priority)
The priorities changed as the tasks were pushed
out, e.g a priority 3 task on Monday became a
priority 1 task on Wednesday

10. Here’s Your 15 Minute
Homework
(in your diary, on a piece of
paper, in a time or project
management app …
whichever works best for you)
List ALL of your tasks

11. Identify which are urgent
and which are important
Here’s Your 15 Minute
Homework
Sort or tag accordingly

12. Now look at the 80/20
effect - which tasks have
the greatest outcomes
Here’s Your 15 Minute
Homework
Tag

13. Apply to list
Here’s Your 15 Minute
Homework
Create a short list of
simple rules that help you
assess value

14. Be realistic about what you can
achieve in a day
Here’s Your 15 Minute
Homework
Schedule your tasks
according to when you
are most productive

15. Look at your schedule, have
you allowed time for the
unexpected?
Here’s Your 15 Minute
Homework
If not, slot some times in to allow
for any changes to priorities

16. When your calendar
schedule does go up
the gurgler, relax
Here’s Your 15 Minute
Homework
Re-prioritise and embrace that
flexibility. We are only human!!

17. Summary
.
List &
Prioritise
•Listing and prioritizing gives you huge peace of mind
•No need to worry thinking you’ve forgotten something
•You can relax knowing you have a plan in place
•As new tasks come in, prioritise according to the steps I have outlined
Track &
Review
•Put tasks in Asana (or another task tracking system)
•A tip I use is to spend the last 10 minutes of my day reviewing tasks
•I amend priorities, schedule in new tasks and my day is planned out for
me from the moment I sit at my desk the following morning
Virtual
Assistant
•If you are working with a virtual assistant I highly recommend
documenting how you prioritise tasks so they can work with you to
ensure the ‘urgents’ get the most attention
•They can then prioritise and schedule incoming tasks for you from your
inbox

18. For the full
article…
http://www.yourva.co.nz/prioritising-tasks/