Prioritisation
Teaching Thursday 5: not actually a Thursday anymore
Why do we prioritise
When we go about our daily lives, the many tasks that we undertake sometimes pop into our heads chaotically, and without proper order. Many of us use to-do lists to keep track of them and stay organised.
This approach however runs into a problem when we find ourselves being constantly busy, yet at the same time the important tasks stay undone and the we’re always running for the deadline.
Prioritisation can help us identify which matters should be attended to first, and which not at all.
Define Your Values
To know what to prioritise we need to be aware of our values and goals. First discover what is important to you(doesn’t have to be definite), then prioritise according to that
Know when to Refuse
Prioritising is not only about doing what’s important. Discarding the tasks/activities which are not a priority is just as important. Whether it’s someone asking us for a favour, or our own insignificant procrastination task, we need to say no to those tasks to focus on ones that really matter.
Have a Weekly Strategy Meeting
Organise a strategy meeting with yourself every week, review how things worked last week, and plan for the next one
Prioritisation Techniques
Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower matrix is a simple system for classifying tasks by their urgency and importance, offering also the recommended solutions to these problems.
ABCDE Method
A task categorisation method focusing on five grades, from most to least important.
- A-tasks - Very important, urgent, with consequences (Highest priority)
- B-tasks - Less important, things you should do, but can be scheduled for near future
- C-tasks - Nice to do, with no pressure or consequences, done for pleasure
- D-tasks - Things you can delegate to someone else
- E-tasks - Irrelevant and not worth your time, should be removed
Value Vs Complexity Matrix
This method is used to evaluate initiatives in product development. It’s goal is to find tasks that bring most value by investing least effort by visualising it on a graph.
The values for both axes can be on any given numerical scale.
- Estimate the value
- Evaluate the effort
- Plot the tasks on a graph with value and effort axes
- Analyse the results:
Weighted Shortest Job First
Alternative method looking at the cost of delaying a task versus it’s duration
In this method tasks are organized by score calculated by the formula X = (Cost of Delay)/(Task duration). The task with the highest score should be prioritised.
The duration can be exchanged with effort.