Ideas on How to Set Priorities

There’s a well-known concept that supports the theory that you can accomplish more in less time by setting priorities. It is called the Pareto Principle or the 80/20 Rule. The general idea is that 80 percent of our results come from 20 percent of our efforts; 80 percent of our income comes from 20 percent of our clients, etc. In countless ways, most of what we do each day has little impact on our lives and a few things have major impact. Therefore, you want to focus 80 percent of your attention on the 20 percent of things that make a difference. The trick is to identify the most important 20 percent that should be your priorities!
Here are a couple of ways to identify what you should be spending your time on:

“A-B-C” System

This is a simple and direct way of prioritizing:

“A” High Priority Tasks

• Immediate or critical “must-does”
• Task requiring special effort or concentration
• Stressful tasks
• Vital to the needs of your customer or business associate
• High positive or negative consequences

“B” Medium Priority Tasks

• Everyday, routine work
• Need to do, but not critical and can be postponed if necessary

“C” Low Priority Tasks

• Low priority paperwork, reading
• “Nice to do” if you get the time
• Let’s face it; many of these just won’t get done

You can further prioritize within categories, such as A-1, A-2, B-1, B-2, and so forth. In truth, most “C” tasks remain forever undone simply because you can’t get to them, but as long-range goals come into view, some may graduate to “B.”

“Value vs. Effort” System

With this system you evaluate the value of the task versus the time and effort required. Those tasks with a high reward to effort ratio rise to the top of the list and those with a low reward drop to the bottom. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What’s the value of this task on a scale of 1 – 10?
2. What’s the level of effort required by this task on a scale of 1 – 10?
3. What’s the value compared with the level of effort?

Rank according to the degree to which the level of value exceeds the level of effort. For example:

 

If you’d like more tips on Working from Home, sign up for our newsletter and we will send you a free report!