What is prioritization?

Prioritization is the act of determining the order of importance and urgency across a set of things you want to get done. This skill allows you to focus your time on your most significant tasks, projects, and goals so you can dedicate your time and energy to the things that matter the most.

Here are some key stats around how people prioritize their time across meetings and focus time at work:

• 98.2% of people have trouble prioritizing tasks
• 96.6% of people would reschedule focus time to attend an urgent meeting
• 90.8% of people have trouble prioritizing meetings
• Employees average 4.9 hours/week finding time for meetings
• 93.3% of people would overschedule a recurring internal team meeting to attend an urgent meeting
• 94.2% of people would reschedule a 1:1 meeting to attend an urgent meeting

What are the key aspects of prioritization?

In order to prioritize your time across your workload, it’s important to consider these key aspects:

1. Importance vs. urgency: Prioritization involves discerning between important tasks and urgent ones. Important tasks significantly contribute to long-term goals, while urgent tasks often demand immediate attention but may not necessarily align with strategic objectives.
2. Evaluating impact: Understanding the potential impact of each task or activity helps to prioritize them effectively, while also considering the opportunity cost of the tasks you’re considering deprioritizing. Tasks with higher impact or influence on goals, outcomes, or stakeholders should often take precedence.
3. Resource allocation: Effective prioritization also involves the consideration of available resources such as time, manpower, finances, and tools. Prioritization ensures the optimal allocation of these resources to maximize efficiency and productivity.
4. Flexibility & adaptability: Priorities may shift due to changing circumstances,  new information, or new opportunities. Adaptability allows for adjustments in the prioritization process so you can keep your goals aligned with evolving situations.

Are there different prioritization methods?

Despite its significance in our productivity and work life, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to prioritization. Here are the most common and effective methods you can use to prioritize your time:

1. Eisenhower matrix: A framework categorizing tasks based on urgency and importance into four quadrants: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, neither urgent nor important.
2. Value vs. effort analysis: Assessing the value or impact of tasks against the effort required to complete them helps in identifying high-value tasks that require less effort.
3. MoSCoW method: Categorizing items into Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, and Won't-haves to determine priorities.
4. Cost-benefit analysis: Assessing the potential costs and benefits of each task or action to determine its priority level.
5. ICE score: Evaluate tasks based on Impact, Confidence, and Ease to score their overall value. This method is simple, quick, and effective for prioritizing initiatives or features.
6. RICE score: Similar to the ICE score, the RICE score evaluates tasks based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort to score their overall value.
7. ABCDE method: Assign each task a letter (A = "Very Important," B = "Less Important," C = "Nice To Do," D = "Tasks to Delegate," E = "Not Important") based on its impact and urgency.
8. Weighted scoring: Assign weights to different factors (e.g., time, impact, cost) and score tasks based on these criteria.

What are the benefits of prioritization?

By making the effort to prioritize your time and your tasks, you can achieve these benefits:

1. Better productivity: Focusing on high-priority tasks minimizes time spent on less critical activities, leading to increased productivity and goal achievement.
2. Reduced stress: By organizing tasks based on importance, individuals or teams can manage workloads more effectively, reducing stress and overwhelm.
3. Improved decision-making: Prioritization facilitates clearer decision-making by directing attention to what matters most, aiding in better resource allocation and strategic choices.
4. Improved time management: Prioritization allows you to delegate or delay less important tasks, feeling more in control of your schedule in the process.
5. Enhances motivation: Accomplishing key tasks fuels your drive and inspires you to keep going.
6. Minimizes procrastination: With clear priorities, you're less likely to put off the important stuff.
7. Increases satisfaction: Focusing on meaningful goals leads to a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Examples of prioritization

Here are some examples of prioritization decisions that people may make to focus their time around their most important opportunity:

• A salesperson prioritizes following up with high-potential leads over cold calling.
• A project manager prioritizes fixing critical bugs over adding new features.
• A student prioritizes studying for upcoming exams over attending social events.