You realize it is essential to prioritize your to-do checklist, and should have tried varied strategies to take action, from the Eisenhower Matrix (to find out how well timed and pressing every process is), to the Pareto precept (to resolve allocate your time to maximise your outcomes). The issue is that figuring out what’s really a precedence will be an summary downside. Some folks work finest when coping with chilly, arduous numbers—and there is a method to take a extra quantitative strategy to prioritizing your to-dos.
Why prioritize your to-do checklist?
The Pareto precept, talked about above, means that 80% of your outcomes will come from 20% of your work, so it’s a must to be choosy about what you give attention to. Plus, there’s solely a lot you are able to do in a day, so the perfect to-do checklist for it’s possible you’ll be a slim one—say, with room for one main exercise, three medium-sized ones, and 5 little ones (referred to as a 1-3-5 checklist). Should you attempt to do too a lot, your productiveness can take a success. (That’s Illich’s Legislation, child.)
To keep away from doing an excessive amount of or engaged on the flawed issues, you want a technique, and to type a technique, you’ll want to do some planning. The Eisenhower matrix will be helpful as you determine which duties have looming deadlines, nevertheless it’s a subjective software. Assigning numbers to your duties could make all of it really feel a extra data-driven.
How one can flip your to-do checklist into information
I encountered this tip in a blog post from advisor and strategist Daniel Coulton Shaw, who breaks down quantity your duties in order that they align with the Pareto precept.
First, write down every part you’ll want to get carried out within the foreseeable future, as you’ll within the early phases of creating a 1-3-5 checklist. Subsequent, assign every process two numbers, each of which shall be between 1 and 10. The primary quantity is for the trouble required, and the second is for the undertaking’s affect.
For instance, answering all of your emails could get a 3 for effort, however might yield leads to the 7 territory. Ending a report on a gathering may very well be a 6 in effort, however a 2 in outcomes. Selecting up your meds on the pharmacy may very well be a 2 in effort, or a 7, relying how arduous it’s to get there, however a 4 in outcomes, or perhaps a 10, relying on how essential the prescription is.
This half is subjective too, to a level, however even interested by your duties by way of “effort” and “outcomes” will enable you to grasp their seriousness—and we’re not carried out but. Subsequent, divide every process’s “outcomes” quantity by its “effort” quantity. So, if answering emails is a 7 on the outcomes scale and a 3 in effort, you’re a 2.33 total rating. As soon as all of your duties have been assigned a rating, you’ll be able to rank them in quantity order and intention to deal with them in that order, until one thing additional well timed comes alongside. By doing this, you’ll knock out the duties which might be essential however low effort—which ought to be that 20% of labor that includes 80% of your outcomes.