What Does It Really Mean to Prioritize?

by Robertt Young

Before I joined the Effective EDGE I tried several types of time management programs. You could say I was a time management groupie. if there was a time management course to be attended within 50 miles, I was there. While I picked up a lot of great ideas over the years, the one thing that never seemed to work for me was how these classes would teach prioritization. The first class I ever attended taught to make a list of the top ten things we wanted to accomplish that day and work on job one until it was done, then work on job two and so on and so forth. This process was to continue until you had completed everything on your list, then you could go home feeling satisfied, productive and absolutely great about what you had accomplished. They told us that this worked because it was invented by Benjamin Franklin. Well let’s see what did old Ben have to do in those days; what did his list look like?

1. Buy a kite
2. Buy some string
3. Get some keys
4. Wait for a storm
5. Buy a ticket to France
   

Not anything like mine in 2009. So, I quickly found that didn’t work for me. The next class I attended suggested that I make a list of everything I had to do everyday, then look over the list and rate my high priority things “A” mid priority things “B” and low priority things “C”. Then, I was to work on my A’s until they were finished, then the B’s, then finally the C’s. That seemed like a great idea until I tried to put it into practice. I would spend 30 minutes each morning planning my day this way and boy was I ready to start attacking those A’s and then my day happened and my A’s turned to B’s and C’s turned to B’s and a whole bunch of new A’s got thrown on my list. Now I was just as confused as before. It wasn’t until I began working for The Effective EDGE that I found a prioritization model that was practical, usable and effective. It was as simple as it was elegant.

So what are the best practices around prioritization?

There are several:

1. Collect everything in one place. Have all your action items on your task list/to do list or on your calendar depending upon the timing of the action item, i.e. if it has to be done to day, it goes on your calendar. All the others go in the proper category on your task list.
2. Manage from your lists not your head.
3. Move expiring action items, those that are due today, from your task list/top do list to your calendar.
4. Complete all your day specific items first.
5. Then, look at your ..Actions category and ..Calls and apply the EDGE TEST Criteria to determine the Next Action.
6. T = Time, how much time do I have?
7. E = Energy, how much Energy do I have?
8. S = Location/Context, Where am I? Can I make calls? If not, then I can’t do anything in my ..Calls category.
9. T= Top Level, what is the highest leverage action you can take at this moment?
   

If you work from your calendar/task list during the day instead of your email inbox, and look to your calendar and your task list/to do list for what you need to work on throughout the day, you will easily regain 1 – 2 hours a day, minimize distractions and feel a real sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.