How to Prioritise Workload

So, how do you prioritise your workload effectively?

Everyone is busy. Whether you're running your own business, starting a new company, or managing a new project at your job, we all end up with a list of things to do that's a mile long. And everything feels important and, in many cases, urgent. That's probably why you've been searching Google using the term "prioritise workload".

For some people, having a list of things to do can be very motivating. For others, it can be paralysing.

• How can you pick which task to start when you've got another six other important tasks on your to-do list?
• Do you start one and stick with it until the end, or should you do a bit of everything?
• Should you do the most urgent tasks quickly, or should you figure out a way to prioritise tasks to ensure everything is done accurately?

This is where being able to prioritise becomes an essential skill. Prioritising and managing your time is incredibly important and can significantly impact your productivity, stress levels, and more.

Here's what you need to know about prioritisation and some tips on how to prioritise all the tasks sitting in your in-tray at any given time. But if you need help, contact an experienced life coach to arrange an initial discovery meeting.

The Benefits of Prioritising Important Tasks

In an ideal world, we'd all have the support in place to never feel overwhelmed. But the reality is that most of us have long to-do lists and are being pulled in a thousand different directions.

Often, working out what needs your attention and what can wait is a difficult task.

When you feel like you're juggling too many balls, you need to work out what can be set down, what will bounce back, and what cannot be dropped. In other words, you need to know which balls are glass, which are plastic, and which balls can be given to someone else. And you can't do any of these things without a time management strategy and a system for managing multiple tasks at the same time.

Prioritising your workload has a considerable number of benefits to your mental health as well as tangible benefits for your business or career. If you've never thought about prioritising your urgent tasks, read on for a few reasons why you should!

Meet Important Deadlines

Prioritising your work can help ensure you always meet important deadlines. Organising your to-do list and prioritising urgent tasks means you won't let things slip through the cracks. Knowing which tasks need to be completed immediately and what can wait increases the chance you'll meet deadlines.

Reduced Stress

When you've got lots to do and your to-do list is overwhelmingly long, it's easy to feel overwhelmed, stressed and anxious. Not knowing where to start or worrying that you might let an important task slip past definitely adds to your stress. So, arranging your tasks by order of importance can help you keep track of everything and help you relax, knowing that you'll get the essential things done.

Prioritising your tasks can reduce stress by giving you a feeling of control. When you know what you've got to focus on—and what needs to be done and by when—you can be confident that you are in control. Good task management strategies can save you a huge amount of stress and worry.

Increased Productivity

When you prioritise your workload, you identify which tasks will add the most value and which need to be completed urgently. Ensuring that the tasks you are working on support your overall aims means you will find your productivity and output increase.

You can focus your immediate attention on the highest priority tasks and ensure that you are working efficiently and productively towards your goals.

Avoid Procrastination

For many people, when you've got lots to do, it can be hard to get started, leading to procrastination. The reason we end up procrastinating is that starting one task can feel like you are neglecting another job. To avoid this, we don't start anything, so nothing gets neglected. But this vicious circle of bad task management means everything gets neglected.

By organising the order in which you will complete tasks, you can confidently get started knowing you'll get to the other tasks soon. Nothing is going to be neglected, and procrastination is minimised.

But remember: Too many tasks spoil the broth! There will be times when you simply have to decide what's important and what isn't.

More Free Time

Maintaining a work-life balance is increasingly difficult. When you've got a list of things to do a mile long, taking a break and relaxing can lead you to feel guilty like you should be working. So, you take fewer breaks, have no free time, or when you aren't working, you're thinking of work.

Prioritising your workload means recognising that some things don't need to be done yet; they can wait. This means you can take more free time and have a life without feeling guilty or worried that you've forgotten something important.

Not to mention, with less procrastination, less stress, and increased productivity, you might be able to get more free time because you're finishing your tasks!

My Top Tips for Prioritising Your Workload and Urgent Tasks

Two things will help you prioritise high-priority and low-priority projects: workload management and time management. And when we start work on helping you prioritise certain tasks, we can get into the detail together. But for now, here are seven practical steps you can take to prioritise and multitask effectively.

Write Down All Your Different Tasks

This is a crucial aspect of workload management. Don't trust your memory—particularly when you're spinning countless plates. Even if you have to dump all your remaining tasks onto a piece of paper, that's a good start.

You can then rank tasks based on a combination of their urgency and importance. I'll show you a few ways to do this. I like to separate tasks according to their frequency: monthly, weekly, daily, etc.

Set Realistic Deadlines

There will be times when, despite your best project management efforts, deadlines are just too ambitious. You need to learn to let go of these deadlines. Missing one doesn't define your success or you as a person, but blindly sticking to deadlines you can't possibly meet to the detriment of your essential daily tasks is a recipe for perpetual failure.

Create Schedules and Long-Term Plans

One of the reasons you're struggling to prioritise tasks may be related to your initial schedules and plans. Right from the outset, it's important to accurately estimate how long small tasks and large tasks will take to complete. If you're persistently setting unrealistic deadlines, failure and the morale issues it leads to will hold you back from success.

Create schedules and plans you know you can deliver, and regularly review them. And plan ahead at every opportunity. Even the best-laid plans should be reassessed and changed when things don't go to plan.

Decide Whether or Not You Can Multitask

Multitasking can be a good approach at times, but in the long term, it can reduce productivity and lead to a range of negative consequences. If it's possible it's usually best to give 100% to the high-priority task at hand.

Did you know that only around 2.5% of people can multitask effectively? So, if you're going to attempt it, make sure you have a clear understanding of your abilities. And unless you're addressing relatively simple issues, take one task at a time.

Be Realistic

Unless you're some kind of genius, be honest with yourself about how much you can take on at once. Prioritise your most important tasks, and set a timescale for completion you know you can stick to. While all your tasks and goals should be time-sensitive, they shouldn't leave you despondent when you miss them.

Embrace the Pareto Principle

As a general rule of thumb, around 80% of outputs are caused by 20% of inputs. What does this mean in practice? Well, it means you have to decide which tasks will generate the best results in terms of your overall goal or vision in life.

You may have a seriously urgent, maybe even overdue, task that requires your immediate attention. But were you to drop what you're doing and make that task your priority, what would be the benefits? And what would be the consequences of you not prioritising that task?

Imagine you're running the country's finances. You soon find out that 80% of tax receipts come from the top 20% of earners. Where would you start if you needed to raise tax receipts in a hurry to fund a healthcare project? You wouldn't start with the 80% of the population that contributes 20% of the nation's income if fast results were your priority—you'd start with the 20% of the country who were contributing the vast majority of the tax.

This is called the 80/20 rule—or the Pareto Principle. And it applies to areas such as time management and productivity, too. For example, 80% of the average company's decisions during meetings are made in 20% of the total meeting time.

Work out which tasks are going to give you 80% of your results for only 20% of your time or effort. Unless there's a very good reason for prioritising less valuable tasks, make the tough decisions that will drive you forward in pursuit of your ultimate goal.

Improve Your Approach to Project Management

You are a project—whether you know it or not. Being happy is a project. Earning that elusive promotion is a project. Fulfilling your potential is a project. So, you have to take a managerial approach; otherwise, you're a ship without a sail. You're floating aimlessly in the sea of life.

Any project manager will tell you about the importance of prioritisation and putting high-value tasks at the top of your list. If you're blindly and consistently taking a chronological approach to prioritising tasks, you'll never be able to leverage the 80/20 rule. A life and confidence coach can help you switch your focus—even if you're worried about the consequences or going against a lifetime of working a certain way.

How to Prioritise Workload Issues

With so many benefits to setting clear priorities, you should get started prioritising your own work. But it's often more complicated than you think.

Suddenly, everything is urgent, everything adds value, and everything needs to be done. Before you know it, you're juggling everything at once and finding it hard to prioritise even a single task.

So, how can you effectively prioritise your work?

Make a To-Do List

The first step is to make a to-do list. You can't begin to prioritise your workload if you don't know what needs to be done. This can feel overwhelming as it means looking at a very long list of things you need to do. However, it's an essential first step.

Create an Urgent-Important Matrix

What's urgent? What's important? These are two completely different things. You may have deadlines, but what are the consequences of missing them? And are those consequences as serious as the consequences of missing deadlines for more important tasks?

Rank or arrange each task according to its level of importance. And this is where most people find it hard to choose. Here are a few things to consider when deciding what is a priority and what can wait:

• Is there a firm deadline? Is someone else waiting for you?
• If the task isn't finished today, will it have a significant impact?
• Can it be delegated? Do you have to do it, or can someone else help out?
• Can it be finished within 20 minutes? If it can be done quickly, get it out of the way.
• Does this task add significant value, and does this value decrease the longer the task isn't completed?

Struggling to Prioritise all the Tasks on Your To-Do List?

The ability to prioritise your workload, identify important tasks, and ensure you are organising your tasks isn't always easy. But for people looking to make the most of their time, work efficiently, and meet goals, prioritisation is crucial.

If you are still struggling to prioritise daily or weekly tasks, or you want to support working out what to prioritise in your life, get in touch today to book a free initial consultation. I'm an experienced life and business coach who can help you find motivation and identify important jobs. I will also hold you responsible—even when you miss just one task.