How to prioritize when everything seems important: 7 techniques

You will never have enough time and resources to realize everything you plan. You always have to give up something. But what if all the things on your list seem super important, and you just can’t decide which one to do first? In this case, prioritization techniques will help you. They provide a formal method for assessing the importance of each matter. This way you can unload your brain to direct its resources to work. In this article we give 7 time management techniques: try them and choose the one that suits you best.

1

Priority Matrix

In this method, you write out tasks in a matrix of four blocks. The X-axis represents one value and the Y-axis another. Each square thus indicates a priority based on certain criteria.

Eisenhower Matrix

A popular example is the Eisenhower Matrix, which uses importance as the Y-axis value and urgency as the X-axis value. You score tasks based on urgency and importance, and then place each one in the correct square based on your score:

Important and not urgent	Important and urgent
Not important or urgent	Not important and urgent

• Important and urgent tasks are your top priorities.
• Important but non-urgent tasks have lower priorities - you should schedule them for later.
• Urgent but not important tasks are good candidates for delegation.
• Non-urgent and non-important tasks are things you probably just shouldn't do.

By placing each task on your list in a square of the Eisenhower Matrix, you can determine what you need to work on now, what you will leave for later, what should be delegated, and what can be removed from the list.

Effort-Influence Matrix

In the Effort-Impact Matrix, you rate tasks based on how much effort they will require and what impact completing them will have:

High effort and low impact	High effort and high impact
Low effort and low impact	Low effort and high impact

The tasks in the two right quadrants are your priorities. “Low effort, high impact” – these tasks are probably your highest priorities because they represent quick wins, but the items in the bottom left corner can be safely crossed off.

2

Meaning of the concept

Human life has many facets; it is complex, unpredictable and individual.
Each person has his own character, so people treat the same events in life differently. Views on current events and their perception distinguishes one person from another. Everyone associates the word priority with different things. A student sees a long-awaited diploma in front of him, an athlete sees victory in a competition, a young specialist sees career growth. The concept of what life priorities are can be characterized by the following phrase:

“Priorities are activities that, after a certain time, can justify the effort and time spent on them.”

Basic values ​​in human life

It is difficult to meet two people who have absolutely identical priorities. However, there are personal values ​​that are common to all intelligent women and men. What can be the most important thing in human life? A person's basic values ​​make up a short list.

1. Self-love. It should not be confused with selfishness and narcissism. This is a sense of self-esteem, the desire to develop as a person, the desire to achieve happiness and inner harmony. Without a healthy dose of self-love, a person will not be able to live a full life.
2. Family. For the vast majority of people, life priorities are to achieve family happiness. A wife or husband, children, grandchildren, a cozy home is a huge wealth.
3. Career. What are the life values? Many people attach paramount importance to their professional activities. For active ladies and gentlemen, career growth sometimes means more than family, so they focus all their efforts on achieving success in the workplace.
4. Public life. Altruists consider working for the good of society as their main priority. Such people usually put their own needs in the background.
5. Self-discipline. Life values ​​- what are they? This is the ability to direct personal activity to achieve any results in such a way that the actions taken do not contradict moral principles. Discipline is extremely important for an individual - the ability to fulfill responsibilities and promises given to oneself or others. Self-discipline requires enormous willpower and character, but it is incredibly beneficial for personal growth.

Values ​​in a person’s life can be different, individual and completely unexpected. They are reflected in the goals set and ways to achieve them. If we talk about non-core values ​​in life, what they are:

• honesty;
• health;
• optimism;
• patience;
• tolerance;
• spiritual development;
• respect;
• hope;
• creative realization;
• Gratitude;
• faith in people.

The list can be continued for quite a long time. All these priorities represent a complex structure. Thanks to them, a person can foresee the negative outcome of a situation and all kinds of failures. They are guided throughout life, but it is accepted that over time moral attitudes can change dramatically.

Classification of priorities

Values ​​in life can be compared to guidelines. At the right time, a person can rely on them and use them to check the correctness of the chosen direction. These are personal qualities, human beliefs, ideals and a sense of the correctness of what an individual does in life. When priorities in life are vague, there may be a loss of meaning in existence and, as a result, a state of despair.

If, for example, there are problems with the position of the financial plan, or it is sometimes not too easy for a person to make a decision on some issue, this means that the world within him does not correspond to the surrounding reality.

Important! Priorities, which can also be called attitudes, are good companions for living a full, vibrant and productive life.

Priorities are a purely individual matter and different for each person, man and woman. They may depend on upbringing in the family, what was said and instilled in the child from childhood (how he was raised and taught at school). The foundation of a harmonious personality is laid from an early age through the instillation of moral qualities and other undeniable virtues.

Choosing Priorities

The list of priorities can be very long. However, out of the entire existing variety of values, three main ones are distinguished:

• Everything related to professional activity: business, career, work, job search, resume writing and everything related to the chosen path of work;
• Everything that relates to matters of a personal nature: personal relationships and personal life;
• Everything that can be considered personal development: spiritual growth, knowledge of oneself and life.

Factors influencing priorities in a person’s life

Habits of successful people - what to do every day for success in life

In order to set priorities in life, it is necessary to take into account the influence of some factors that may seem insignificant and simple, but this is only at first glance. In fact, they influence a person’s position in life and specific views:

• Time can be put in first place among all such factors. Many people in their youth do not often think about maintaining their health or family life. They give greater preference to career or fun. At a more mature age, they begin to place values ​​in an order completely opposite to the first.
• The next factor is the events that happened in everyone’s life. Here, an important role is played by what they were like: bad or good, sad or joyful. These events determine how a person looks at this or that situation in life, having in his arsenal the experience of similar things in the past.
• The most important and even key factor is considered to be the experienced difficulties in life in any one or several areas at once. There may be two options for how events will develop. If some failures occur in work or in its search, a person may strive even more for a better result or, fearing past losses, completely lose all hope and put this priority in place last.

Most Important Task

Most Important Task (MIT) is an extremely simple prioritization method without any fuss. Don't try to prioritize your entire to-do list, start each morning by choosing the 1-3 Most Important Tasks (MITs) you need to do that day.

At least one of the Most Important Tasks of the day should be related to your main goals to ensure that you are doing something daily to achieve them. You'll probably get more done in a day than just your MITs. But choosing MITs in the morning and setting a deadline will ensure that you dedicate time every day to working on important, high-priority tasks.

3

Examples

To better understand what prioritization is, let's look at some very simple real-life examples:

Example 1. A person leaves for a few days on a business trip. In five minutes a taxi should come for him and take him to the airport. During this time, he will have time to either wash the dishes or water the flowers. What's more important?

Priority task: water the flowers. Nothing will happen to the dishes during these days, but the flowers may die.

Example 2. A man went to the supermarket to buy milk for his child and some spicy meat seasoning for himself. Suddenly he discovered that there was only enough money for one thing. What's better to buy?

Priority task: buy milk. Seasoning is not something necessary.

Example 3. A sales manager was going to clear corporate email of spam. At that moment, a regular customer called him and asked him to accept the order. What should you do now?

Priority task: take the order. This is the main responsibility of a manager.

Example 4. A young man graduated from university. He set himself two short-term goals: to find a high-paying job in his specialty and to raise money for a down payment on a mortgage. What should he think about first?

Priority goal: find a job. Without this, the second goal is unlikely to be realized.

Note that all the examples listed above are unambiguous and even a little exaggerated: in them it is immediately clear what is important and what is not.

However, in real life, priorities cannot always be determined by eye. Sometimes this requires carefully analyzing the situation, considering the consequences and weighing all the possible pros and cons.

It is also important to understand that the priority of any task is usually a subjective concept. In the same situation, for one person it will be important to “finish a project at work”, for another it will be “to go to training”, and for a third it will be “to go on a picnic with the family”. Here, a lot depends on the goals and values ​​of the person, his character and personal qualities.

Ivy Lee Method

The history of the Ivy Lee method very clearly shows its effectiveness. One day, entrepreneur Charles M. Schwab hired productivity consultant Ivy Lee to improve the productivity of his steel corporation. Lee did not ask for an upfront fee for the consultation. Instead, he asked Schwab to wait three months and then pay him whatever amount he deemed appropriate based on the results. Three months later, Schwab wrote Lee a check for $25,000 (a lot of money in those days).

Ivy Lee's method is simple (and similar to the MIT method):

1. At the end of each workday, select the six most important tasks on your list to work on tomorrow.
2. Then rank these six tasks in order of priority.
3. When you start work the next day, work on task number one until it is completed.
4. Then work on task number two, number three, etc.

Continue until all six tasks are completed and repeat the process every day.

4

Third - plan for upcoming actions

When the goal is clear and the starting level is visible, it is time to carefully develop a step-by-step progression towards the ideal. You cannot move a rock with your bare hands, but you can break it into pieces and gradually move them one by one. This is what I recommend to those who decide to change everything for the better. The global goal should consist of a series of intermediate ones; a time is determined for them and the necessary steps are calculated.

Sometimes you meet people who have tried to immediately grasp the immensity. As a result, they lost faith in themselves and gave up. It is difficult to work with such clients, but you can help them by going through the preliminary stages with them and jointly mapping out ways to achieve the goal. As a rule, their second attempt is much more successful.

It is important not to notify others about your plans until their implementation has begun. Empty talk wastes precious energy, turning good initiatives into bragging and can cause serious harm.

Two lists

This method was recommended by the famous investor Warren Buffett. It is based on the Pareto principle, when you take on only the 20% of the most important things that will bring 80% of the results:

1. Write a list of 25 things you want to do.
2. Select your five most important priorities - this is your new to-do list.

Do only these five things, and cross out or delegate the rest - they will not have much impact on your life. Only tackle the other 20 if you have time left after completing your most important tasks.

5

Time to make a choice

How a person’s fate will turn out, whether a dream can become a reality, depends only on him. Knowing what it is and how to correctly prioritize in a person’s life, work, affairs and how to learn this, opens up space not only for self-improvement, but also for ordering one’s destiny. Entire systems have been developed for this; they are based on the assertion that each person goes to achieve a goal in his own way and propose models of behavior. All that remains is to delve into their action and choose the option that is closest to the algorithm. Any of them involves several stages of implementing the plan. If you feel that some area of ​​life is getting out of control or is preventing you from reaching the next level of development, change the situation immediately.

MoSCoW method

In this technique, you classify each case into one of 4 categories:

1. M (Must Do) – tasks that you must complete.
2. S (Should Do) tasks are things you should do, but they have a lower priority than M tasks.
3. C (Could Do) – these tasks could be done, but if you don’t complete them, then nothing bad will happen.
4. W (Won't Do) – you don't have to do these tasks at all.

If you always work through your list from top to bottom, you will ensure that you only spend time on the highest priority items.

6

Maslow's pyramid

This famous table systematizes human needs. All our needs are built here in a certain subordination in relation to each other: without satisfying the lower level, it is impossible to move higher.

The relationship between the practical and the spiritual has long been proven. Without satisfying basic needs, you will not be able to take a step further. The system, developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow, clearly shows the possible definition of priority tasks and goals. He based it on physiological needs that give strength to move along the road of life. The next requirement is the safety of the person and his loved ones. Next comes the need for love, which is complemented by the desire for recognition of merit and respect from other members of society. At the top he placed self-expression as an act of supreme creativity. But it is impossible without compliance with basic requirements, at least to a minimum extent. This distribution must be taken into account, otherwise plans risk remaining in the form of tables and graphs, without having a basis for actual implementation.

ABCDE technique

One thing the MoSCoW method doesn't take into account is the tasks you need to assign to someone else. MoSCoW is suitable if you don't have anyone to delegate to. If you have subordinates, arm yourself with the ABCDE technique.

As with the previous example, the ABCDE method begins by placing each task on your list into a category:

1. A is what you should do first (just like M tasks in MoSCoW).
2. B is something you should do second (just like S tasks in MoSCoW).
3. C is something that can be done, but does not have to be done (just like C tasks in MoSCoW).
4. D are the tasks you should delegate (or automate).
5. E are things you can eliminate (same as W things in MoSCoW).

The process for ABCDE is the same as for MoSCoW: go through each task on your list, assign it a letter based on its priority, and sort. Delegate D tasks and remove E tasks so you only have A, B, and C, then work from top to bottom to make sure you're always focused on your most important goals.

7

Books

Setting priorities is a process that requires the development of many skills. You need to learn the art of time management, how to make lists and much more. Here is a list of books that will be useful at the start:

• "On the Limit" by Eric Bertrand Larssen.
• "Effective Time Management" Brian Tracy.
• "The Book of Self-Power" by Tony Robbins.
• “Power is limitless. How to Achieve Personal Achievement by Tony Robbins.
• “What will you choose?” Tal Ben-Shahar.
• "Don't Distract Me" Edward Hallowell.
• "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.
• "To hell with all of it! Go ahead and do it." Richard Branson.

We wish you good luck!

We also recommend reading:

• Storytelling
• 10 mistakes in time management
• How to be effective at your job
• The art of prioritizing
• How to organize your business using Agile
• Personal Development Plan
• The best blog content in 2021: time management and productivity
• How to Develop an Effective Action Plan
• How to prioritize when everything seems important: 7 techniques
• Time budget
• How to turn a deadline into a friend?

Key words:1Time management

Scrum prioritization

Scrum prioritization is based on ordering. If you have 20 things on your list, you assign each a number from 1 to 20 based on priority and sequence. Scrum prioritization works very well when you need to consider consistency.

Let's say your highest priority is painting your bathroom floor. However, you know that you also need to change the pipes in the bathroom, and to do this you will have to cut out the floor. Running new pipes may be a lower priority, but since it will impact your most important task of re-flooring, a minor task needs to be completed first.

In this method, you evaluate each task on your list using three criteria:

1. How important is this task?
2. How important is this compared to other tasks on this list?
3. Does any other task depend on this task?

Then, using the answers to these questions, you assign each a number 1-n (where n is the total number of tasks on your list). You can't have two tasks that are #1. You should do one #1 and one #2. Each case receives a unique number.

Scrum prioritization works great on its own, but it also works well with other methods such as MoSCoW and ABCDE. Once you've classified your tasks by priority (as M, C and W or A, B and C), you can start organizing the tasks in the order you plan to complete them in the Scrum method.

Upbringing

The issue of forming life goals and priorities is mainly relevant for new parents and those whose upbringing for some reason is only in their own hands. Most people want to raise a son or daughter or to be happy and properly developed themselves. Parents’ own understanding of the correctness of priorities is a key factor when choosing the value system that they want to instill in their children.

If a child’s life goes without trauma and severe shocks, the ideas developed in childhood (about love, family, material enrichment, education, self-development and career growth) will be fixed in the subconscious for life. As a rule, families of workaholics and careerists grow up to be working and ambitious individuals who actively strive for a certain status. When love and close people are a family priority, a child grows up who values ​​feelings and relationships.

Your priorities largely depend on your life experiences and what you deal with every day. It is pointless to convince the younger generation of the importance of family values ​​if, for example, the father is not at home because of work, and the mother pays all her attention to her friends. Parents must demonstrate what they believe is right and appropriate by example.

Additional Tips

Make a list of important things to do.

This is a very useful practice. You need to make two lists.

First: cases that represent the big picture. For example, learning English, reading three books on communicating with people and implementing tips in life, creating a startup.

Second: what you need to do every day. These could be repetitive activities: exercise, reading, meditation.

It is important to break down the things on the first list into their components and start doing them. At the same time, make sure that the tasks from the second list are also completed. Balance is what will allow you to live a fulfilling life.

Three spheres of values

Priorities are individual and depend mainly on what a particular person was instilled in childhood in the family and school. Education of morality and other virtues is the key to a harmonious personality with the correct priorities of life values.

Their full list is huge. But there are three most significant parts of the values ​​of a healthy personality:

1. Business, work, business.
2. Personal life and relationships.
3. Own development.

In addition, they share material and spiritual values.

What else?

A person’s life priorities list and other values ​​include. Among them are the following:

• Moral.
• Tolerance.
• Creative self-realization.
• Hope.
• Kindness.
• Forgiveness.
• Discipline.
• Gratitude.
• Altruism.
• Patience.
• Compassion for people and animals.
• Faith in others.
• Honesty.
• Optimism.

Category 2. Important and not urgent

Tasks in this category ensure your success. These include the following:

Preparation and strategic planning. Articulate what your personal, professional, and company goals are. Long-term planning will help to minimize or completely eliminate the occurrence of tasks from the “Important and Urgent” category.

Working on projects. Plan your work so that projects do not become dependent on deadlines and do not become a source of problems.

Training and professional development. This is an activity that has a significant impact on your professional growth and achievement of goals.

Exercise, relax and take care of yourself. Be sure to include these important and non-urgent tasks on your calendar so that they become your priorities.