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Planning and Prioritizing
By Suzanne Hardy

Author bio

I've always thought my time-management skills were pretty much on the money. I mean, how else was I able to meet tight deadlines year after year? Yes, I put in grueling hours at crunch time, but so does everybody else. Could there be room for improvement?

I didn't think so until recently when an executive at our company, Marylin Stompler, offered some tips to employees that she had found useful over the years. After a coworker of mine found it useful to prioritize and plan a little each day (he is someone who feels stressed out on a daily basis), I had to try it out. I was impressed that spending a very small amount of time planning the day and week ahead could help him feel so much more under control and organized. I realized that I, too, could use some help.

Make time to plan

Taking the time to plan which tasks to tackle and in what order is something many of us don't have time to do. But planning and prioritizing can eliminate working on unimportant or nonurgent tasks and the catch-up time we put in later. Stompler suggests allocating up to 30 minutes each Friday afternoon to make a list of tasks for the following week. Waiting until Monday is difficult, she says, because it's easy to forget the priorities and details from the previous week. Each day, she says, review the list and update it if necessary.

Create a master list

As a quick exercise to show the number of tasks you may be trying to remember, take five minutes to write them all down. When I did this, I was actually shocked at the length of my list. Was it any wonder I sometimes felt overwhelmed?

I kept Post-It notes everywhere and wrote lists on meeting agendas. But, with all those scattered pieces of paper, it was difficult to tell which tasks were most important. Stompler suggests maintaining a single list, using a hard copy (such as a notepad) or electronic (such as a handheld organizer, Microsoft Outlook, or Excel) method. Always keep the list handy and don't rely on your memory alone—you will forget, she warns.

Prioritize regularly

Now that you have a comprehensive list of "to-do" tasks, it's time to prioritize. Without knowing which tasks are most important and which are less important, it's easy to jump from task to task without clear direction. To prioritize for the following week, assign a number to each item on your master list in order of its priority (i.e., "1" is the most important, and "3" is less important).

Refer to your master list every day, and mark off what you've done. Complete your "1" items first. As new items come up, add them and assign a number. Items you ranked as "1" may have to be bumped to "2." Remember that some tasks can simply wait.

If you have any doubts, be sure to talk to your manager for clarification. It's worth the time to plan.