Task Prioritization: A Comprehensive Guide

Every organization wants to succeed and gain a competitive edge in this highly competitive digital age. But this can be achieved by accomplishing goals and objectives, which is possible if the tasks are aligned and prioritized effectively. According to research, 17.4% of managers spend less than 4 hours/week assigning, prioritizing, and reprioritizing tasks for their teams.

For effective prioritization, several strategies are followed by managers to figure out which tasks are important and how to prioritize them. Nowadays, as the competition is fierce, every business aspect has to be well-planned. Task prioritization might not seem of primary importance but believe you may, it is the epicenter of all business processes.

In this blog, you’ll understand task prioritization, its strategies, benefits, and how to implement it in daily life. So do stick till the end!

Understanding Task Prioritization

Tasks prioritization is a strategic operation, and a lot of face issues with task prioritization due to several aspects. But the main issue is that most of the managers don’t have the working knowledge and importance of task prioritization.

But it must be noted that task prioritization is highly essential. If you cannot attain the desired results, you need to seriously consider amending your task prioritization strategies. It is understandable that task prioritization is a daunting task, but effective task prioritization will lead you to effective decision-making, enhance efficiency, and accomplish the determined goals.

In simple words, task prioritization is all about strategizing the tasks based on the priority level, and that depends on how close the organization will be to achieving the objectives post-completion of that task. 

Thanks to technology, if your workforce is insufficient to effectively prioritize tasks, then you can rely on software that will assist you. Also, these software leverages advanced functionalities to streamline the process and efficiently align the tasks.

What are The Benefits of Task Prioritization?

Until now, it must be clear that task prioritization is essential for all kinds and sizes of business. But if you need more convincing, here are the benefits of the process reading, which gives you a clear understanding of task prioritization.

1. Better Workload Management

When the tasks are effectively prioritized, the workforce is well-informed about the workflow. The tasks are aligned in consonance with the accomplishment of goals, due to which the workflow is streamlined. All in all, the overall workload is effectively managed.

2. Enhanced Productivity

As the tasks get sorted on the basis of priority, the workforce can completely focus on the accomplishment of these tasks. The confusion about which tasks are to be completed first is gone. So with undivided concentration, there is a high chance of the level of productivity getting elevated.

3. Quick Progress

Task prioritization leads to quick development and progress of the business processes as the entire task structure is organized. So, the employees have to clearly follow the workflow and complete the tasks in the stipulated time. With this, the accomplishment of goals gets easy.

4. Root out Irrelevant Tasks

With task prioritization, you can side out the tasks that are irrelevant to any particular goal or objective. This will enhance operational efficiency and lead your organization to derive optimum results. In addition, only the tasks aligned with the goals and objectives will be added to the priority list.

5. Elevated Customer Experience

Task prioritization is essential for every business, and every business aims to increase customer satisfaction. Streamlining the tasks and accomplishing the goals will lead to increasing your customer experience to a great extent.

Hence, these are the main benefits that task prioritization offers. It is pretty clear that task prioritization is highly beneficial for the organization. Now let’s look at the strategies for task prioritization.

What are the Strategies for Effective Task Prioritization?

Task prioritization and time management in project teams can get messy without a reliable process. Be it a project manager or a team member, setting project management techniques can help you save a lot of time. What about a to-do list? 

Well, it can help, but if you use task management software, you can create an automated process. Different team members can add their tasks, and you can sit together to prioritize accordingly.

When you understand which tasks are dependent on others, you’ll be able to create a much more efficient schedule. Once you are sorted with the order of tasks, it is time to organize. 

Once you know the order of specifics of the tasks, it is time to prioritize and organize. Let’s have a look at some of the best task prioritization techniques.

1. GTD: “Getting Things Done” Task Prioritization Method

The brainchild of David Allen, Getting Things Done (GTD), is based on the idea that your mind is for having thoughts, not holding them. So, you need to have a method in place that can help you capture ideas and tasks and store them for reviewing and prioritizing at any given time. 

Once you have captured all your tasks and turned them into actionable items, it is time to organize them. With GTD, the process takes place through the decision tree. So, what does this involve? 

GTD first sorts non-actionable tasks into three categories: 

• Trash – Remove these tasks
• Reference – These contain valuable information but do not require immediate attention
• Someday/maybe – The tasks are your pending tasks and need to be completed at some point. 

Once you are done with this, it is time to sort out the actionable tasks. 

• Right Away – If you can complete tasks in one step, complete them on an immediate basis
• Waiting-For – If you have assigned tasks to other team members, add them to the waiting-for list
• Next-Action – If you don’t have to complete actions on some tasks right away, add them to this list
• Calendar – If your task has a defined deadline, then add it to the calendar

2. “Eat That Frog” Method of Prioritizing Tasks

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning.- Mark Twain

Eat That Frog is a method that requires strategic planning. So, if your job is to consume two frogs, it is suggested that you eat the biggest one first. 

What this really means is that you must complete your most important tasks first. At the start of each day, you need to identify your objectives and analyze your task list from that perspective by using time management strategies.

So, if you have to complete important and complex tasks, make it a point to complete them first thing in the morning. Once you have completed them, you can proceed to other tasks. Not only will this method lead to lower stress levels, but it will also help you achieve more in a day. 

3. ABCDE Methods

One of the easiest ways to prioritize tasks, the ABCDE method lets you supercharge your efficiency. All you need to do is follow the alphabet order and sort out your tasks as per the following method. 

A – High priority
B – Medium priority
C – Low priority tasks
D – Delegate to other team members
E – Eliminate

4. Chunking/Timeboxing

Do you find yourself stuck between several tasks and often fail to complete them? Well, then, timeboxing is a method designed for you!

Instead of completing tasks as you go and multitasking, you should divide your day into “chunks”– blocks of time dedicated to completing each task. After noting down all your tasks, you should sort them according to the context.

For example, if your team is building an app, you can sort the tasks into front-end and back-end design activities. Once you have done that, you can fix a time period for each task group. 

This will help you focus on your work rather than constantly breaking focus to concentrate on something else. Chunking is an incredibly efficient method for teams that juggle multiple projects at once.

5. Eisenhower Matrix

One of the most basic prioritization methods, the Eisenhower matrix, lets you group tasks according to importance and urgency. Follow these steps to streamline your tasks using the Eisenhower matrix.

• Important and Urgent tasks: Complete these immediately
• Important and Not Urgent tasks: Schedule 
• Not Important and Urgent tasks: Delegate 
• Not Important and Not Urgent: Eliminate

6. RICE

RICE stands for Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. RICE is a system that assists you in setting priorities by considering every aspect of a particular project. There are several factors that you need to take into consideration for figuring out the priority level.

• Reach: You have to assess that how many employees will be affected by the project structure.
• Impact: Impact will be categorized into 5 parts, i.e., massive, high, medium, low, and minimum. Based on the level of impact, the task prioritization is to be done.
• Confidence: Here, the confidence is related to the level of impact. Here, confidence is divided into three categories, high, medium, and low confidence.
• Effort: It means the number of people required to complete a specific project. 

After getting the relevant information, there is a formula for this method and you need to apply it to get the real estimate. The formula is as follows:

All in all, this an advantageous process, but at the same time, it is highly time-consuming and requires a lot of resources to get effective results.

7. MoSCoW prioritization

MoSCoW is a task prioritization technique that enables you to ensure that which tasks of the project must be given the highest priority. It is divided into four categories on the basis of which the prioritization process must be assessed. The categories are as follows:

• First category involves those tasks that are a must-have for the successful accomplishment of the project.
• Second category is the requirement of those tasks that are important, but there is no urgency and has a specific deadline or delivery date entitled to it.
• Third category is the tasks that are beneficial to the organization is accomplishment, but there is no harm if they aren’t complete.
• Fourth and last is the category of tasks that are of the least importance, and you have all the time in the world to complete them.

This is a beneficial method, but the level of accuracy it offers is not appropriate. It can be too good or not good at all. As it is based on the perception of an individual, and the thing about perception is that it varies from person to person.

8. Value vs. Complexity

This task prioritization strategy is exclusively for managers who can identify the value of projects or ideas by calculating the level of complexity and the efforts it will require to accomplish the same. It is very much similar to Eisenhower Matrix as it consists of a similar amount of quadrants, just the variables vary. Here the variables are Value and Complexity.

In Value, the manager evaluates the value addition of task completion. Simultaneously, he/she will analyze the required cost and effort. With this evaluation, you’ll get a clear idea of whether you should make an effort or not.

Hence, these are the essential task prioritization strategies that will assist you in effectively managing your projects or process. You can choose the strategy that is the best fit for your organization by analyzing and evaluating all the aspects in-depth for getting optimum results.

Implementing Task Prioritization in Daily Life

Apart from prioritizing tasks for your business. You can prioritize tasks for your daily life, and the best part is that some of the strategies mentioned above can also be used for the same. Now, daily life consists of professional life and personal life. Let’s look at how you can prioritize tasks and which strategies can be used for both parts of your daily life.

Professional Life

 For task prioritization in your professional all of the strategies mentioned above can be applied. With these strategies, you can streamline your professional task and bring a good balance. By applying the best suitable strategy, you will be able to elevate your productivity exponentially.

Personal Life

For elevating the balance of your personal life, the ABCDE task prioritization method is the best fit. As this method allows you to prepare a list of the tasks, and you can evaluate and prioritize the tasks based on your understanding.

So, this is  how you can implement task prioritization in your daily life. Now, let’s look at the techniques for overcoming the challenges of task prioritization.

Overcoming Challenges in Task Prioritization

There are challenges with task prioritization, but they are easy to overcome if you maintain consistency, as task prioritization is an ever-changing process. So, you need to put in effort daily to effectively overcome the challenges. Some of the techniques for eliminating the challenges are as follows:

1. Jot down all the tasks for the day daily.
2. Evaluate your long-term goals.
3. Divide the goals into different categories
4. Don’t forget to put deadlines for all tasks and ensure that it is being adhered to.
5. Apply different strategies for the accomplishment of different tasks for optimum results.
6. Eradicate the aspects causing distractions.

These are some of the ways through which you can effectively sideline the challenges and accomplish the task efficiently.

Wrapping Up 

According to a research by Zapier, 76% of workers stated that they spend less than 3 hours a week on strategic work. This is because of the inefficiency of the organizations to effectively prioritize tasks. Most of the time, it’s seen that due to this phenomenon, project management gets tough and the desired results are not attained. 

Here’s where project management software comes into play. Utilizing these software will elevate your process and lead you to the successful accomplishment of projects. As you start completing your tasks, keeping all the stakeholders in the loop about progress, milestones, and other aspects is essential.

Frequently Asked Questions

Naim is an established content writer with over 3 years of experience in the SaaS industry. Specializing in SaaS, Naim has written extensive content on several topics depicting valuable insights to readers. He is keen on expanding his area of knowledge by staying consistent with the latest SaaS trends. His blogs are informative, easily understandable, and involve the best practices prevailing in the SaaS industry.