The trick is to be as ruthless as you might stand.
This post originally appeared on theZapier blog.
At least, that’s what it usually takes for me to get stuck in!
Prioritization is really hard, becauseit’s mostly about saying no.
Let’s dive in.
Analyze Your Task List
Let’s start by looking for any tasks that can be dumped completely.
Then you’re free to focus on the most productive quadrant:important but not urgent.
Ignore everything else you could be doing (until you’re ready to plan tomorrow’s list).
This also stops me from planning too many tasks on days I’m in meetings for hours.
Use MITs
MIT stands for “Most Important Tasks.”
I often advocate for usingMITs, because they’ve really helped me to write more realistic to do lists.
It’s a process of choosing just a few (usually three) tasks to get done per day.
It’s very simple: your MIT is the task you most want or need to get done today.
- Leo Babauta, Zen Habits
Pick a Single Focus
We’re getting into ruthless territory now.
When you look at your task list or your MITs for today, picka single thingto focus on.
Be ruthless; only pick three.
Next, cut that down to two.
And hopefully you’ll find that ruthless prioritization can actually be quite liberating!
She is a writer atCrewand was previously Buffer’s first Content Crafter and Head of Content at Attendly.
Image byThinglass(Shutterstock).
Priority matrix courtesyUS Geological Survey.
Additional photos byEric Gelinas,Garry Knight(Flickr).
