Tips of the Trade: Some Help Prioritizing in the New Year!

Tips of the Trade: Some Help Prioritizing in the New Year!

Continuing from yesterday's post:  Tips of the Trade: Some Help Getting Organized in the New Year!

 By: Tamara Braunstein

 

’Tis the season for resolutions: for making them, and for breaking them. There are plenty of ideas out there for what you might strive to improve in your life this year, and even advice and encouragement on sticking to those goals – set realistic goals, write them down, reward yourself, etc.

But all too often life happens. Work happens. Priorities are reshuffled and New Year goals are bumped down instead of scratched off the to-do list. This mini-series offers some helpful hints at how to manage your time to get the most out of every day – especially at work – leaving you more energy and time to focus on those recycled resolutions. 

Prioritize

Consider deadlines and profitability of the tasks at hand

Most often when people think of prioritizing, they think deadlines. While deadlines are no doubt important to recognize and meet, prioritizing in this way can sometimes lead to procrastinating on highly profitable tasks.

(Reading a blog post about time-management may not be high on your to-do list, but in the long run, learning to manage your time effectively could turn out to be more profitable than clearing out your inbox.)

As new tasks arise, think of how they fit in the overall picture

What tasks have prerequisites?

Are the prerequisites all completed?

How does each task affect your other tasks?

Is someone else waiting for you to finish something before they can move forward?

Expect the unexpected … or at least plan for it

Figure out which tasks can be rescheduled or saved for the next day if unexpected, high-priority tasks to arise.