Rise to the Top!

Priority management is the art of doing what you need to do before doing what you want to do. Fueled by urgency, diligence and focus, priority management will help you create a to-do list that concentrates first on the activities with the most payback. Here's how to prioritize a list of tasks:

Use the 80-20 rule. You will most likely find that 20% of your daily activities will produce 80% of your rewards. Prioritizing involves isolating and identifying that valuable 20% (i.e., two tasks on a list of 10). Once you identify the tasks with the most yield, prioritize your time to concentrate on these items in order of importance. Flag each item with a deadline. Write them in your calendar. Make an appointment with yourself to get the task done!

Underpromise and overdeliver. Priorities are easily disrupted when you promise people and yourself more than you can accomplish. It is important to know yourself, including your strengths and how you best achieve results. Keep a record of how long it takes to finish each task. This will become invaluable in accomplishing future deadline-driven priorities.

Plan for the unexpected. Inject flexibility into your priority management. Interruptions occur. Distractions happen. The best intentions sometimes go awry. Plan and prioritize, but leave a cushion for the unexpected. On days when you expect interruptions or delays, prioritize your tasks accordingly.