ALT-2 Maximizing Productivity by Prioritizing Tasks
Learning how to prioritise tasks is a vital step in becoming more productive at work and at home. Increasing productivity can be a challenge if you do not have the skill of prioritisation. Rest assured, this skill can be learned and this article will attempt to provide you with ways to assess your productivity and how to increase productivity by prioritising tasks.
Assessing Productivity
To assess your personal productivity, you will need to observe and make notes on your daily chores. One of the easiest ways of doing this is by setting up a spreadsheet (or a piece of loose leaf) with a list of all the tasks you need to achieve during the day.
Divide your page into four columns; 1) a description of the task, 2) expected time to complete the task, 3) actual time required to complete the task, and 4) indicated if the task actually was completed or not.
Depending on how good your memory is, you can either make a mental note of how long it took you to complete each task or you can record it on a slip of paper. I choose the pen and paper option, because I have so many things on the go.
At the end of your day complete the spreadsheet or your loose leaf chart. Be sure to be honest in terms of whether or not you completed the tasks and how much time it actually took to get things done.
Now it is time for a review. To help you with the review, ask yourself the following questions:
What tasks were left unfinished?
Were you unable to start any of the tasks you hoped to accomplish?
What tasks took more time than you thought they would?
What tasks took less time?
How important were the tasks that were left unfinished or that were not started?
Once you have answered these questions you will be able to determine if you need to learn how prioritise tasks. If you answered yes to having jobs left unfinished or not started and these tasks were important it is time for you to learn how to increase your productivity by prioritising.
Tips for Prioritising
First, congratulations on determining that you need to change the ways you do things in order to become more productive. You will need to prioritise tasks based upon criterion that make sense to you.
For people who spend time in the workforce, you will want to make sure your day is as productive as possible to help you avoid working overtime. Begin each day by spending a few minutes writing down what needs to be accomplished. Approximate time required for the tasks and where possible try to ensure a few extra minutes are tacked onto the estimate. This extra time will be vital to allowing you to accommodate changes in job demands and priorities.
Morning people should attempt to tackle larger projects first thing in the morning, when they are at their sharpest. Night owls are better off leaving the larger or more complex tasks until the afternoon when they will have an ability to concentrate better.
Changing demands at work will happen. If there are two competing priorities that both have an urgent status sit down with the individuals requiring the work and ask them to determine which of the two projects will take priority.
For home-makers, start each day with a list of things that need to be accomplished. Be careful that you do not try to pack too much into each day. You will be placing top priority on things like doctor's appointments, parent-teacher interviews, banking, grocery shopping, and child care (where applicable).
Since you must leave the home to do many tasks, you will want to ensure that each trip is carefully planned. Keep in mind the distance you must travel for each appointment or errand, the most efficient route, the times that certain tasks must be accomplished by, and then make a plan.
