By: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Sr. Associate Editor, ICN Group
(In some of the past articles, we knew about steps in preparing To-Do List. Today we will know about prioritisation of different tasks in your To-Do List)
Prioritisation of the different tasks
As we all know important things are not necessarily urgent; and urgent things are not necessarily important. We have to discriminate between tasks on the basis of their importance and urgency. Though there are many schools of thoughts regarding methods of prioritisation, the most popular system of prioritisation is ABCD system of prioritisation, which is equally good for top level executives as well as novice planners.
ABCD system of prioritisation
The ABCD system of prioritising is the most popular system of prioritising. In short, it is a system, through which you decide, which tasks to be done first and which tasks to be done later, or to be delegated or outsourced.
- ‘A’ priority tasks are those tasks, which must have to be done today itself, because these are the tasks which are either important or urgent or time bound; and would fetch extraordinary favourable results to you or your organisation, if you do these tasks; and if you don’t do these, it may fetch severe unpleasant consequences. If you have more than one ‘A’ priority works, you can further sub divide the same as A1, A2 and so on.
- ‘B’ priority tasks are those tasks, which should be done soon, but can wait for your attention till completion of your ‘A’ priority tasks. Though not that much important as your ‘A’ priority task, but these are also important tasks. These can be delayed but not for much time.
- ‘C’ tasks are those tasks, which can be postponed for the time being without having any serious adverse consequences. These may get promotion to ‘B’ and ‘A’ priority tasks, when the deadline approaches, such as payment of your bills or premiums or taxes, or filing returns.
- ‘D’ tasks are those tasks which should be done someday, when you get time, as postponing these tasks or not doing these tasks bears no obvious adverse effects. These tasks are the ideal candidates for delegation or outsourcing, as wasting your own time on these types of works will be less rewarding utilisation of your time, which is more precious.
It is the beauty of the ABCD analysis that once we accord priorities to our To-Do list, the emotional part attached with any work leaves from the backdoor of our mind. Actually, applying this system for one week will show you the power of this system of prioritising.
Criterion for deciding the correct importance
A task is considered urgent when it must be done immediately, even if it may not look that much important. So, it’s always advisable to accord ‘A’ priority to urgent tasks, even if the importance of the individual task would have placed it in the ‘B’ priority list.
While deciding the relative importance of various works at your hand, you may use one or more of the following criterion:-
- Which works are essential to be done to achieve your personal or organisational goals?
- Which tasks will add value to your organisation?
- Which tasks are considered most important by your boss and which tasks he expects you to do yourself?
- Which tasks will provide better return in terms of your investment of time and energy?
Here I take an example. Suppose you are a curator of a pitch, on which an international cricket match is to be played tomorrow and you are engaged today in giving the finishing touch; today is the last date of depositing the insurance premium; and some guests are coming to your home in the afternoon and you have to take sweets for them.
Now what will you do? Obvious choice is to first devote your undivided attention to finalise the pitch, as the same needs your personal attention and cannot be delegated to somebody else. You have to finish it today itself, otherwise you have to face severe consequences, as it is the work of prime importance, entrusted to you by your organisation. You will see that it is important as well as urgent. Payment of your insurance premium is also important & urgent, but it can wait, as even after expiry of last date, you can pay the premium with small amount of penal interest for delay. The sweets can be brought by your son or any other family member. Even if you are not in a position to manage, your guests will understand your preoccupation.
Remember, the best time suited for deciding and re-organising your priorities for the next day is before leaving the office, so that your precious time in the morning is not wasted in planning the day. And the best time to review your overall To-Do list is every weekend, when you should decide, whether any ‘C’ or ‘D’ priority works deserve promotion to ‘B’ or ‘A’ priority works during the upcoming week due to certain urgency or deadlines.
(In the next article, I will discuss a third criterion to decide the priority apart from urgency & importance and rest assured, that third criterion will change your prioritisation forever. I believe that you are enjoying the journey towards the future of your dreams with me. If yes, please stay tuned. Happy G.O.P.T.A.)
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Creator & copyright holder of the concept G.O.P.T.A.© is an Author, Certified NLP Lifestyle Trainer, Strategic Interventionist, Corporate Trainer & Motivational Speaker ( http://bit.ly/Signature-Workshops-Sanjay-Kumar-Agarwal ) and recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Excellence (Management) by prestigious Young Scientist University, California, USA. He is Founder of ‘Read, Learn & Earn Movement’ and is popularly known among his fans & followers across the globe as ‘Time and Goal Guru’.
