I’ll say it: prioritizing is just plain hard. But learning how to effectively prioritize your tasks for the month, week, or even day can be greatly beneficial to your health and mental well being. But, if you have too many tasks that are taking priority, you may end up not doing anything at all.
So, how do we solve this problem?
First, I like to establish what my main priority is for the day (starting with just a day rather than the whole week is easier–bite size chunks are your new best friend, girl!).
Once you know what your number 1 priority is–DO IT.
Seriously, do your very biggest, most intimidating task FIRST.
This method is called “eating the frog,” which sounds super gross, but is incredible for productivity!!
Eating the Frog
Basically, eating the frog is doing the hardest thing on your list first. You know the one– that task that you are dreading and usually just keep putting off! BUT, if you eat that frog first thing in the morning, your day can only go up. Anything that comes after eating a whole frog would be like winning the lottery. PLUS, you’re not stressing all day about how you have to eat a frog later. AKA, you’ll feel like a BOSS the rest of the day as you continue to accomplish tasks on your priority list. Hello, results!
Remember how I encouraged you to wake up an hour earlier the other day? Are you still practicing that habit? If not, maybe try doing some of your “chores” for the day first so that they’re out of the way! Then, you can spend the rest of the day focused on YOU, not those pesky frogs.
What about the rest of the list?!
I like to follow the ABCDE method!
- Take your to-do list or task list, and label each one from A to E, with A being your frog. (Fun fact: some of your tasks can have the same priority level!)
- Once you’ve labeled your tasks with letters, go back through and organize them into an order of completion by numbers.
So taking out the trash, walking the dogs, and meal prepping are all number one priorities for today (A), but the order of their importance is different (1-3). Organizing the closet is something you’d like to do today (B), but could be done tomorrow. Reading the book is lower still (C), and could be done whenever.
Here’s an example of how you could categorize everything on this hypothetical list:
A1. Meal prep
A2. Walk dogs
A3. Take out the trash
B1. Organize closet
C1. Read chapter of book
I like breaking things down this way, because I get to cross important things off the list (LOVE feeling like I’ve accomplished something!) and also get to keep those lower priority tasks so that they’re fresh in my mind when I do have more time. Instead of thinking.. “there was something I wanted to do??? I guess I’ll just watch TV until I think of it.” 🙂
Like I said, prioritizing things is hard. But with some dedicated focus time, and a strategic game plan, anything is possible, girl.