Prioritizing Tasks: Boost Efficiency with These 8 Techniques & Methods

You surely know it, when many tasks are pending, but you do not know in which order you should process them best. We explain to you why it makes sense to prioritize tasks and how you can best do it.

In another article, we already explained what Project Management is or, why Project Management is important. In all different Phases of Project Management various tasks arise that are very different in importance.

Let us start by explaining why you should prioritize tasks. Many different tasks and work packages arise in everyday life that need to be processed. However, these are often very different in terms of work effort, deadlines, or urgency. The effects of the various tasks are also often very different: some tasks, if not performed properly and/or on time, have legal consequences, others economic. Others again none.

Many tasks also depend on preliminary work and can only be started or completed when all necessary previous tasks have been completed. Therefore, it makes sense not to leave the order of tasks to chance, but to decide it yourself - including priority.

Task Prioritization - Methods and Techniques

The setting of priorities can include various time management methods, some of which we would like to introduce to you.

1. Visualizing tasks

In order not to forget or overlook any tasks, it is important to visualize all tasks. You can use handwritten to-do lists, but also Microsoft Outlook, Trello or awork

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2. Eat The Frog

The second method for setting priorities requires a list of all tasks - whether analog or digital is secondary. The method aims to "swallow the frog" and preferably early. You should tackle the unpleasant tasks, which are often postponed, first. A variant of the method is to tackle the most unpleasant task first each day, to then devote yourself to more pleasant tasks. However, no prioritization has yet been made. You can achieve this by tackling all tasks in order of displeasure. You start with the most unpopular tasks and work your way forward, with the tasks becoming more and more enjoyable.

3. Eat The Frog - Reverse

This method turns the previous method of prioritizing tasks upside down. You start with the most pleasant tasks and do the unpleasant ones at the end. The advantage is that you progress quickly, as the tasks and activities are a lot of fun at the beginning. The disadvantage is obvious - the work becomes increasingly strenuous as you progress.

4. Scheduling

Many tasks have a deadline, which you can use to your advantage by arranging all tasks according to their urgency and completing them accordingly. The more urgent the task is, the faster you tackle it.

When two tasks have the same deadline, you can decide based on two criteria:

Which task is completed faster? Or else, you prioritize the tasks according to their importance.

5. Eisenhower-Matrix

Eisenhower-Matrix

A method to prioritize tasks and apply a task prioritization matrix is the so-called Eisenhower Matrix. Here you use a 2×2 matrix, as you can see in the picture. One axis says something about the significance/importance of the task, the other about the urgency of the task. There are high and low - so four different categories.

You can use the Eisenhower Matrix as a time management method by placing the tasks in the four different categories and working them off as follows:

First, you devote yourself to the urgent tasks, of course first the important ones and then the less important ones. Thereafter, you start working on the non-urgent but important tasks and finish with the non-urgent and unimportant tasks.

6. Kanban

Eisenhower-Matrix

You can also use a Kanban board to visualize your tasks. As shown in the picture, you use three columns (or four, more on that in point 7). On the left you have a "Task Pool" where you collect all tasks. When you start a task, you move it to the middle column "Doing". Once you have finished the task, you move it to the right column "Done".

Kanban is based on an assumption that you must absolutely take into account. Only when a task is completed is "value" created. This means that you should set a maximum number of tasks that you can work on at the same time. You first finish these tasks before you start a new one. If you cannot continue with a task because you lack further information, you move it back to the "Doing" column and start a new task that you work on until it is finished.

How to create a digital Kanban we have already explained in an article.

7. Kanban with Prioritization

Since in Kanban boards usually no direct prioritization is made within the task pool, you can introduce a prioritization column between the first and second column.

In this column, the most important tasks are sorted in descending order, which are then processed in order.

8. Eisenhower meets Kanban

To link a prioritization of tasks with an ordered structure for processing, you can combine the previous tasks:

You create an Eisenhower Matrix, in which you categorize all your tasks according to urgency and importance. All urgent tasks (Urgent-Important and Urgent-Not Important) each receive a Kanban board within the matrix.

When you start the workday, the order is self-explanatory: you start with all urgent and important tasks, making sure to only work on one task at a time until it is finished - because tasks that are started but not finished do not add value. Then you move on to the urgent, but not so important tasks, again following the Kanban principle. And finally, follow all non-urgent tasks - of course, the important ones first.

Eisenhower meets Kanban

Task prioritization - Tools:

You can use the methods we have presented analog (e.g., with post-its or/and whiteboards). Keeping an analog Kanban board up to date is much more cumbersome than using tool support. A positive side effect of digital solutions is that, for example, files, attachments, information etc. can directly be linked to tasks. In addition, many tools offer the possibility to assign roles/responsibilities or to deposit deadlines. A software like awork.

If you want to keep exclusively To-Do lists and prioritize individual tasks according to your own intuition, it makes sense to use Microsoft Outlook or comparable e-mail programs.

If, on the other hand, you want to make a prioritization and prioritize tasks sensibly according to a given scheme, you should use project management software.

For example, you can use Trello to create various Trello boards. You can create a simple digital Kanban board or, as we suggested, the link between Eisenhower and Kanban.

For this, you create four different Kanban boards in Trello, which are named after the categories of the Eisenhower Matrix. A big advantage is that you can use the Trello boards in teams, give out roles, or attach information and attachments to individual cards. Also, Trello offers you the possibilities of making small automations. With If-Then links you can have tedious parts of your project management automated, so you can focus on the essentials.

On OMR Reviews, you can learn more about Trello. But not only Trello, also Asana or Master task offer many possibilities.

We have already explained how to create a digital Kanban board in different tools or how you can improve your project management with it, in the article “These are the 7 best tools for Digital Kanban Boards“.

To get an overview of the universe of project management software, you should definitely visit OMR Reviews.