How to prioritise your "To Do list".

Objective: To have a list of my eight highest activities today with my highest activity at the top of the list and the rest of the activities in order of their priority to me.

How you will achieve your objective: You will use the following prioritizing exercise to mathematically order your preferences of your activities:

Have your un-prioritised "to do list" complete and in front of you.
(These will have been listed in no particular order)

Let's say that your overall objective is to increase turnover by 25% this week.

Here’s an example of a to do list to show you how to prioritize:

1. Send out invoices
2. Cold calling for new business
3. Edit book
4. Book keeping
5. Following up existing client base

Step 1:
Compare 1. (Send out invoices)with 2. (Cold Calling for new business)– ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important
Compare 1. (send out invoices) with 3. (Edit book) – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important
Compare 1. with 4 – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important
Compare 1. with 5 – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important

Step 2:
Compare 2. (Cold Calling for new business) with 3. (Edit book) – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important
Compare 2. with 4 – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important
Compare 2. with 5 – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important

Step 3:
Compare 3. (Edit book) with 4. (Book keeping) – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important
Compare 3. with 5 – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important

Step 4:
Compare 4. (Book keeping) with 5. (Following up existing client base) – ask which one is more important – put a stroke next to the most important

Step 5:
Put the item with the most number of strokes at the top and put them in descending order by the number of strokes next to them.

If you have a tie with the number of strokes – place them against each other and ask yourself again: “which one is more important?” That will show you which comes next.

Step 11:
Voila! You should now have a list of five items in the correct order of importance - especially if you have had a larger objective (such as "Increase the turnover by 25%") to guide you with.

Put your attention on your highest priorities and get them right!

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