Setting Priorities
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010I recently delivered my updated Time Management class to a branch of the Federal (US) government. During this time, I always review the course materials and see if there’s anything that needs to be refreshed or updated. One of the things I talked about briefly, and probably will expand upon during the next go-round, is setting priorities.
Sure, we talked about it some; how everyone writes a “to-do” list instead of a “results needed” or “things to accomplish” list; and some attendees even said that they were going to switch from writing down tasks to writing down what needed to get done, and then how they would accomplish it. That’s a great start.
What are the best ways to set priorities? It turns out, it depends on who you ask:
Covey - Quadrant Method
Important |
IActivities: |
IIActivities: |
Not Important |
IIIActivities: |
IVActivities: |
Pareto - 80/20 rule
For many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Business management thinker Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., “80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients.”
Pairwise comparison
Determine what you need to do, and then ‘vote’ which you do given the list. Let’s say our list states
1) get food for dinner
2) clean pool
3) work on proposal
You say which you’d prefer to do by voting:
1 vs 2 - 1
1 vs 3 - 3
2 vs 3 - 3
so your prioritized list is #3, then #1, then #2.
There are literally dozens of methods for setting priorities. A quick scan into any search engine will show you these in detail. Which one should you choose? The one that works for you. That’s why I present multiple tools in class - I ask students to find a tool that makes sense to them (logical for them, not onerous to use) - and then to start using it!
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