Prioritization of tasks can be challenging. Everything often seems to be equally important. There’s only so much time to accomplish everything.

Of course, managing workloads is important for reaching deadlines. This is why prioritization matters.

Helping your employees prioritize their tasks improves collaboration toward team goals. It also helps with time management and stress relief. Scheduling adequate time to complete tasks according to priority improves productivity. This increases your team’s results.

Follow these guidelines to help your team members prioritize their tasks:

Make a List of Tasks

Have your team members make a list of every task they want to accomplish in the near future. Because their lists need to be accessible and updatable at all times, using a laptop or mobile device may be beneficial.

Then, ask your employees to separate each task by the deadline. This should result in groups of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that need to be completed.

Determine Which Tasks Are Urgent or Important

Have your employees consider which tasks need immediate attention and should be marked as urgent. Next, ask them to consider which tasks are important and can be marked accordingly. Then, have your employees think about which tasks are unnecessary and should be removed from the list.

After that, have your team members go back through their lists. Ask them to decide which tasks are urgent and important. Mark them to be completed as soon as possible. Also, determine which tasks are important but not urgent. Schedule them accordingly. Additionally, think about which tasks are urgent but not important. Schedule them as well. Finally, decide which tasks are not urgent or important. Delete them.

Assess Each Task’s Value  

Ask your employees to think about which of their important tasks yield the highest value to your team and company. This helps your employees determine which task to focus on first. They can repeat the process to schedule the rest of their tasks according to importance.

Or, your employees can consider how many people will be impacted by completing a task. The more people who are affected, the sooner the task should be done.

Order Daily Tasks  

If a team member has tasks that appear equally important, have them schedule the task that requires more effort first. This provides motivation to move on to the smaller task.

Or, your employee can prioritize their tasks of equal importance by the final outcome. If a task will have a significant impact on your team, your employee should schedule it to be completed as soon as possible.

Remain Adaptable

Point out that your team members will need to move around their tasks as circumstances and goals change. Although the urgent and important tasks should remain the same, the order of the other tasks likely will change.

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