The most effective ways to maximize your productivity come down to your approach. It’s not realistic to think that you’ll get significantly faster at tasks you regularly do. The better way to increase your productivity is to focus on how you prepare to do said tasks. Are you an organized person? Are you able to identify and prioritize the items on your agenda? Building this skill can help you digest and complete a list of wide-ranging tasks for different clients or areas of interest. In today’s blog, we explore how you can prioritize your to-do list and make it less intimidating.

Make a List of Everything Rattling Around in Your Brain

Before you dig into your workload, you should start by unpacking everything that’s cluttering your mental workspace. If you’re sitting on an email, or you have to remember to do something by a certain date, you should take those agenda items out of your brain and put them on a digital or physical list. Make a comprehensive list of all of the things you need to do, the things you’re stewing on, and anything that is bothering you. Once you have this comprehensive list, you can prioritize it and decide how to act on each item.

What Needs to Get Done Right Now?

Time-sensitivity is a great place to start when prioritizing your workload. Which items need to get done right away? Which items need to be completed by the end of the day? Which items can wait until the end of the week? Obviously, the time that each of these items necessitates may vary, but starting with an understanding of deadlines will make prioritization easier.

What Are the Most Important Things on Your To-Do List?

Ask yourself this question independent of any deadlines. What projects and tasks are most important to you? If there’s a major project that’s going to bring in a lot of revenue for you or your business, that would be considered important. If grocery shopping is on your list and you’re out of food, that’s a very important task too, because you need to eat! If you’re part of a group working on a project and you’re awaiting an email from a group member, maybe that project isn’t as important. Only you can really determine the importance of each to-do item.

Synthesize These Two Organization Systems to Prioritize Your Tasks

Time-sensitivity is going to be a driving factor in determining where you should focus your time and energy. Once you’ve organized your items by time-sensitivity, use the personal importance rankings you’ve created to prioritize these tasks relative to one another. You need to send an important client email to get feedback? Do that right away. You need groceries to eat this evening? That’s important, but maybe you can do it at the end of the day.

Dunn Brothers Coffee Is Your Productivity Hub

We have created a bright, inviting space at Dunn Brothers Coffee in Coralville. We want to help you get organized and get that to-do list whittled down over a cup of freshly brewed coffee. Learn about all of the coffee roasts we have in our store by contacting Dunn Brothers Coffee in Coralville, IA at 319-665-2020.