How to Assign Priorities (Intermediate)– Effective Leadership

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By Phil Gwinn
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To be an effective leader one of many key elements is assigning priorities to tasks or resources. When you complete this article you will be able to take a prioritized list and further divide it down into subcategories. Successful completion of this will reward you with a razor sharp focus in addition to the benefits you got from the Basic Priorities article.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

You need either pen and paper, a word processor, or a spreadsheet.

Step 1

Using the list you created in How to Assign Priorities (Basic) assign one of the subcategories below.
Step 2

Urgent or Not Urgent. An item is Urgent if you or your seniors feel it requires focused attention immediately. Some examples of Urgent include deadlines that are approaching or a crisis that displaces the normal efficient routine. Every item on your list must be marked Urgent or Not Urgent.
Step 3

Once you have completed Step 3 you will take each priority and mark it as Important or Not Important. Important is something that in your judgment is valuable and contributes to the successful completion of your mission or enhances your high priority goals. Mark each item on your list as Important or Not Important.
Step 4

If you have completed the steps in How to Assign Priorities (Basic) and completed steps 1-3 here you will have a focused list. Each item will be Need To Do, Good To Do, or Nice To Do. Additionally each item will be Urgent/Important (1), Not Urgent/Important (2), Not Urgent/Important (3), Not Urgent/Not Important (4). Each number in parenthesis is the priority you assign the items.
Step 5

Now as you look at your list you should note any glaring discrepancies and address them. If you have something marked “Need To Do” and also “Not Urgent/Not Important” that is a disparity. Those items need more personal focus to resolve the conflict. Once you deconflict any issues your list should be complete. Need to Do items will be on top and within the Need to Do items they will be labeled 1 to 4 depending on how they fall on the Urgent/Important scale. This way you know exactly which “Need to Do” item must get worked on first.
Step 6

If your list is still huge or if you have a number of items with the exact same ratings (Good to Do and Not Urgent/Important) the tiebreaker process can be found in the article How to Assign Priorities (Advanced).