How to Prioritise Tasks

As an Administrative Professional, an important part of your job role is your ability to prioritise work tasks. Prioritising is a vital task that makes many aspects of life more manageable and also one the best ways to succeed as an Administrative professional.

One way you can do this is by identifying what’s important and what’s urgent.

Picture this: you have a long list of things to do and no idea where to start. Usually, you’d want to get everything done at the same time so you can quickly move on and put it all behind you. But how do you decide what needs to be done first, and what can wait?

The Eisenhower Matrix, which is also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, helps you prioritise your tasks based on their urgency and importance. It enables you to recognise tasks that should be delegated or leave undone. This principle helps you quickly identify the activities that you should focus on, as well as the ones you should ignore. Using this tool to prioritise your time, can help you truly deal with urgent issues, at the same time as you work towards important, longer-term goals.

To apply this principle, use the grid below and list all of your tasks and activities and put each into one of the following categories:

URGENT &IMPORTANTDo it now	IMPORTANT & NOT  URGENTDecide when to do it
URGENT & NOT     IMPORTANTDelegate it	NOT IMPORTANT & NOT URGENTDelete it

It’s vital you get into the habit of quickly categorising tasks by using the checklist on your to-do list. There are other prioritising techniques you could use, check out the ABCDE method for precise prioritisation also.