Turn Your to-Do List Into Data to Maximize Your Productivity
You know how important it is to prioritize your to-do list, and you’ve probably tried a variety of methods to do so, from the Eisenhower Matrix (to determine how timely and urgent each task is) to the Pareto Principle (to decide how to allocate your time). to maximize your results). The problem is that determining what is actually a priority can be an abstract problem. Some people work best when dealing with cold, hard numbers, and there’s a way to take a more quantitative approach to prioritizing your tasks.
Why prioritize your to-do list?
The Pareto principle mentioned above suggests that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your work, so you should be selective about what you focus on. Plus, you can only get so many things done in a day, so the best to-do list for you may be narrow—say, it has room for one major task, three medium ones, and five small ones (known as a 1-3-5 list ) . If you try to do too much, your productivity may suffer. (It’s Ilyich’s Law , baby.)
To avoid doing too much or working on the wrong things, you need a strategy, and to form a strategy, you need to do some planning. The Eisenhower Matrix can be useful when you are figuring out which tasks have upcoming deadlines, but it is a subjective tool. Assigning numbers to your tasks can make them more data-driven.
How to turn your to-do list into data
I came across this advice in a blog post by consultant and strategist Daniel Coulton Shaw, who explains how to number your tasks so they follow the Pareto principle.
First, write down everything you need to do in the foreseeable future, just like you did in the early stages of making your 1-3-5 list. Then assign two numbers to each task, both from 1 to 10. The first number represents the effort required, and the second represents the impact of the project.
For example, answering all your emails might get 3 points for effort, but might produce results in 7 point territory. Completing a meeting report might score 6 on effort but 2 on results. Picking up medications at a pharmacy may cost 2 points in effort or 7 points, depending on how difficult it is to get there, but 4 points in results, or even 10 points, depending on how important the prescription is.
This part is also somewhat subjective, but even thinking about your tasks in terms of “effort” and “results” will help you realize their seriousness – and we’re not done yet. Then divide the number of “results” of each task by the number of “efforts”. So, if an email response scores 7 on the performance scale and 3 on effort, you get an overall score of 2.33. Once all your tasks have been assigned points, you can rank them in numbered order and aim to tackle them in that order unless something more timely comes along. By doing this, you’ll cross out important but low-effort tasks—which should be the 20% of your work that makes up 80% of your results.