As a busy coach, what do you do when all your tasks feel equally urgent? Having a simple and repeatable way to prioritise your tasks not only helps to improve your productivity, it also supports greater work-life balance by freeing up your time and energy for your other goals and interests.
So, if your to-do list is ever growing and you’re struggling to prioritise your tasks, these easy-to-do strategies will help you work out where to start.
What are prioritisation strategies?
Prioritisation strategies are practices, tools and methodologies you can use to help you be more productive and efficient within your coaching or consulting business.
There are many different tools out there – some may suit you, your business and your style of working better than others.
In this post, I’m sharing my top 3 favourite strategies with you – try them out and see which one works best for you.
My top 3 favourite strategies to help you prioritise tasks and beat overwhelm
#1. The Most Important Tasks Methodology (MIT)
Do less to do more…
MIT directs you to select one to three tasks that are essential, then focus on JUST those throughout the day (instead of a monstrously long to-do list that will never be completed in one day). The basic idea is that you don’t do anything outside of those one to three tasks until they’re completed.
I love having a general to-do list as a brain dump. But, I then like to whittle this down for my day-to-day so that I’m not overwhelmed with #AllOfTheThings I have to do.
So, how do you decide which tasks are essential?
Not everything on your to-do list is of equal importance. To select your essential tasks, look at which ones will make the biggest difference and have the greatest impact. Then, start there.
#2. The Eisenhower Decision Matrix (AKA: The Urgent-Important Matrix)
This is one of my favourite ways to prioritise my workload.
It’s a great way to figure out which tasks are most important because it helps you sort your to-do list by Importance and Urgency.
Using a grid like the one below, you can delegate your tasks into one of these 4 quadrants:
- Urgent + Important
- Important + Not Urgent
- Urgent + Not Important
- Not Urgent + Not Important
To do: Create your own Urgent-Important Matrix and break up your tasks into the 4 quadrants. Don’t add more than 8 tasks to each quadrant.
#3. Eat That Frog!
Have you read the book “Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.” by Brian Tracey?
The inspiration is said to have come from a quote by Mark Twain:
“Eat a frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
With this strategy, you start each day by identifying your “frog”. Your “frog” is the hardest or most important thing on your to-do list.
Choose just one! Then just eat your frog. Do it now! Don’t save it for later or spend too much time thinking about it. Just do it and get it over and done with. The rest of your day will feel so much breezier as a result.
And then, of course, repeat every day.
How to choose the right prioritisation strategy for you
Firstly, there’s no right or wrong here – it’s all about finding the system that works well for you and your business. You know yourself best, and by testing each of these out, you’ll get a good sense of the strategy that you’ll be more likely to stick with in the long run.
Some questions you can ask yourself to narrow down your favourite strategy:
- Does it work for me?
- Is it easy to use?
- Can I easily integrate it into my existing processes?
So, which of these 3 task prioritisation tools will you be trying first to turn that task overwhelm into a completed to-do list?
How to prioritise your work-life balance
Whether you’re looking to improve your task prioritisation skills or to overhaul your work-life balance for greater freedom and energy, you don’t have to work it all out alone!
The Building Work-Life Balance into Your Business [And Avoiding Burnout] workbook has been created for busy coaches like you and is jam-packed with insights and actionable steps to support you to move from chaos to calm in your business.
Ready to prioritise your work-life balance and maximise your productivity? Download your copy for free here.
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