How I Prioritize My To-Do List
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People talk about prioritization…
But how should we actually prioritize our to-do list?
Now, I’ll tell you right now, there’s no one-size-fits-all system, but in today’s world, it's essential to have a system in place for prioritizing tasks and managing our to-do lists effectively. In this blog post, I will share with you my personal method for prioritizing my to-do list using Notion. It’s a system that can be applied to any productivity system you use, so long as you have a means for tagging and sorting tasks. I will discuss the tags I use in my priority column, how I use them on a daily basis, and how I handle tasks that are out of order or lower priority.
First and foremost, let's talk about the importance of prioritizing tasks. Not all tasks are created equal, and some are more critical than others. The key is to identify the most important tasks for you and focus on those first. By doing so, you'll be able to make progress on the critical tasks and avoid feeling overwhelmed by the never-ending list of less important tasks. It's essential to prioritize tasks in a way that makes sense for you. What works for one person may not work for another, so it's essential to experiment and find a system that works for you.
In Notion, I use a priority property to prioritize tasks. For those of you that are Notion nerds like me, I use a “Select” property, which means that I can only choose one option and if I change options, it will replace the old option with the new option.
Now, my prioritization tags. The tags in my system are:
Continuous. I use this designation for actions that I’m kind of continuously working in the background when I have time. Note: I like to sort these at the top not necessarily because they’re the highest priority, but because I don’t want to forget them.
Scheduled. I have certain things from my calendar that I have set-up automations for. Zapier automatically pulls things from my coaching calendar and some events from my day job. These are also sorted to the top so I remember those appointments for my day and to remind me that I need to build my day around them. Note: I don’t pull ALL of my calendar events into Notion because there are so many and I feel like it would crowd my Notion system.
Quick. This is one of my core categories. These are the quick, easy-to-check-off tasks that can help me move the needle on my day quickly. These are things like follow-up emails, when I need to send someone something, embedding a podcast on my website, etc.
Do First. This is a category I use to help me pull the most importan thing from my to-do list that I should ensure I’m doing first. Sometimes I have multiple high-priority tasks, so this designation helps me identify what is the highest of the high priorities. It also doesn’t always get used.
High, Medium, and Low. I figured I’d combine these into my last bullet, because it’s pretty straight forward how these are used. High priority tasks are shown as High, Medium as Medium, etc.
Now, let's talk about how I use these tags on a daily basis. I typically start my day by looking at my to-do list and identifying the QUICK tasks. That is a lot different than others because we’re commonly told to start off with our days with the “Most Important Tasks” on our to-do list. I find, though, that I’m usually not quite “ready” for the most important tasks as soon as my butt hits the chair. Instead, I like to “warm up” for my day by doing the tasks that are quick, easy wins that give me some momentum and a sense of accomplishment right as my day is getting started. Maybe that just means I’m addicted to dopamine, but it’s a system that works for me and keeps me from procrastinating.
It's important to note that sometimes, tasks may need to be done out of order. Perhaps a low-priority task suddenly becomes more important, or a high-priority task can't be completed until a low-priority task is done first. Similarly, sometimes I may not have time before an upcoming meeting or appointment to fully accomplish a high-priority task. So, in these situations, it's essential to be flexible and adjust your priorities as needed.
So, that’s it!
Check ou the video below for a deeper look into my workflow inside of Notion!
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