Speaker 1: Do you feel like you're drowning at work and you don't know where to start in order to get out of that feeling? Well in this video I'm gonna teach you how to prioritize so you can leave that overwhelmed feeling behind and say bye bye. And if you stay tuned to the end of this video I have something really special for you that is not only gonna help you prioritize your work but your projects as well. Something really special. Hi if you're new here welcome subscribe to the Best Career and Project Management channel with a new video coming to you every Wednesday. So if you're really excited about learning how to prioritize at an expert level, then you know what? Let's get to it. Sorry, like this video and let's get to it. Why prioritize tasks? Before we get into how to prioritize tasks, let's first understand why we even have to look at this. The number one mistake I see over and over in the corporate world, and even personally as well, is that everyone has multiple priorities and they're all competing, even to a point where every single priority they have is a number one priority. And then all of a sudden they don't know what to do and it becomes a standstill. Understanding how to prioritize and realize that there is a sequential level to things is gonna help you meet deadlines, is gonna reduce your stress, is gonna allow you to be more effective and efficient. So that's why it's really important to understand why prioritization is so critical to your success. I also wanna throw in there too, take note that prioritization is fluid and can be changed. So just because you name something as a number one, things may change, you're allowed to shift it according to needs. Make your list. This is the absolute first thing you have to do. I want you to do a brain dump of everything that you have going on. That can even be menial things like paying your bills. It doesn't matter. Don't worry about the order of importance. Just think about everything you have happening right now that's causing you some stress and you need to properly prioritize. Just dump it all on a piece of paper. This is your inventory list. Organize your list. Now, this is the fun part. I want you to make three columns, okay? And when you do those three columns, I want you to think and start distributing your items into these three columns of A, B, and C. So what's A? A is items that are central to meeting a deadline and are time-sensitive. So this could include some administrative matters that you have to do like paying bills or even ordering supplies because you have a certain deadline associated with it. B would be other items that are less time-sensitive but are of importance. And C is really everything else, not time-sensitive or critical. I kind of put a few things on this list, Nice-to-haves versus need-to-haves. Rank your tasks. So now that you have taken your inventory list and you put them in an A, B, and C column, you've dumped that all in, you have to do one more level of ranking. And now you have to think about, for today, what do I have to get done? And that's where you go to your A's because you've already indicated that they're extremely time-sensitive and important. So now of all those A's, What do you have to get done today? And that's where you start ranking it from a 1, 2, 3 perspective. So A1, A2, A3. But I want you to take note. I want you to think about what else you have going on in the day. If you are in back-to-back meetings, putting down 6 A's with back-to-back meetings, you're probably not going to accomplish them. So I want you to really think this through and that's why you're now going to start looking out in the week. Can you move an A2 to maybe the next day, et cetera, et cetera. So just really think this out. But now you have to do that A1, A2, A3. And note, if you label something as A1, you need to get it done today. That's how critical and important it is. I'd rather have you just have one item that you prioritize for today and accomplish it than have multiple ones and accomplish nothing. It's too overwhelming. It gets very stressful. Now, the cool thing is, let's say you've accomplished all your one twos and threes on the A side you're allowed to put some B's in your day too because you may have an opening this pocket of opportunity that you got all your A's done for sure go to the B's and if you want throw in a C there's nothing wrong with that what's really cool with the B's and C's is you start to see how important those things are or not and particularly with the C's I've had in my own past where I've had a C item and I've kind of carried it on I I pushed it out the next week and the next week because again, it wasn't important and it wasn't really time sensitive, more nice to have items, where ultimately I just took it off my list and I never did it because I kept on pushing it out. So it was great insight for me to realize it really wasn't that important and I didn't have to do it. So take note that that becomes really important is to rank it and try to ensure that you put in the right amount based on what's happening in your day. Stay on track. Now that you know how to prioritize, right, with your inventory list, the A's and the one, two, threes. That's awesome. As I kind of alluded to in the previous step, I want you to really think about how much time you put towards things. I only plan for 60, maybe 70% of my day, and I leave 30 to 40% available because things just pop in, they happen. We have to firefight. Unexpected things occur that is gonna take me away from what I sort of plan for the day. nothing wrong with that, that's called life. So if you start thinking in that manner, by doing a 60-40 split and only planning for 60%, you're not gonna feel overwhelmed. I have never come across anyone who is able to do 100% of everything they planned out, ever, even myself. And I've been doing this for a really long time and I'm extremely efficient, extremely productive, because things happen that are out of your control. So if you plan for 60-40 split and plan for only 60, it allows you to deal with that 40% without getting you stressed out. And again, it's a bigger picture aspect because you've probably now spread out your other activities throughout a period of time because you're now ranking them properly and looking at them in a different way. Now that you now know how to prioritize tasks, congratulations, I cannot wait for you to start doing your A, Bs and Cs, one, two, threes. I would like for you to go here. I want you to grab this from the link below. If you want to impress your boss even more at work with your prioritization, take it to the next level by understanding what happens with projects and failures. Now, if you're wondering, I don't do projects, Adriana, I'm gonna say, I bet you on your task list, that inventory list, you probably did have a project, something that you had to deliver on. Understand what some of those roadblocks are to stop you from being successful with those deliverables is gonna put you to the next level. So definitely check it out. Don't forget to subscribe to this channel, like this video, and please share it with all the friends and family and colleagues that you know. I really appreciate it. If you have anything to share with me regarding how you prioritize, I would love to hear from you. Please put it in the comments below. Until the next video, see ya.