For me, I feel very stressful when there are a lot of tasks. In order to reduce the stress, I will always pick the easiest task to do first. How do I determine which task is the easiest? It is the task that will take the least amount of time and effort to complete. So when quite a number of easy tasks are done by the end of the day, I feel better because I have reduced the number of tasks.
But the next day, new tasks get added into my tray. Everyday I adopt the same approach of doing the easy tasks first. In the end, the tougher tasks are always left undone and delayed. Thus, I will end up more stressful than before.
Since this approach does not work well, how should I go about prioritizing my tasks?
First, I will list down all the tasks. This is to prevent my imagination from running wild. If I have 10 tasks at hand, I may end up imagining I have 20 tasks at hand.
Next, I will rank the tasks in terms of deadline. This is to assess whether I am overloaded. If it is impossible for me to finish all the tasks by the given deadlines, then I am simply overloaded. If I am overloaded, I seek for assistance to finish the work in time or I negotiate for extended deadline.
If I am not overloaded, then I proceed to rank them in terms of importance. The more important tasks should be done first regardless of whether it is easily done or not. The importance of a task is based on the ability of the task to impact to my life if it is done. If there is little or no impact for not doing it, then the task is not important.
I realize that tasks that have great impact on my life will always burden and worry me the most. By finishing these tasks that have the most impact on my life, I will end up reducing my stress significantly.
Lastly, I will monitor the progress of the tasks and take any necessary corrective actions. If there is a need, I will repeat the whole process of prioritizing my tasks again.
The idea that I will like to share with you:
Always do the task that affects you the most
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