INFO.

SET AND MEET WORK PRIORITIES SHEET

RUBILYN B. SUMAYLO, RN, MSN, LPT 1.3-2

St. Anthony College of Roxas City, Inc., San Roque Extension, Rocas City, Capiz Philippines 5800 - Health Care Services NCII

INTRODUCTION

In any responsible position in any company that you ever have, it is a given that there will be
more work to do than there are hours in the day. You could kill yourself, trying to do everything that
needs to be done, and still not manage to complete it all. As an employee, your most important task is
to determine priorities, so that the things that need to be worked on are those that receive your time
and attention and that of your department.

Priorities have to be established based upon what is best going to meet your company’s needs.
But, that’s not always easy to determine. What often looks like the best possible solution may not
actually be so. Properly determining priorities requires understanding the various tasks that need to be
done, how they relate to your company’s goals and how they compare to other tasks that also appear
important.

OBJECTIVES

After reading this INFORMATION SHEET, YOU MUST be able to:

1. Define what priorities are.
2. Know and identify task priorities.

CONTENT / DISCUSSION

Definition of Terms
Priority - something that is regarded as more important than another.
Goals - is a desired result or possible outcome that a person or a system envisions plans and
commits to achieve.
Tasks - an activity that needs to be accomplished within a defined period of time or by a
deadline
Due Date - the day by which something must be done.

Setting priorities at work isn’t just about choosing to do one thing over another; it’s about
choosing to do important things first so that you can achieve your long-term goals. Once priorities are
established, they help us to stay organized and on-task.

We are personally, most familiar with individual goal-setting, choosing priorities, and making
task lists. Teams and organizations need to do so as well. Once set, these priorities need to be clearly
communicated and cascaded down throughout the organization. It takes planning and effort to decide
what should be handled first and also coming up with a sequence or order for doing things.

Prioritization helps when faced with an overflowing to-do list and constantly moving targets.

Mastering time management is improved through trial and error before you settle down to a
comfortable rhythm where you can manage your workflow efficiently and complete more work. When

1
 INFO.
SET AND MEET WORK PRIORITIES SHEET

RUBILYN B. SUMAYLO, RN, MSN, LPT 1.3-2

St. Anthony College of Roxas City, Inc., San Roque Extension, Rocas City, Capiz Philippines 5800 - Health Care Services NCII

you are accomplishing your tasks effectively, it gives you peace of mind, personal satisfaction and
improves your reliability and credibility in the workplace.

Prioritizing Your Work

What will happen if you don’t prioritize your work? Do you feel as if you are always putting out fires
and everything needs to have been done yesterday? Do you feel as though you don’t have enough
time to finish your to-do list even when working as fast as you possibly can?

It can be overwhelming trying to complete everything on your master to-do list in a single day.

To help you to properly manage your time, the next step after preparing a to-do list is to prioritize
your tasks where you select what should be done first or immediately and why it should be done.

Prioritizing helps you to visually see the highest to the lowest priority tasks. Prioritization is an
ongoing activity; it can be done once a day and sometimes even multiple times a day as priorities
change during the day.

Constantly keep an eye out on the deadlines of each task when prioritizing your work. Some work
needs to be started well in advance of a deadline to complete it. Some other types of tasks require
input from others hence build in enough time on your schedule and a buffer for possible delays.

Below are a few questions and considerations to take into account when setting priorities and also
when evaluating your progress.

Questions to guide you when setting priorities:

1. What needs to be done immediately?

2. What are the consequences if the task is not done?
3. When should you start working on the task?
4. What resources and inputs do I need to complete this task?
5. What has not been done that should have been done?

Questions to guide you when tracking progress on your priority list:

1. What tasks have I completed?

2. What is the outcome when a task is completed?
3. What am I constantly postponing on my list? Why?
4. What should not have been on the list in the first place?

How can I shorten my to-do list? Is this to-do list relevant anymore? From time to time re-write a fresh
master to-do list at least every month or two.

2
 INFO.
SET AND MEET WORK PRIORITIES SHEET

RUBILYN B. SUMAYLO, RN, MSN, LPT 1.3-2

St. Anthony College of Roxas City, Inc., San Roque Extension, Rocas City, Capiz Philippines 5800 - Health Care Services NCII

Ranking Your Priorities

The most common form of prioritizing tasks is by a simple ABC method. In this method, you make a
list of all the tasks that you have to complete, and assign them a letter code:

A = High priority, very important to get this done

B = Medium priority, this should get done
C = Low priority, it would be nice if this could get done

An easy method for prioritizing tasks is ranking using simple ABC priority levels namely:
category A (do it now), category B (do it soon) and category C (do at leisure).

Where items in category A have to be completed immediately (do it now), items in category B
can wait for now but should be done soon (do it soon) and items in category C can be done when you
have downtime or when time permits (do at leisure).

Items in category A are high priority items – things to be done first including those with
immediate, urgent or closest deadlines and the most important projects with highest returns and
significant consequences if not done.

Items in category B are medium priority items which have later deadlines. These items
transition to category A items as the due dates approach. It is important to start working on portions of
medium priority items over time so that they can be ready when due. These can include long-term
projects which can be done over a longer period of time such as writing an annual report or planning a
conference.

Items in category C are low priority items which have low consequences if not done or if not
done now i.e. things I would like to do when time permits.

Keep your priorities in front of you and look at the list regularly throughout the day to ensure
nothing gets forgotten. This is your daily compass. A typical end of day sequence for staying on top of
your tasks can entail the following steps:

 Updating your master to-do list by deleting items completed each day and adding new tasks.
 Updating the priority levels of tasks.
 Extracting the key items that you will work on the following day.
 Organizing your top priorities in the sequence or the order that you prefer to handle tasks
during the day.

OTHER INSTRUCTIONS

Answer and Pass your self-check activity anytime next week – July 20-24, 2020
For offline: You may leave your activities to Ms. Rona Apelacio (Secretary)
For online: You may pass via messenger in MS Word or Photo.
3