Bite-Sized Training™

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 How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools

This e-book is published by:

Mind Tools Ltd.

Copyright © Mind Tools Ltd, 2007-

2013. All rights reserved.

Version 3.2.

This e-book is protected by

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member of the Mind Tools Club™.
If you have any queries, please
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members.helpdesk@mindtools.com.

Cover image © iStockphoto/ermingut.

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 How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools

Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4

1. Why Prioritize?............................................................................................................ 5

2. Prioritization Techniques ............................................................................................. 6

3. Exercise .................................................................................................................... 10

4. Key Learning Points .................................................................................................. 11

Prioritized To-Do List Template..................................................................................... 12

Action Priority Matrix Worksheet ................................................................................... 13

© Mind Tools Ltd, 2007-2013 3


Prioritization is the key to getting the most from
your day, and from your team.
Without clear priorities, you can end up bouncing
from one activity to another, just doing what’s
easy, or focusing on other people’s priorities
rather than your own – there’s always that urgent
email, that insistent phone call, and so on.
Your working day can become much less
stressful, and much more satisfying, if you
prioritize, reprioritize often, and then stick to this
schedule!
It’s amazing how much better you can feel after
an intensive session of prioritization!
This workbook focuses on the essentials of
prioritization. We start by learning about the true
value of prioritization. By looking at how you
© Mind Tools Ltd, 2007-2013
How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
spend your time now, you can look at the true
value of prioritization to you.
Next we look at two important prioritization
techniques. By using these you’ll be able to
prioritize your To-Do Lists and focus on the
activities that are going to make the most
difference. You’ll also be able to identify how
scarce resources affect your priorities
Finally, we put all of this into practice with an
exercise. Once you’ve done this you’ll have
learned the tools you need to prioritize your
workload – the key to a much more productive
day.
It will only take about an hour to do all of this. So
let’s get to work!
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 How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools

Think for a moment about your typical day - how How many hours a day extra will be in your day,
much time do you spend doing the things that you once you have prioritized your work and untapped
actually planned to do to meet your objectives? some of that unplanned time?

Sixty percent? Forty percent? Even less? Tip:

If you want to understand in detail how you spend
And what about the rest of the time? your time, complete an Activity Log.

Are the other things that you do tasks that you Find out how to do this here.
should have been doing, but simply hadn’t
included in your plans? If so, are there other,
similarly important tasks that you’re failing to
schedule, and so could be overlooked?

Or are you just spending time on things which are

simply not priorities?

Action: In the spaces below, list the things you

tend to do that are not planned or high priority.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

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 How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools

When there’s not enough time, too much to do,

and too many competing pressures, it’s easy to 1.
get hung up on the question of where to start.

In this section, we’ll cover two techniques that you 2.

can use to get your priorities in check. The first is
slightly easier to apply, but a little less
sophisticated than the second. 3.

After learning these two techniques, a final

exercise follows, to help you practice both tools.
2.1 Prioritized To-Do Lists
If you do nothing else, keep a prioritized To-Do
List and update it every day!
Tip 1:
If your role is quite complex, you may want to
consider using an Action Program – this is a much
more powerful approach for organizing To-Do List
tasks. You can find out more about Action Programs
here.

To do this, simply write a list of all of the tasks Tip 2:

To learn more strategies for prioritizing your To-Do
that you need to do. Then assign a priority List, see our article here.
ranking of A, B, C, D, E or F to each item on your
list.

Once you’ve done this, you may find you have too
many that are high priority. If so, just run through
them again and demote some of them. You may
also decide that tasks given priority F will
probably never get done – unless their priority
increases in due course. But, this will help reduce
your feeling of being overwhelmed.

By doing your prioritizing efficiently all in one go,

you won’t have to spend time revisiting your list,
and deciding what to do next, as you complete
each item.

Action: Write down three good reasons for

keeping your To-Do List up-to-date, organized,
and prioritized.

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 How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools

2.2 Scarce Resources

Prioritized To-Do lists order your tasks in terms of Or should you break your big project into smaller
what needs to be completed first, in an ideal chunks, and intersperse those with your smaller,
world. high-priority tasks?

But in real life, things are usually more
complicated than this.
For a start, some things will take you longer to do
than others. So is it really best to spend two
weeks completing your top priority items, but
leaving all your other tasks undone, even if some
of them would only take a couple of hours?
Equally, you may not have all the resources (such
as team members, funding, or equipment)
required to carry out each task in priority order.
To make your To-Do List truly practical, you need
to factor in your “scarce resources.”
Action: Think about the following questions, and
note your thoughts in the spaces provided:

What are your scarcest resources that you need to prioritize use of?

How do these scarcities affect the prioritization of your To-Do List?

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2.3 The Action Priority Matrix
The Action Priority Matrix is our second “must
have” prioritization tool, as it helps you identify
where to spend your time to achieve the biggest
input or best outcome.
To use it, you first score each activity you have on
your To-Do List on two scales: the impact of
completing the activity, and the effort required to
complete it.
Then you plot each activity, according to the
scores you’ve allocated, on a chart like the one
shown in figure 1 on the next page. You then
work on the projects in each category as follows:
 Quick Wins are the most attractive
activities, giving great results for relatively
little effort. Focus on these as much as
you can! Quick win activities, which
enable other people to start progressing
© Mind Tools Ltd, 2007-2013
How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
things once you’ve done your bit, should
almost always be treated as top-priority.
 Major Projects give good returns, but
take a long time, or use a lot of other
scarce resources to complete – don’t let
them saturate your time. Make time for
quick wins too, and complete major
projects quickly and efficiently so that you
can move on to the next priority.
 Fill Ins are things you can do quickly in a
spare moment and between major
activities… but drop them if something
better comes along.
 Thankless Tasks are to be avoided. Try
hard not to embark on these projects –
they’ll soak up time for little reward.
8
 How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools

Figure 1 – The Action Priority Matrix

Tip:
High “Quick Wins” “Major Projects” To learn more about how to
use this tool, see our article
here.
Impact

“Fill Ins” “Thankless Tasks”

Low

Low High
Effort

© Mind Tools Ltd, 2007-2013 9


Now that you’ve learned or refreshed these
prioritization skills, it’s time to put these skills into
practice. By combining the techniques learned in
this training session, you’ll become fully
organized and prioritized.
In this exercise, use your actual To-Do List and
list of projects. Then you can sift out low-reward
projects, better understand how to best use your
time, and achieve a fully prioritized to-do list.
Here are the steps:
1. Gather your To-Do List(s) and update a
master list with all the tasks that you know
you need to do. We’ve provided a blank
To-Do List template on page 12 for you to
use. (Or use this as a framework for a
spreadsheet-based list.)
2. Make sure that all the key projects and
tasks that you are working on are listed.
3. Score each task from A to F depending on
importance, and redraft the list in priority
order.
© Mind Tools Ltd, 2007-2013
How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
4. Copy the top ten tasks onto the Action
Priority Matrix Worksheet on page 13.
5. Score each of the tasks on a scale of 0-10
according to the amount of effort needed
to do it, and the impact of completing it.
6. Then plot each task on the matrix. (You’ll
need to print page 13 out to do this.)
Reprioritize and reconsider each of these
tasks, depending on what you’ve learned
from the Action Priority Matrix.
Tip:
Don’t bite off more than you can chew! If your
To-Do List and project list are never ending, start
by picking out just some of projects and their
related activities. It might take a few sessions to
get totally organized and prioritized, but at least
you will see some order emerging from chaos by
the time you’ve finished this training session!
10

Without effective prioritization, you can quickly be
swamped by your workload.
Effective prioritization is also an effective
technique for bringing your workload under
control.
 By learning how to use a Prioritized To-Do
List, you can quickly bring order to your
workload, and focus your efforts on the
most important activities.
 Using prioritization tools like the Action
Priority Matrix can help you prioritize in a
more intelligent, insightful way.
© Mind Tools Ltd, 2007-2013
How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools
Tip 1:
Sticking to your prioritized to do list can be hard,
especially if you are interrupted, distracted or
don’t have enough time in your day.
However, these articles can keep you on track:
 Managing Interruptions.
 Minimizing Distractions.
 Creating Time in Your Day.
Tip 2:
This training session has covered key
prioritization techniques. But, there are plenty of
special cases where you'll need other
prioritization and time management tools if you're
going to be truly effective. Explore these
techniques in this article.
11
 How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools

Task Priority (A-F)

(A=Very Important, F=Unimportant)

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 How to Prioritize Bite-Sized Training™ | Mind Tools

Impact (0-10) Effort (0-10)

Activity 0=No impact 0=No effort
10=Maximum impact 10=Maximum effort

High “Quick Wins” “Major Projects”

Impact

“Fill Ins” “Thankless Tasks”

Low

Low High
Effort

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