Prioritisation Skills
Some ideas for tonight’s
meeting
• A discussion about how to prioritise
different areas of your life – home,
work and job seeking/study
• A chance for us to share our own
experiences
• A chance for us to talk through those
experiences
• And come up with some solutions!
I am not a professional expert in
prioritisation skills, but I do hope to
share some of my own experiences with
you and talk about yours, so you can
So does anyone here make a list of what they need to
do? On a daily/weekly/monthly basis……………..
We all have lots of things we KNOW have to
do on a daily/weekly basis; do the washing,
mow the lawn, pick up our prescription, pay
a cheque in the bank, call our mother, buy
food for dinner, feed the dog, check our
email, post a letter, pay bill, apply for a
job, meet a friend for coffee, update our
CV, have a bath, buy washing-up liquid,
arrange to meet someone, go to the post
office etc.
BUT, the problem is, we usually do not
prioritise these tasks. Most of us have a
vague notion of what our priorities are –
what is important… but usually what drives
us is something else: urgency.
Lets talk about the tasks we have in
different areas of our lives
At home
seeking/
At work
Job
studying
Using the flipchart lets come up with some
ideas to discuss (you can prepare these in
What is
prioritisation?
prioritize, prioritise [praɪˈɒrɪˌtaɪz]vb (tr)
1. to arrange (items to be attended to) in order
of their relative importance
2. to give priority to or establish as a priority
prioritization , prioritisation n
??
And what about everything
else…….
What are the things that we know
we need to do – at some point –
but are neither urgent or
important.
How do we work out what are the
things we need to do NOW and
what the things we can actually
do tomorrow, next week, or
never?
Urgent vs. Important using The
Eisenhower Matrix
Some of my suggestions
Every Sunday night, using a
pen and paper, I make a
list of things I need to in
the coming week. You can
use your computer, your
phone, an internet tool or
whatever is easiest for
you. Pen and paper works
best for me. I then copy
the list for each day into
my diary to tick off as the
days go by.
What do I need to do this
week? This is my TO DO
list.
I then put these things in
This really helps for these reasons
–
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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It focuses your mind on
important objectives
You are less likely to forget to
do tasks
Writing a list helps order your
thoughts
It helps show the bigger picture
You don't need to hold
everything in your head
It saves time
It helps you decide on
priorities: the most important
and the most urgent
You are less likely to become
side tracked
You get the reward of ticking
off your achievements
You feel more in control
You have a record of what you've
Some more suggestions Avoiding Procrast
ination
Procrastination gets in
the way of action
planning! It's important
that you manage your
‘fear of doing things'
you don't want to do and
realise that the fear is
often far worse than any
possible negative
results. Try to take
decisions immediately
whenever possible (and
when you don't need to
gather more information
& Persevering
Inevitably, things will
not always run smoothly.
When things are not
working out, you need to
persevere and learn how
to take a positive
attitude towards
frustration and failure.
Mistakes are a crucial
part of any process and
each is a lesson leading
you towards the right
solution. Fear of making
mistakes is a major
obstacle to effective
What can we take away from
this evening?
• Making a daily or weekly to do list
does not cost any money
• Prioritising the things on that
list just takes practice
• And the courage to try a new
approach
• Once you get in the habit of
putting these things in order it
will get easier
• And you will see the benefit of
getting the urgent and important
all for listening  Now
its time for any
questions and comments….