Everyone is looking for ways to improve time management. Whether you’re managing an organization looking to improve its business or an individual looking for ways to make better use of your time, time management is important to both of you. Better time management can be achieved if goals have been set and then all future work is prioritized based on how it moves the individual or organization toward meeting the goals.
There are many priority methods of time management. The most popular are the A, B, C method and number sorting based on the order in which tasks must be completed. Both methods encourage looking at the things that bring you closer to meeting important goals as the highest priority to set. Things not related to the goals would be of lower priority. Here is a description of the three priorities and how they relate to general time management practices.
- High Priority items (rank A or 1) are those tasks, projects, and appointments that produce the best results in achieving individual or organizational goals. For individuals, this could be related to career advancement goals or growing a small business and directly tied to promises made to clients or co-workers, or it could be non-work related, such as more goals and family or free time promises. For organizations, this would likely be related to higher profits, new business, key projects, and other strategic business elements. High-priority items should be the first job scheduled for each day and be blocked at a time that falls within the individual’s peak performance period.
- Medium Priority items (Rank B or 2) are those standard daily, weekly, or monthly tasks, projects, and appointments that are part of the work that needs to be done to maintain the status quo. For individuals, this would relate to doing their standard job and could mean going to scheduled family or outside group activities as expected. For organizations, these are everyday business items like project meetings, cost reduction, as well as regular manufacturing, sales and administrative work. Medium priority work is scheduled after or between high priority functions, as this work does not require high levels of concentration, it can be done during non-peak periods as long as it is completed on time.
- Bass Priority items (Rank C or 3) are those potential tasks, projects, and appointments that are enjoyable to do, can be put off until another time, and will not directly affect goals or standard work practices. For individuals, this could mean learning a new skill or starting a new hobby that may sound like good ideas but aren’t directly related to your most desirable personal goals. For organizations, this could be purging old files or evaluating existing workflows that are currently running smoothly.
It doesn’t matter if you use time management priority methods like A, B, C, numbering or just mark high, medium, low using a custom coding or coloring method. It only matters that the practice has no more than three priorities used to move closer to meeting important goals. More than three levels of priority can bog down a time manager in prioritizing instead of doing valuable work.
Whether you’re running an organization or someone looking for ways to make better use of your time, time management is important to both of you. Anyone looking for ways to improve time management will benefit from establishing and following a prioritization method to complete work toward goal achievement.