Start putting the first things first.

Most of people don't plan how they will spend their time and don't understand that they have to spend more time on essential tasks and less on tasks that are not so important, as we can do almost all, but not everything.

Well known Pareto Principle or the “80/20” rule means that 20% of your tasks lead to 80% of your success, other 80% of your tasks lead to only 20% of your success. For example: If you have 20 tasks, most likely that 4-5 of them are more valuable to you right now than all the others combined.

Here are several tips how to determine the value and importance of your tasks:

1. Think about long-term advantages of your tasks.
2. Imagine what will happen if you don't do the important tasks.
3. Decide what goals you want to reach.
4. Consider which tasks worth your time and energy.
5. Mind that the strength of the connecting link between the tasks and goals determines their value and importance.

Sort all your tasks by importance in order (A-B-C-D). See the example:

Also remember that when you prioritize your tasks, you should differentiate between the importance and urgency as the important things are not always urgent and the urgent things are not always important

Our product VIP Team To Do List can help you in this problem. It allows you to set priorities for your tasks (lowest, low, high, highest and urgent) and by status (created, open, waiting, put on hold, cancelled and Ok.). So you will always know which of your tasks must be done immediately and which of them can wait.

See also: Reach success by planning