Tips of Setting your Priority Right While Working From Home 

Prioritisation is defined as "to organise (things) so that the most significant item is performed first.  This might include arranging a number of activities or items that have a deadline to meet and ranking them based on a variety of characteristics such as criticality, if the activity is time-sensitive, and how long it takes to accomplish each one.

However, this issue of right prioritisation hampers people generally yet when the line between home and office blurs in order to complete a set amount of work in 24 hours puts one under pressure. Most people find themselves juggling with office presentations and household chores, where both things are equally important. This falling under the “important” category creates more delusion and one finds it difficult to keep up with both segments of their life. 

How important it is to set priorities 

In order to finish all that has to be accomplished, priorities must be established. Prioritisation is vital because it allows you to focus on things that are important and urgent first, then moves on to lower priority chores afterwards. If you don't prioritise, you'll have difficulties getting things done on time, beginning to worry about how you'll get through everything on the to-do list, and be unproductive. Consider it this way: Everyone has tasks that must be completed. People frequently keep track of all they need to accomplish by making a list. Whilst making a list might help you get a bird's eye view of what you need to accomplish, you also need to find out what you need to focus on RIGHT NOW in order to get things done, work effectively, and save time and effort.

How setting priorities make you more productive during Covid situations

Everybody wants to be more productive as they know it will help them advance in their careers and greater their skills, work smarter rather than harder, and achieve a better work-life balance, especially while working from home. Yes, you can have it all if you're productive enough! However, many individuals are unaware of the importance of prioritisation and the role it plays in determining whether or not you are productive.

Energy and prioritising reign supreme when it comes to productivity. You will be more productive if you enhance your energy levels since you will be able to endure longer, work harder, and stay focused. But what about prioritisation? It's essentially the whole efficiency league. If you don't prioritise properly, you'll be wasting a lot of your time, energy, and attention on activities that aren't as vital, deplete you too much or aren't as urgent as others. Basically, you'll never be as productive as you want to be if you don't prioritise well.

Mistakes that make it difficult to priorities 

Here are compiled points by Entrepreneur from different studies that are responsible for the inability in making priorities. 

• Setting “in some time” deadline for your task 

You'll never achieve your objectives if you keep putting things off because “some time” never comes on the clock. Without a defined plan, even the finest intentions will be useless.

• Ignoring the bigger picture 

The concept of the "large picture" can be applied in a variety of ways. For most initiatives, the broad picture and bottom line will come down to making the firm profitable in the long run. The broad picture on a project level might include attaining a certain objective or adhering to a set of preset criteria and criteria.

• Don’t wait until you feel ready 

If you wait until you feel ready to take on anything challenging, you might be waiting a long time. It's unlikely that you'll have a burst of creativity out of nowhere. First of all, make a behavioural change. Occasionally, as time passes, the emotions change. You may get the drive you need to keep going if you take action.

• Not giving time to prioritising your work 

Prioritising your activities and projects, like the jobs and projects themselves, needs a set amount of time to complete. You'll have no chance of prioritising properly if you don't sit down and clearly prioritise the work on your plate—at that point, you're flying blind and praying your random assignment of chores favours your firm.

• Letting yourself get distracted by other not so important things 

You may have a hundred high-priority tasks on your to-do list, but if you're constantly interrupted by emails and phone calls, you'll never get around to them. From one perspective, these minor details are diverting your attention away from your most important goals. From a different, more objective standpoint, these minor details are gradually replacing your top priorities with fresh highest priorities.

Tips on prioritizing your work in a right manner 

• Make a master to-do list 

Create a list of all the individual tasks you want to perform before starting a prioritisation process. This gives you a complete picture of the load from the previous day.

Make a list of all the daily things you want to do on your to-do list. Make a list of both long- and short chores that need to be completed. Include items that must be performed within the next week, month, quarter, year, or beyond one year.

• Highlight what is urgent 

Your to-do list must make all deadlines visible, allowing you to understand which things must be performed quickly and prepare ahead for upcoming deadlines.

Setting deadlines, even if they aren't legally required, is also critical; otherwise, you'll keep on putting off vital tasks simply because they're not time-sensitive.

• Set ranks to your priorities 

Prioritising activities using simple ABC priority levels, such as category A (do it now), category B (do it soon), and category C (do it later), is a straightforward method (do at leisure).

Items in category A must be finished immediately (do it now), items in category B may wait but must be completed soon (do it soon), and items in category C can be finished whenever you have spare time or as time allows (do at the free time).

• Don’t get overwhelmed but consider the kind of efforts 

When faced with a big to-do list, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that has to be done, which inhibits productivity and encourages procrastination. To combat this, one technique is to rank tasks according to the amount of work required to perform them.

If the to-do list is getting too long, prioritise the things that need the least amount of time and effort and complete them fast. This task clearing will provide you with some breathing room and a sense of success that will help you get through the rest of the day.

• Identify the top three urgent tasks 

Finding a way to stay focused on the meat and potatoes, even as your plate fills up during the day, can help you stay on track.

Begin each day by choosing three critical things that must be completed that day, and then set a goal to do them. You'll experience (and actually be!) a lot more productive if you can conclude the workday with those three items completed.

Three tasks may appear to be insignificant. It's large enough to keep you focused on what is important while not being completely out of reach. It's worth mentioning, though, that priorities can shift and it's critical to be flexible as needed, but this can be a useful general guide to adopt.

• Eat the ugliest frog first (finish the most daunting task first) 

Eating the frog, according to a Mark Twain adage, signifies starting with the most difficult task. If you focus on this to-do right now and finish it, you'll be able to prioritise your other tasks better.

What is the advantage of doing so? To begin, you must finish the task on your to-do list. If you wait too long, it will never become a priority, and you will be forced to deal with it again. Secondly, knowing that the most difficult part is behind you gives you a great sense of success.

• Rank tasks as per the efforts required by them 

If you have projects that appear to be deadlocked for priority, look at their estimates and start with the one that you think will take the most time to complete. According to productivity experts, doing the most time-consuming job first is a wise technique. Trust your intuition and tackle the shorter assignment if you fear you won't be able to focus on your more essential work until you finish it. It might be motivating to cross a little task off your to-do list before diving into deeper waters.

• Break the large tasks into smaller

The idea of taking on a large task or project all at once can be overwhelming, which is why it's a good idea to divide large projects down into smaller chunks and work on them one at a time.

Trying to break down projects allows you to keep track of future work that must be begun as soon as possible to fulfil the deadline.

Here is all about the key points you need to understand about prioritising your tasks, we hope this will help you in setting your priorities right and give you maximum productivity.