Inspired by a random graphic I came across on Pinterest.

Struggling to prioritise your to-do list?

Are you trying to focus your efforts and achieve more with the time you have?

Sounds like you need to switch your to-do list for an Action Priority Matrix.

An Action Priority Matrix is a simple 4 quadrant grid diagram that helps organise your to-do list, so you can work effectively and efficiently.

The 4 quadrants are titled as:
1 - Urgent and Important, do it right away!
2 - Not Urgent But Important, plan to do it ASAP!
3 - Urgent But Important Delegate!
4 - Not Urgent and Not Important, Dump or Postpone!

Once you've drawn all these out, you can start populating it with items from your to-do list.

Once you have done that, you can start diving into the tasks. Now, as long as you've been honest in your diagnosis and assignment of the tasks, you can work knowing your focus in the right place.

No, most people jump straight to section 1: Urgent and Important. These are the 'fire fighting' tasks, the reactive tasks that surprise us out of nowhere. Whilst this is obviously an important section - it's actually no where the focus should be.

This is a common mistake when people use this matrix - your focus should be on section 2: Not Urgent But Important. This is the last proactive section, allowing you to stop the fire BEFORE it starts.

Proactive is always better than reactive!
For more detail on assigning tasks, check out my notes for overviews and examples.

Want more information on this head over to YouTube and search for Randy Pausch's Lecture: Time Management - don't let the retro VHS quality fool you this lecture is full of golden insights, tricks and tips you can use.

Let me know your favourite to-do list format in the comments!