Getting Work Done (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series)

Schedule Your Work

Now that you know what your goals are and have identified where you may need to be spending more or less time, it’s time to tackle your task list—all those competing priorities, projects, and activities that you need to do in the near future. First, identify the most important work you need to do; then figure out when to do it.

Set priorities

Go through your task list—everything you need to do that you have marked down on sticky notes, in notebooks, or in e-mail reminders to yourself—and determine what is most important and what is most urgent.

Without a clear way to identify the important work from the not so important, you’re likely to treat every item on your list and request that comes your way as urgent. But “urgent” and ...