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Writer's picturePier Martin

5 Step Process to Prioritize Tasks for Maximum Efficiency

Feeling overwhelmed by your ever-growing to-do list? You're not alone! This week we will talk a lot about "Balancing Priorities" - this is an area that many tech leaders struggle in as the constant demands on both short term "quick wins" keep coming and we often feel like a bottleneck.





But don't worry, I've got a 5-step process to help you prioritize tasks efficiently


Step 1: Make a Master List

The first step is to get all your tasks and projects out of your head and into one centralized list or tool. Having a complete view makes it easier to prioritize. For data folks, compile all outstanding data requests, reports, model builds, etc. I personally use Notion for my list of items but our teams use standard out of the box tools (JIRA, ASANA, Monday.com etc)


Step 2: Categorize by Effort and Impact

Next, rank each task by the effort (time/resources) required and the potential impact on the business. Ongoing reporting may be low effort but high impact, while an advanced machine learning model could be high effort AND impact. Don't worry about being too accurate at this stage, just your own view.


Step 3: Apply a Prioritization Framework

With tasks categorized, use a systematic prioritization approach like the ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) model. Assign scores for impact, your confidence in completing it, and the relative ease. The highest total scores bubble up as top priorities. There are many models but personally, I use the ICE model.


Example: A customer churn prediction model may score:

  • Impact: 5 (high value, wanted my many, likely to be adopted..)

  • Confidence: 4 (good data & team skills to do this)

  • Ease: 2 (complex modeling, going to require some learning and adjustments)

  • Total: 11 (high priority)


Step 4: Define Due Dates

With your prioritized list, assign concrete due dates or timeframes to high priority items. But be realistic - if multiple high impacts exist, stagger deadlines. Over-burdening leads to cutting corners. Use this list to align with stakeholders "I think these are the high impact items - what do you think? What information am I missing? Do you align with these timelines?"


Step 5: Plan and Execute

Finally, schedule those prioritized tasks into your calendar. Use time blocking and identify dependencies. As new requests inevitably arrive, re-prioritize frequently (I do a weekly re-prioritize for myself but monthly only for my teams and quarterly for key objectives)


Embrace prioritization as an ongoing process. Prioritizing tasks takes practice, but maximizes your impact and focus.


Give this 5-step process a try - I bet you'll gain more efficiency and deliver higher quality results! 💪


Let me know if you have any other productivity tips for juggling multiple priorities. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

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