Feeling overwhelmed? How to prioritize your projects and tasks in five simple steps
Most of my coaching clients have come to at least one of our sessions saying something along the lines of "I have so much on my plate right now I don't even know where to begin," or "there's so many steps involved in this project it's overwhelming to think through them all."
When stuck in this phase of overwhelm, people typically fall into three different patterns:
They focus of what's easiest first, not necessarily the most important, then they get stuck when they have to switch gears to what they perceive as 'harder' activities.
They switch gears a lot, taking a lot of action but are never really sure if they've made much progress because they aren't following steps through to completion.
They avoid it as much as possible, then use any external deadlines as motivator to rush through it at the end.
Or some combination of all three!
When you're falling into these patterns, you're wasting a lot of your energy by being unfocused. You're spending all of your time and energy on the in-between, spinning your wheels, thinking about what to do, or avoiding what you need to do, but not actually doing what you need to be doing.
On the other hand, when you're clear about your priorities, it's so much easier to quickly focus on what needs to be done, get it done, and move forward faster on your projects and goals.
I've seen it countless times with myself and my clients!
One simple tool I use with clients who come to a session feeling overwhelmed and unclear of their priorities is a simple priority list. Usually this is something we work through together live in a coaching session, and now I want to share a DIY option you can follow along on your own.
It is typically easiest to use a spreadsheet with multiple columns for this (and will help you sort later).
If you want more quick tips, check out the blog 15 quick tips to prioritize your goals, schedule, and focus this year.
Step 1: List out all of your tasks
You may want to start by focusing on one specific project that has several steps within it to get used to this technique first and not overwhelm yourself with too many items in your list.
When you're expanding into multiple projects or your day-to-day work, consider different levels like recurring projects, daily/weekly/monthly activities, and long-term projects.
If you're more of a verbal processor, you may want to record yourself talking through all of your ideas, then listen back to it and write/type out your list from there. Or, this could be something great to work through with your manager if you're new in a role.
Don't worry about it being in a particular order right now, just use this as a brain dump to get everything out of your head.
Step 2: Go through your list and assign each task the following categories:
Deadline (Date)
Urgent (Yes or no)
Important (Yes or no)
Responsibility (Name of person or people to complete)
Deadline is the date this task needs to be completed. For now, start with just external or hard deadlines, where there is a clear date this is due, likely to submit or send to someone else. If something doesn't have a hard deadline (i.e. it's one of the steps to complete yourself before the hard deadline), leave it blank for now. We will address those in the next step.
Urgency is defined as has a clear deadline or there will be consequences if it is not completed quickly.
Importance is defined as necessary to help you achieve your long-term goals.
Responsibility here is looking at who is responsible for completing this task. It may be multiple people or someone other than yourself.
Step 3: Assign deadlines to the remaining tasks based on priority
For any task without an external deadline: go through the list and assign a date based on the following priorities.
Remember, you may need to jump around your list a bit to identify any dependencies when you realize that something else on your list is dependent on this task being completed
First, we want to focus on the tasks that are both urgent and important, to make sure these are being prioritized as soon as possible. Most (if not all) of these should have been covered in step two since they likely have a hard deadline.
Second, prioritize the important but not urgent tasks. These are usually strategic, long-term tasks that help you move forward on your goal or project but don't have a hard deadline. Create a deadline based on what's realistic given your other priorities, commitments, how much time you expect it to take, and give yourself an extra buffer (because life happens and things change).
For tasks that are labeled as urgent but not important, reconsider if this is truly something that you need to be completing, or if you can delegate or outsource to someone else.
For tasks that are not urgent and not important, ask yourself why they are even on your list to begin with? These tend to be time-wasting activities that aren't moving the needle forward on your goals or projects. Consider which of these you can delegate or remove entirely from your list.
Step 4: Sort the list based on deadlines
Now, go back through your list and re-order the full list based on the earliest deadline. Review to ensure all dependencies are covered, the list is realistic for your schedule, and that you aren't missing anything else.
Step 5: Add these deadlines to your task management system
A task management system could mean your calendar, your planner, your task management software program (i.e Asana, Monday.com, etc.) or your post-it on your desk. It doesn't matter which system you use, as long as you have one that works for you consistently.
The point here is to take your learnings and be able to implement on them as easily as possible. Don't leave this living in some notebook or spreadsheet you'll never look back at.
If overwhelm is a regular feeling for you, not just an occasional one, take the free What's Causing Your Burnout? guide to get to the root of it. Take the self-assessment here.
Brittany Canaski is a highly-rated Leadership Coach, Trainer, and Founder of Hello Velocity where she builds confident leaders and high-performing teams. When she's not building her business, you can find her planning her next travel adventure with her husband, watching Formula 1 racing, or volunteering in her local community of Charlotte, NC.
