How can you prioritize important tasks when everything seems urgent?

Before you even look at the goals you want to address, look at the overall health of the business or your life. Do you have enough income generating tasks being done? This counts whether it’s work or personal. Without income you’re going to struggle to prioritise anything else. After that after you’ve secure the basic human needs (shelter, food etc) you’re able to then look at the goals you want to hit etc.

From an entrepreneurial standpoint, I can understand how everything can seem like an urgent task. However, I've learned to prioritize tasks that are Revenue Generating Activities. Revenue Generating activities include marketing, finding new business, selling, and closing. Of course, this needs to align with what your goals for your future are!

The Prioritisation matrix is one we are likely to know even if we’ve never heard the term before. It’s a 2x2 grid, with a scale low to high for importance and urgency. High importance high urgency = do first, low importance low urgency is delegate (or do last if you can’t delegate). I also like the ￡10 task version. Is it a ￡10 task (ie pay some one ￡10 per hour to do it) or ￡100 or ￡1000. If it’s a ￡10 task as the CEO of your life or your company try and avoid doing these tasks. The ￡1000 tasks should always be you (unless there’s a legal reason not to) always aim to review you tasks every 3-6 months removing the “￡10” ones first, then the ones you don’t like doing of ￡100, etc. This should free your time to do the bits only you can do.

In my experience, SMART goals are imperative for prioritizing important tasks because they provide clarity and direction. Without SMART goals, it becomes challenging to distinguish between what's important and what's not, which can lead to wasted time and effort.

I utilise a “1 level down” review strategy. I set annual and quarterly goals, with monthly and weekly targets. So my annual goals get reviewed “1 level down” at a quarterly level (but I use monthly targets to check-in I’m on track) same with quarterly and monthly reviews, but weekly targets to check-in. My tasks are checked daily and set in a Friday planning session. This sounds super organised, and to an extent it is. However it’s taken me years to get here; and I strongly encourage people to find a system that works for them. Your task list and stress levels will thank you for it!

Be aware: If everything is equally important, nothing is really important. And if you do everything at the same time, you will end up with nothing finished. So remember the song from the Spice Girls: "So tell me what you want, what you really, really want...".