Prioritizing workloads

Working in IT I tend to keep a list of ‘TODOs’ so that I can keep track of my current and upcoming workload as well as things that I would like to do and ideas that I have… I know that in reality I tend to simply keep a list of things that I am working on and have to work on so that when asked what all I’m working on, I have a definitive list that I can refer to that keeps track of things that I have to do as well as things that I am in process of doing… This helps me keep track of things so that I make sure to follow up or go back and complete work that otherwise might get lost in the mix. Emails that come in with work requests…etc., get marked into my TODO list so that not only do I have an email but I also have my TODO repository… Ideally a bug-tracker application of sorts is best, but Excel works well also.

I used to mark everything that was deemed important as a high priority and then most everything else medium or no priority (for ideas and customer suggestions…etc.). I read an article a while back about prioritizing and how if you choose to make everything a high priority then in reality, nothing is a priority… Think about that for a moment. If everything that you have on your TODO list is a high priority, how can you tell by glancing what is your highest priority? Of course all of that work is important, right and it all needs to be done, but how can you better prioritize your work so that at a glance you can tell what is your highest priority versus the things that you should be working on second, third…etc.?

This may be easiest if you have the ability to prioritize your own priorities, but not everyone has the ability to do so and thus is thrust into “this is a high priority” coming from management. From my experience working in Government, a lot of tasks can come onto your desk with the notion that this is a high priority… On top of that, stack multiple-managers in charge of tasks and you end up with staff trying to figure out whose request is a higher priority than another’s… Sometimes when a request is coming from management the easiest thing to do is to give the manager an idea of your TODO list and ask them where in that list their request goes… Of course everyone at times has the mindset that their request is their highest priority… Thus some organizations partake in management meetings in order to prioritize the TODO workloads of the IT staff…

Most important, over ‘how’ you manage your priorities, whether it is self prioritizing, supervisor prioritization or even multi-manager meeting one of the most important things to keep in mind is that not only do you need to prioritize your TODOs into importance, but you need to know what items (that share a priority level e.g. high, medium, low) are more or less important than each other.

~Happy Prioritization!