A major component of productivity is prioritizing your daily responsibilities and addressing them in an order that makes sense, which is why to-do lists are so important. Usually, I suggest using the Eisenhower Matrix, which helps you visually sort tasks according to how urgent and important they are, but there is another way: The ABCDE method, which comes from Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. Obviously, eating the frog—or doing your biggest, most demanding task first each day—is one way to tackle the day’s duties, but structuring out how you’ll do the rest is pretty important, too. Here’s how it works.
This approach is a little easier than similar prioritization techniques because it's more subjective. When you are planning out your day, you’re going to give each task in front of you a grade. First, list out everything you need to do. This can be a list of your tasks for the day, week, or month—you’ll weed it all down eventually. Then, give them each a grade based on this outline:
B tasks are ones that also need to get done, but won’t have such serious ramifications if they’re not done immediately. You know you need to do them at some point (lest they escalate to the urgency of an A task) but you have a little wiggle room. If you have a make-or-break exam in a month, studying for it now might be a B task, but if you wait too long, it'll quickly become A.
D tasks are anything that you can delegate to someone else. The person you give it to shouldn’t have any A or B tasks it will take away from; it should become a priority for them, even if it’s not major for you or simply something you trust they’ll get done right. This is where it gets a little subjective and may not work for everyone. If you're a manager at work or the adult in your household, this is easy enough, but if you're working on personal tasks, it's not always relevant. You can think a little more abstractly here, if it helps. Sometimes, when I have a lot of laundry to do, I'm overly busy, and it's bordering on being an A task, I actually turn it into a D task by calling a pick-up and delivery service. Think of things you can outsource, even if you aren't exactly in a position to "delegate." Even an A or B task like "plan tonight's meal" or "clean the house" could be a D task if you're in a position to order a pizza or hire a cleaner. Be open to seeing D tasks among everything on your list, even if it takes some practice, as it clears the way for more As and Bs.
Like I said, this is a little subjective and it may take some time to get the hang of accurately categorizing your tasks. There are other, more intense ways of prioritizing your daily responsibilities and if you're struggling with giving your to-dos a grade, you might need to try something a little more data-focused. The goal here is to be quick and efficient so you can stop stressing about what needs to be done, then prioritize it, and just start doing it.
Use the ABCDE grades to be more productive
As for the D-level things, outsourcing and coordinating on them might still require enough work to qualify carrying out the delegation as one of your five smaller tasks, but it depends how much effort that really takes and what the rest of your day is looking like. Don’t shoot the messenger, but you might have to fall back on a C task to get the delegation taken care of. The E grades can just be crossed off. Go ahead and delete them or strike them out. It’ll feel good (and productive) to get that finality on them.
As always, rely on timeboxing to schedule out the day from there. Allocate time for each task in your calendar, giving yourself the most time for major A-level duties and less and less time for B and C. Don’t multitask; instead, do each thing in order, starting by eating the frog and moving through the other things one at a time until they’re done. (The exception here is that if you’re delegating tasks, try to get it done early so the other person has time to complete what should be an A- or B-level job for them, too.)
Grading your responsibilities is an easy way to get perspective on them and enhance your sense of urgency around them, which compels you to be more productive. Getting it all into an ordered list gives you structure and direction, wastes less time throughout the day, and will give you a sense of accomplishment when you’re done, which itself is a productivity win.
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