Prioritized Task List

A prioritized daily task list is an extremely powerful tool, but it is an incredibly simple idea. One of the earliest and best known stories in business folklore deals with prioritized planning. It concerns Charles Schwab, then president of Bethlehem Steel.

One day Schwab was talking with a management consultant, Ivy Lee, when he came up with this challenge: “Show me a way to get more things done with my time and I’ll pay you any fee within reason.”

Ivy Lee then handed Schwab a piece of blank paper. “Write down the most important task you have to do tomorrow and number them in order of importance,” he said. “When you arrive in the morning, begin at once on number one and stay on it till it’s completed. Once you’ve completed the first task, recheck your priorities and begin number two. Stick with your task all day if necessary – as long as it’s the most important one. If you don’t finish all your tasks, don’t worry. You probably couldn’t have done so with any other method, and without some system you’d probably not even decide which one was most important. Now, make this a habit every working day. When it works for you, give the idea to your management. Try it as long as you like. Then send me a check for what you think it’s worth.”

Some weeks later, after the idea had been tried and found worthy, M. Schwab sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 – an enormous sum in the 1930’s – along with a note saying that the idea was the most profitable one he had ever learned. Schwab also formulated a plan for all Bethlehem Steel management, using Lee’s idea, that was carried out under his direction. This planning idea was credited with turning Bethlehem Steel into the biggest independent steel producer in the world at that time. Schwab said that the $25,000 was probably the most valuable investment that Bethlehem Steel made that year.

A Specific Example

Working on tasks in the order of their priority is one of the key elements to good time management. Here is one method for setting up a prioritized daily task list.

1. Make a list of everything you would like to accomplish today, including tasks that are not urgent. No value is given to any task at this point. You just let everything surface – professional, family, civic, etc.
2. Give a value to each item on the list. This is called the ABC valuing system. Put on “A”, “B”, or “C” after each item depending on:
   A – Vital, must be done
   B – Important, should be done
   C – Trivial, could be done
3. Give a numeric value to each item on the list. Now go back and prioritize your A tasks, your B tasks and your C tasks from 1 to 3

So here is a sample a what a prioritized task list might look like:

A3 AXI2 followup
B1 Team web, time managment
A3 Online order fix
B1 Estimated income tax
C1 Check-in WP changes
C1 Number faxes to AZ
B1 Re:Launch referrals
A1 COP8 DupSale followup
B1 CZ Team e-mails

Do in the Order of Importance

Now, the big trick is to work on the items in the order of their importance. This is the key point to getting the most out of this list. Work on the A1 items first. If you have to wait until a certain time to call someone, for instance, it is okay to move to A2 or A3. However, you should finish all your A items first before moving on to the B items.

Why is this important? The reason is that all of us have a lot more things that we would like to do and that other people want us to do than we have time to finish. Also, as human beings, there are things that we really enjoy doing that might not be the most important items. By working on the items in the order of their priority, we make sure that we get the important items done.