Five tips to help you prioritise your work day

We all understand the importance of working efficiently but there’s no denying that work can sometimes be overwhelming. One week you’ve got everything under control and the next – you’re snowed-under with too many pressing deadlines. Sound familiar?

But with every task appearing urgent, how do you prioritise so that you make the most out of every day? Here are five tips to help you spend your time as productively and profitably as possible.

1. Plan ahead

At the end of every day, plan your day ahead. List out all tasks, meetings and calls so you can get an accurate idea of what you need to accomplish throughout the day and then rank them according to importance or urgency. For many people, morning is a high-energy time and having your to-do list already in hand means you don’t waste any super-charged minutes figuring out what to do next.

2. Review your workload & delegate

Is there a task that you always put at the bottom? Sometimes you need to trust and empower other members of your team to do certain tasks. Tasks that perhaps you’ve been used to doing for a number of years could be handed over to your team and aid in their career progression.

3. Set deadlines & time estimates

Once you have your calendar in front of you, fill in the due dates and timeframes you need to achieve tasks in. Be honest and realistic about what you can achieve in a working day or week so that you don’t end up feeling stressed and overwhelmed. Whether it’s five minutes or two hours, start by organizing your phone calls and meetings by time. From there, you can fill in any free hours with the day’s assignments in order of priority.

4. Cater for interruptions

Interruptions are inevitable so build time into your schedule each day where you can deal with them, though only allow yourself to deal with urgent queries during this time. Your first priority should always be the work that will have consequences if you don’t finish it within the set deadline.

5. Don’t let your inbox drive your schedule

With the amount of emails and urgent requests received daily, it can be easy to let your inbox determine the priorities of your to-do list. Resist the urge and instead switch off alerts and allocate set times to check your emails throughout the day. If you get 50 emails a day that’s 50 interruptions, don’t let other peoples priorities become yours.

www.orionsearch.com.au

Adrian Osuchowski - Orion Search

Orion Search assists Primary Processors (Abattoirs & Boning Rooms) and Further Processors (Value Added Meat, Ready To Eat & Smallgoods) within Beef, Lamb, Pork and Poultry employ their hard to find, permanent staff all across Australia.