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Discussion Forum > Not prioritizing tasks for the day...

Hi Mark,

One thing you have made very clear is that one should not prioritize at the task level, but this should be done at the project level. One is supposed to complete all of their tasks on their will-do list and therefore it is not necessary to prioritize. But the way DIT works is that on average, a day's incoming work should over a 4-5 day period equal what is done. And you have said that if things go wrong and you cannot complete all of your will-do list, it is just moved over to tomorrow. This does happen to me a lot. But what do you do if it is early to mid-afternoon and it is clear that you will not be able to complete your will-do list? They are all commitments, and all should be done, but there is a tendency to look at the will-do list and start to prioritize what I still want to complete for the day and what to let roll-over to tomorrow.

What are your thoughts on this? How does one not instinctively prioritize when faced with this situation, which can happen all too often?

Thanks,
-David
June 17, 2008 at 23:43 | Unregistered CommenterDavid Drake
Dear David

Good question! Bear in mind that the original reason one put tasks down for Tomorrow was that they didn't need to be done Today.

However if one fails to complete one's list on any given day, the following day some of the carried over tasks may need to be done that day, i.e. it was ok to put them off for 24 hours but not for 48. So they are the ones that you should concentrate on getting done.

As for the others, it really doesn't matter what order you do them in. The important thing is always to be working for completion even if you don't expect to get there.
June 18, 2008 at 19:54 | Registered CommenterMark Forster