Work priority list examples

How to Create a Work Priority Checklist

A work priority checklist can help you organize your professional life and assist you in effectively managing your time at work. A checklist can also make you more efficient and reliable, which can help propel you up the career ladder. Additionally, a work priority checklist can help you reduce levels of stress at work and help you achieve a better work-life balance.

1

Make a list of all of your regular, daily responsibilities. Even if your job varies from day to day, chances are that you have at least a few static tasks that need to be taken care of daily. Consider tasks such as checking e-mail, returning work phone calls, opening mail, updating spreadsheets or attending mandatory meetings.

2

Prioritize your regular responsibilities and write them on individual daily work lists, making one list for each day of the week. Place the most important or time-sensitive tasks at the top of your list and the least critical ones at the bottom of the list.

3

Make a list of atypical work-related functions that need to be performed during the current work week. This list should include specific events and tasks that must be addressed during the week, such as client meetings, project deadlines and reports. If the task must be done on a certain day, make note of it on your list.

4

Integrate the information from your atypical workweek list into each of your daily tasks lists, rearranging the priority of tasks as necessary. Build in time each day for unanticipated projects or tasks that take longer than planned. When you are done, you should have five daily task lists that include both your regular responsibilities as well as your other professional duties and tasks.

5

Develop a separate long-term, fluid work priority checklist to keep you organized over time. For example, if you call a client on the first of the month and the client tells you he wants to place a new order in two months, make an entry on your long-term list to indicate that in two months, calling on the client will make its way to the most appropriate daily checklist. Review this list every day to determine what, if anything, needs to be moved into the next weeks agenda.

6

Review your current days list at the end of each workday and preview the next days list so you arrive at work the next morning with an agenda already in place.

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