Prioritising your workload is the key to efficient time management. It stands to reason that those jobs that are most urgent should be done first and the less urgent ones left in the pile until tomorrow, (although when tomorrow comes you will usually find that these tasks have taken on a new urgency overnight: it is the nature of the beast.) But it is never simply a case of adopting an attitude of 'this job makes the most money and so it should take priority,' there are many more factors that come into play when deciding the order of the tasks you have to do and I shall demonstrate this with assistance from a rather unexpected source.

Many of you will be familiar with the popular card game Top Trumps, the object of which is to win your opponents' cards by playing to the strengths of those you hold in your hand. Children and families have been top trumping each other since the late 1970s, and there are many different graphically illustrated card sets, covering a multitude of subjects from Formula One to Ben Ten.

Client A
Name: ABC Ltd
Deadline: Today
Client Status: Well Established
Profit: £300
Penalty: No

Client B
Name: XYZ Ltd
Deadline: Today
Client Status: Established
Profit: £400
Penalty: Yes
 
Client C
Name: 123 Ltd
Deadline: Today
Client Status: New
Profit £500
Penalty: No
 
In this game Client A wins on client status, but it is the least profitable of the three. Client C wins the profitability hand but is a new customer and yet to show loyalty to the firm. Client B is somewhere in the middle, but carries a penalty for late completion.

So as you can see there is a rather complicated set of criteria to weigh up when deciding which job takes priority. In the above examples, however, there appears one very important factor that demands urgent attention - the penalty. Whereas the two non-penalising clients could probably be assuaged over a late completion, an imposed penalty is counter-productive, costly and detrimental to the good name of the firm. Therefore, any jobs that would incur some form of penalty if not completed on time should be given special consideration. But even this is not the end of the matter.

To return to the Top Trumps theme, there is in each set a card called the Supertrump and this card beats all others hands down. In workload prioritisation the Supertrump comes in the form of your boss or supervisor. For even if you decide that, in the above examples, Client B takes priority because of the impending penalty, this may not be the view shared by your superior, who may place either profitability or client status ahead of the penalty risk imposed by Client C. It is important, therefore, to discuss your workload with your superior and try to glean at least an inkling as to his or her own preferences. Once you have established how they perceive their priorities, then you can be left to your own devices with yours.

Because each job has its own pressing needs it can be difficult to come to a decision as to which one should take priority. One thing you do not want to do is waste time umming and ahhing over the problem. Decisiveness is one of the traits of a good time manager, as often snap decisions need to be made. And the sooner that decision is made, the more time is freed up to be spent on the job itself. Prioritising the workload can be a difficult task to perform, but the rewards, both in productivity and personal standing, can make its study well worth the effort.