How to prioritize tasks by outcome?
July 12, 2023 12:07 AM Subscribe
I have an anti-talent for task prioritization but also an unending list of personal, home, and family to-dos and projects.
I want to prioritize:
a) the things that will have the most positive effect and
b) the things that will prevent the biggest catastrophes.
So I need to categorize each task based on potential positive impact or the consequences of failure.
Is there a formal method that categorizes & prioritizes tasks this way? Any guides or lists of questions/considerations to think through? If you prioritize in a similar way, what's your workflow or thought process?
I can't do this based on feelings, like how bad I think missing that deadline would be, or how helpful completing that project would be. My feelings, off-the-cuff predictions, and estimations about anything related to time, priorities, importance, & consequences are wildly inaccurate. I know this, but I still do surprised Pikachu face every time I mess up. (Because poor grasp of consequences, I assume.)
I have kids, pets, a house, a spouse, and no job, so I'm the primary caregiver, homemaker, financial manager, local inept handyperson, yada yada. Also starting a course of study for a career any day now...
So I've got a ton of to-dos and repeating tasks and projects of all sorts. There's far too many to get through all them, probably ever. And I don't have any kind of grasp on which ones could be particularly helpful and which ones may have really bad consequences.
I need some sort of concrete, specific criteria to categorize the positive impacts and negative consequences. If I can convince that stupid bit of my brain that the categories are real and the top priority tasks do indeed have big impacts or dire consequences, it makes doing things much easier.
If I need to adopt on faith someone's hierarchy of what things are most important and helpful and which things are the worst, that's worked before on similar but different things. It helps if there's any sense of authority behind the author or group.
As a mostly final thought, I do know about the Eisenhower Matrix, I've just never been very successful with it. I love the overall simplicity, but honestly don't understand what is Important and what is Urgent. I'm also iffy on potentially ending up with 100 important & urgent tasks and basically having the same problem.
Other info:
I do have ADHD, inattentive type I'm medicated (the meds can only help so much & aren't 24/7).
I'm good right now on methods and tools for collecting, storing, and breaking down tasks & projects. That is, I'm familiar with GTD, bullet journal, kanban, and a boatload of software & apps.
Other task attributes are nice to use sometimes, but I haven't found them useful for primary prioritization. Eg: estimated time, difficulty, cost, (GTD) contexts
I can't do this based on feelings, like how bad I think missing that deadline would be, or how helpful completing that project would be. My feelings, off-the-cuff predictions, and estimations about anything related to time, priorities, importance, & consequences are wildly inaccurate. I know this, but I still do surprised Pikachu face every time I mess up. (Because poor grasp of consequences, I assume.)
I have kids, pets, a house, a spouse, and no job, so I'm the primary caregiver, homemaker, financial manager, local inept handyperson, yada yada. Also starting a course of study for a career any day now...
So I've got a ton of to-dos and repeating tasks and projects of all sorts. There's far too many to get through all them, probably ever. And I don't have any kind of grasp on which ones could be particularly helpful and which ones may have really bad consequences.
I need some sort of concrete, specific criteria to categorize the positive impacts and negative consequences. If I can convince that stupid bit of my brain that the categories are real and the top priority tasks do indeed have big impacts or dire consequences, it makes doing things much easier.
If I need to adopt on faith someone's hierarchy of what things are most important and helpful and which things are the worst, that's worked before on similar but different things. It helps if there's any sense of authority behind the author or group.
As a mostly final thought, I do know about the Eisenhower Matrix, I've just never been very successful with it. I love the overall simplicity, but honestly don't understand what is Important and what is Urgent. I'm also iffy on potentially ending up with 100 important & urgent tasks and basically having the same problem.
Other info:
I do have ADHD, inattentive type I'm medicated (the meds can only help so much & aren't 24/7).
I'm good right now on methods and tools for collecting, storing, and breaking down tasks & projects. That is, I'm familiar with GTD, bullet journal, kanban, and a boatload of software & apps.
Other task attributes are nice to use sometimes, but I haven't found them useful for primary prioritization. Eg: estimated time, difficulty, cost, (GTD) contexts
If this was a work thing, I would say you need to define your objectives and your risks. I think that might still work in your situation.
You say that you want to do the things that will have the most positive effect. But what is it that you are trying to achieve? You could start with the basics: the kids and pets stay alive and the house does not fall down. But beyond that what matters to you most (or to your family most)?
And then your risks, what could go wrong? Brainstorm them, and then think about how likely they are to happen, and how bad it would be if they did. Enlist your spouse to help with this as it's a one-off.
That should then give you something personalised to you to assess your to-do list against.
I'm not sure whether this will be helpful or not. I do it at work, but not really in my home life - mainly because the big risks are covered and my objectives are minimal.
posted by plonkee at 2:10 AM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
You say that you want to do the things that will have the most positive effect. But what is it that you are trying to achieve? You could start with the basics: the kids and pets stay alive and the house does not fall down. But beyond that what matters to you most (or to your family most)?
And then your risks, what could go wrong? Brainstorm them, and then think about how likely they are to happen, and how bad it would be if they did. Enlist your spouse to help with this as it's a one-off.
That should then give you something personalised to you to assess your to-do list against.
I'm not sure whether this will be helpful or not. I do it at work, but not really in my home life - mainly because the big risks are covered and my objectives are minimal.
posted by plonkee at 2:10 AM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
The struggle is real! I have a few hacks to tackle this:
In my task management system (you need ONE, that you stick with meticulously; ClickUp, Monday, Asana, you name it, don't think more tools will solve your problem; pick ONE that you like and delete the others):
- I write monetary values next to the business tasks (what can I earn / what will it cost me if I don't do it) > own column
- I write hearts next to the private tasks (how big of an emotional impact will it make on me and my loved ones) > own column
- I try the Eisenhower matrix on the tasks and assign them an important and/or urgent flag > own column
-> you can then sort the tasks in your system along these criteria which will automatically prioritize the list for you
When planning:
- I schedule the high importance / high urgency tasks first thing in the week (these will mostly overlap with the €€€ and ❤️❤️❤️ tasks); the goal is to have 80% of them addressed by Tuesday night (not always possible)
- Then I find a slot for any other high-value and high-emotions tasks; the urgent ones get a slot this week and the important ones get pre-scheduled in the next 1-3 weeks
- for the remaining tasks, I try to see if there are any tasks I can delegate (to colleagues, a family member or to external help)
- then I make sure that towards the end of the week, I have a few slots blocked to tackle some not so important and not so urgent tasks that will need to get done eventually and that I couldn't delegate as otherwise, they will pile up over time and I batch them by type, e.g. phone calls, mail correspondence, ordering/buying, etc.
- in that process, I try to see if there are tasks that I need to do this week but that I can automate or simplify for the future (any type of task that will reoccur), e.g. creating an automated payment, or regular calendar reminder, etc.
There will never be enough time to do everything and your best is good enough. Practice positive self-talk on this!
posted by Fallbala at 3:05 AM on July 12, 2023
In my task management system (you need ONE, that you stick with meticulously; ClickUp, Monday, Asana, you name it, don't think more tools will solve your problem; pick ONE that you like and delete the others):
- I write monetary values next to the business tasks (what can I earn / what will it cost me if I don't do it) > own column
- I write hearts next to the private tasks (how big of an emotional impact will it make on me and my loved ones) > own column
- I try the Eisenhower matrix on the tasks and assign them an important and/or urgent flag > own column
-> you can then sort the tasks in your system along these criteria which will automatically prioritize the list for you
When planning:
- I schedule the high importance / high urgency tasks first thing in the week (these will mostly overlap with the €€€ and ❤️❤️❤️ tasks); the goal is to have 80% of them addressed by Tuesday night (not always possible)
- Then I find a slot for any other high-value and high-emotions tasks; the urgent ones get a slot this week and the important ones get pre-scheduled in the next 1-3 weeks
- for the remaining tasks, I try to see if there are any tasks I can delegate (to colleagues, a family member or to external help)
- then I make sure that towards the end of the week, I have a few slots blocked to tackle some not so important and not so urgent tasks that will need to get done eventually and that I couldn't delegate as otherwise, they will pile up over time and I batch them by type, e.g. phone calls, mail correspondence, ordering/buying, etc.
- in that process, I try to see if there are tasks that I need to do this week but that I can automate or simplify for the future (any type of task that will reoccur), e.g. creating an automated payment, or regular calendar reminder, etc.
There will never be enough time to do everything and your best is good enough. Practice positive self-talk on this!
posted by Fallbala at 3:05 AM on July 12, 2023
Best answer: Sounds like you need help with quantifying the impact of your task list. Product management heavily relies on the RICE method of quantifying reach, impact, confidence, and effort to prioritize lists of possible things to do. Whatever you end up with, you'll still need to make decisions about which of your tasks would have the biggest impact, so you'll need to be able to imagine and quantify your intended outcome from each possible task.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 4:15 AM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 4:15 AM on July 12, 2023 [2 favorites]
I suspect it would help to start by getting in touch with your values. What's important to you?
Some stuff is urgent because otherwise people will die (e.g., feeding living creatures, urgent medical care). But prioritizing other things is often more about what's important *to you*. Creativity and spontaneity for kids as a value is going to create a different (but not automatically better or worse) household than responsibility and accountability as a value.
And by whose metrics are you failing now? Is the house falling down? Are you trying to meet everyone else's needs but not your own? Are you and your spouse holding different values but you haven't identified that and collaborated on solutions? Are you being realistic about what's possible? Why are you mistrusting your own sense of what's important -- I'm not doubting you but I am wondering what you've learned about where you tend to focus when left to your own judgement.
posted by lapis at 7:37 AM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Some stuff is urgent because otherwise people will die (e.g., feeding living creatures, urgent medical care). But prioritizing other things is often more about what's important *to you*. Creativity and spontaneity for kids as a value is going to create a different (but not automatically better or worse) household than responsibility and accountability as a value.
And by whose metrics are you failing now? Is the house falling down? Are you trying to meet everyone else's needs but not your own? Are you and your spouse holding different values but you haven't identified that and collaborated on solutions? Are you being realistic about what's possible? Why are you mistrusting your own sense of what's important -- I'm not doubting you but I am wondering what you've learned about where you tend to focus when left to your own judgement.
posted by lapis at 7:37 AM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I would probably make an outcome hierarchy list that feels right to you. I always put things that are going to cost lots of money if they don't get done first. Then things that will cost lots of time. Then what makes me most anxious. Then what might bring most joy if it gets done. It will be personal, might change over short or long term. It's your to-do list!
posted by london explorer girl at 2:47 AM on July 13, 2023
posted by london explorer girl at 2:47 AM on July 13, 2023
Response by poster: Everyone's answers have given me things to think about, thank you!
RICE, in project management terms, is EXACTLY the sort of thing I was hoping would exist! It's exactly those sorts of things I need prompting to think about: the idea of "reach" is a big ahah moment.
An "outcome hierarchy list" is also the type of formalization I need: it's vital that I believe in, trust, feel confident in how I prioritize. I can work on this when I'm in a good state to do so, and rely on it when I'm more scattered & impulsive.
Because yeah, I know from decades of experience that I often cannot believe in, trust, or feel confident about my choices. Until my meds kick in, or when I forget to take them, or on weeks that are just bad, my overwhelmingly primary value is constant instant gratification.
A big part of learning to deal with ADHD has been learning not to trust myself, in a way. I feel like I'll remember to take out the trash later: I won't, I need to write that down. I feel like it's not super important to deal with the jury duty letter right now; I have lots of time and will deal with it later. I won't, I'll entirely forget, and will miss jury duty (true story). I feel like I'll use up the bacon pretty quick so I don't need to write a date on it or make a meal plan. Nope, I'll open it a month and a half later, thinking it's been maybe a week and a half. You get the picture. This is 90% of everything, 90% of the time.
And yes, the house IS falling apart! Gutters don't work, drainage sucks, wood is rotting, that sort of thing. There are a lot of disasters slowly unfolding... So everyone's help is greatly appreciated! And any further thoughts anyone may have are welcome
posted by Baethan at 7:06 AM on July 13, 2023
RICE, in project management terms, is EXACTLY the sort of thing I was hoping would exist! It's exactly those sorts of things I need prompting to think about: the idea of "reach" is a big ahah moment.
An "outcome hierarchy list" is also the type of formalization I need: it's vital that I believe in, trust, feel confident in how I prioritize. I can work on this when I'm in a good state to do so, and rely on it when I'm more scattered & impulsive.
Because yeah, I know from decades of experience that I often cannot believe in, trust, or feel confident about my choices. Until my meds kick in, or when I forget to take them, or on weeks that are just bad, my overwhelmingly primary value is constant instant gratification.
A big part of learning to deal with ADHD has been learning not to trust myself, in a way. I feel like I'll remember to take out the trash later: I won't, I need to write that down. I feel like it's not super important to deal with the jury duty letter right now; I have lots of time and will deal with it later. I won't, I'll entirely forget, and will miss jury duty (true story). I feel like I'll use up the bacon pretty quick so I don't need to write a date on it or make a meal plan. Nope, I'll open it a month and a half later, thinking it's been maybe a week and a half. You get the picture. This is 90% of everything, 90% of the time.
And yes, the house IS falling apart! Gutters don't work, drainage sucks, wood is rotting, that sort of thing. There are a lot of disasters slowly unfolding... So everyone's help is greatly appreciated! And any further thoughts anyone may have are welcome
posted by Baethan at 7:06 AM on July 13, 2023
« Older Do I Need to AC My Bedroom During the Day to... | Best vegetarian recipes for picky kids Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Trying to track tasks by breaking them down into small pieces and assigning priorities and tracking them day by day does not work for me. I find it is never accurate or realistic, does not allow for the constantly shifting nature of priorities and resources, and has the negative effect of turning my experience of my farm into an abstracted attempt to obey a somewhat arbitrary daily agenda. I have come to think of it as a sort of self-inflicted Taylorism.
Instead, I practice a prioritisation that I might describe as "triage, maintain, invest". Every day triage comes first: if any living thing on the farm that depends on me does not have food, water, safety, and treatment for any medical issue, that gets taken care of first.
For maintain, I'm looking at basic cleaning, repairs, organisation and similar. I prioritise by starting with things that will get smelly or interfere with effective triage, so usually kitchen first. I just look around me to see what needs attention most. I stop when I run out of energy/cope/time or when I think things are in an acceptable enough state that I can take some time for invest.
For invest, every year I sit down and pick three things that I would like to focus on in the coming year, and write them down describing what I want. It might be things like redoing a room in the house, finding a new market for sheep wool, or learning a new farm skill. Then I come back to that writeup throughout the year to see how I am progressing on those things and to pick off a new task that gets me there. I also do a smaller version of this that is more month to month, and usually that is less aspirational and more a process of listing the top several things that are stressing me out and seeing if some investment can make them go away.
posted by Rhedyn at 1:47 AM on July 12, 2023 [31 favorites]