How to Plan Your Workday and Prioritize Tasks: 5 Time Management Techniques

Contents

• Activity logs
• Eisenhower Matrix
• Pareto Principle
• Kanban Principles
• Balance Wheel
• Roundtrip’s five steps to planning your day

Activity logs

Activity logs (or work logs) are a table where your workday is divided into hours with space to add completed tasks in each period. Managers usually rely on activity logs to monitor team workloads, but they can also help employees personally.

Pros:

• Conveniently structure tasks throughout the day.
• Monitor where time is spent and redistribute working hours more productively.

Cons:

• If managers require activity logs, employees may think that they’re not trusted.
• Filling in the table takes time throughout the day.

To draw insights from completed logs, answer the following questions:

• What parts of the day are the most and least productive?
• Is prime time (the most active time) being used effectively?
• What did you actually enjoy about your day? What did you not like?
• On average, what percentage of your time is spent being productive?

Monitor where time is spent and redistribute working hours more productively.
Photo: Ahmed/ pexels.com

Eisenhower Matrix

The Eisenhower Matrix, a time management tool from the 34th President of the United States, helps you focus on what’s truly useful. He once said: “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

To pick out the most beneficial tasks from your to-do list, divide them into four types:

• Important and urgent. These tasks should take no more than 20% of your time. They require immediate attention.
• Important and not urgent. These are 80% of your tasks. Set time frames for their completion and delegate some of them.
• Urgent and not important. Delegate or do them yourself, but make sure they don’t take up too much time.
• Not urgent and not important. These are time stealers: try not to even add them to your to-do list.

To pick out the most beneficial tasks from your to-do list, divide them into four types.
Photo: Elnur/ Shutterstock.com 

Example

You’re in the office and need to leave for the airport in 45 minutes to catch a flight for a business trip. However, you still have a few things to do:

• Finish a report and forward it to the team so they can check and approve it with management before the end of the day.
• Make a presentation for the partners you’ll meet with during the business trip.
• Download some new apps to your phone that may be useful on the road.
• Read about the city you’re traveling to so you know where to go in your free time.

Let’s use the Eisenhower Matrix to put these tasks into categories:

• Important and urgent. If you don’t send the report, you’ll miss the deadline and let the team down.
• Important and not urgent. The presentation is important, but you can do it during the flight.
• Urgent and not important. It’s better to download new apps to your phone before leaving while there’s still Wi-Fi. This task is urgent, but it’s not very important. Apps can help on business trips, but you can also live without them.
• Not urgent and not important. If you plan on combining business with pleasure, we suggest reading about the local attractions in advance on your own time.

We talk more about how to stay calm and prepare for business trips here.

Pareto Principle

The essence of Vilfredo Pareto’s principle is simple: roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes and vice versa.

Example

Business trips include a thousand little things. You need to get your team to cover all your work while you’re gone, answer emails and messages, pack your suitcase, bring all your devices, and (ideally) download some podcasts or books so you don’t get bored on the road.

The essence of Vilfredo Pareto’s principle is simple: roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes and vice versa.
Photo: 3rdtimeluckystudio/ Shutterstock.com

To avoid getting overwhelmed, it’s better to concentrate on those things that, if not done, could ruin the business trip: signing documents for the business trip, scheduling meetings, booking tickets and a hotel, and collecting receipts for expense reporting. These are the 20% of efforts needed for 80% of the trip’s success.

Kanban Principles

When every stage of a task is clearly visible, it’s easier to handle them. This is exactly why visualization and planning methods like Kanban boards were invented.

Developers, marketers, and HR specialists use services like Kaiten and Asana for Kanban boards to create cards with tasks and move them to different columns as needed.

Example

You’re going to a business forum. To ensure that your trip is a success, write instructions for yourself and break them into four columns of subtasks: “Waiting,” “In Progress,” “Postponed,” and “Completed.”

• Write down everything you need to do, from booking tickets and hotels to which stands you want to visit at the forum.
• After everything is written down, prioritize the to-do list. Perhaps a one-on-one meeting with a partner is more important than a certain presentation.
• Focus on time-restricted tasks. For example, you can reschedule a meeting for later in the day to make an important conference in the morning.
• Limit the number of tasks in the “In Progress” column. Try not to over-schedule yourself for business sessions and negotiations; otherwise, you risk burnout.

When every stage of a task is clearly visible, it’s easier to handle them.
Photo: Wright Studio/ Shutterstock.com

Balance Wheel

This helps show where your priorities are, not just at work but in life. If you travel a lot on business, you probably spend your evenings on the road rather than with family or friends, but you get to see new cities and meet new people.

Imagine your typical weekday. You can roughly divide it into the following sections:

• Work
• Family
• Friends
• Hobbies
• Exercise

Estimate the percentage of time each takes during the day, then answer the following questions:

• How would you describe your “balanced workday”?
• How does your current time management compare to your ideal schedule?
• What would you like to keep, and what would you like to change?

The balance wheel helps show where your priorities are, not just at work but in life.
Photo: Okrasiuk/ Shutterstock.com

Roundtrip’s five steps to planning your day

We recommend this guide to help you better plan your workday and prioritize tasks on the job and in life.

• Write down tasks. This includes new tasks, unfinished tasks from the day before, and unexpected tasks.
• Evaluate your performance. Mark the potential time required next to each task (deadlines should be generous).
• Reserve time. Plan most of your day (60%) and leave 40% for unexpected tasks.
• Prioritize and delegate. Figure out what can’t be done without your direct involvement and what you can delegate to others.
• Monitor task execution. Evaluate your results or employee performance and provide feedback.

We recommend this guide to help you better plan your workday and prioritize tasks on the job and in life.
Photo: StunningArt/ Shutterstock.com

We encourage you to choose a time management method that works for you and helps you get through your to-do list with minimum stress.

Plan a business trip