Establishing Priorities

Establishing priorities is setting an "Order of Importance". The problem is knowing what is "important" and determining relative values for it.

Sometimes, for instance, an urgent memo is more "important" than an Annual Report. Arranging a staff meeting might be more "important" than arranging a Board Meeting.

Establishing Priorities can be divided into three stages:

1. Isolate Job Tasks
2. Establish Importance
3. Prioritise Tasks

Stage One: Isolate Job Tasks

The first stage in Establishing Priorities is to isolate or separate the job tasks which are expected to be performed. One value of this stage comes from identifying where the completion of one task will aid the completion of a subsequent task.

Stage Two: Establish Importance

The second stage is to use the following criteria to establish importance.

1. The Impact of Seriousness - What would happen if nothing was done? Would it seriously jeopardise the execution of the job or the operation of the department?
2. The Urgency - How quickly must a task be completed? When is it required and how long have I got to do it?
3. The Growth of the Problem - If I postpone doing something will the problem become bigger or smaller? A smaller problem is obviously quicker to resolve; this criteria helps determine whether work should be done now or postponed.

Stage Three: Prioritise Tasks

The third and final stage is to compare the tasks which have been analysed for levels and nature or importance (stage two).

Some tasks will have obvious low priority, others will have obvious high priority.

The difficulty arises in determining the relative importance of, for instance, one high priority task compared with other high priority tasks.