How To Prioritize Tasks: 5 Proven Techniques
You know how it feels: your to-do list is overflowing, deadlines are approaching fast, and your inbox is blowing up with notifications. As a digital project manager, deciding how to prioritize tasks, juggling multiple projects and stakeholders, and deciding where to focus your energy can be overwhelming. That’s where this guide comes in.
In this article, you'll learn exactly how to prioritize tasks using five proven techniques.
What Is Task Prioritization?
Task prioritization is the process of organizing your workload by urgency and importance to ensure that the most important tasks get done first. It's about making informed decisions about where to direct your energy and resources, especially when you have limited time or are juggling tight deadlines.
Poor prioritization leads to missed deadlines, scope creep, and unnecessary stress. But when done right, it brings clarity, enhances time management, and prevents burnout. You’ll focus on high-value work, meet your due dates, and maintain better work-life balance.
How To Prioritize Tasks: 5 Proven Techniques
Having a repeatable system for prioritizing your workload ensures consistency and frees up mental space for critical thinking. Here are five prioritization methods that can change the way you approach your daily tasks.
1. The Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix helps you divide tasks into four quadrants based on urgency and importance:
- Urgent and important: Do these immediately. These tasks are both critical and time-sensitive, like resolving a client-reported bug before launch or responding to a stakeholder crisis. Delaying these can lead to major consequences, such as project delays, client dissatisfaction, or missed revenue opportunities. Acting on them promptly ensures the project keeps moving forward and risks are minimized.
- Important but not urgent: Schedule these. These are the strategic, high-value tasks that align with your long-term goals, like planning next quarter’s roadmap or updating a key project process. They don’t require immediate action, but neglecting them leads to missed growth opportunities. Scheduling them ensures you’re investing in sustainable progress.
- Urgent but not important: Delegate tasks if possible. These are often tasks that feel pressing (like answering routine emails or attending non-essential meetings) but don’t significantly move the project forward. Delegating or automating them through task management tools allows you to protect time for your highest priority work and actually get things done.
- Neither urgent nor important: Eliminate or set aside. These tasks—like repeatedly checking notifications or reviewing outdated documentation—offer little to no value. Removing them from your to-do list prevents distraction, reduces mental clutter, and ensures you're not wasting time that could be better spent elsewhere.
This method is especially helpful when your task list feels chaotic. It gives clarity on which items need your immediate attention and which can wait.
2. The 1-3-9 Method
This method structures your day around 13 tasks:
- 1 high-priority task
- 3 medium-priority tasks
- 9 low-priority or minor tasks
This method forces you to categorize your workload and keeps your focus aligned with your top priority each day.
Example: Let's say you're a project manager overseeing a website redesign project. Here's how you might apply the 1-3-9 method to your day:
| Priority Level | Task Description |
|---|---|
| 1 High-Priority Task | Finalize wireframe approvals with client |
| 3 Medium-Priority | Review sprint progress with the dev team |
| Update project timeline in Asana | |
| Prepare agenda for tomorrow's stakeholder call | |
| 9 Low-Priority Tasks | Respond to general Slack messages |
| Review vendor invoices | |
| Draft social media brief | |
| Archive outdated project files | |
| Confirm meeting room bookings | |
| Organize notes from last retro | |
| Check analytics for site traffic | |
| Comment on team timesheets | |
| Read latest PM newsletter |
This structure ensures you make progress on the task with the greatest impact while still chipping away at maintenance or admin work throughout your workday.
3. The ABCDE Method
With the ABCDE Method, you assign a priority level to each task:
- A: Must do—serious consequences if not done
- B: Should do—mild consequences
- C: Nice to do—no consequences
- D: Delegate tasks
- E: Eliminate
This method helps reduce procrastination by giving each task a clear status and makes your to-do list less daunting.
To get started with the ABCDE Method, begin by writing down everything you need to accomplish today. Then, go through each item and assign it a letter grade based on its level of importance and consequences if left undone. Focus on completing all your A-level tasks before moving on to B-levels. If a task can be assigned to someone else, label it D and delegate it promptly. Review and update your list daily to keep it aligned with shifting priorities and project demands.
4. The MoSCoW Method
MoSCoW stands for:
- Must: Non-negotiable tasks
- Should: Important but not critical
- Could: Good to have if there’s enough time
- Won’t: Not needed now (revisit later)
MoSCoW is ideal in Agile or hybrid projects where priorities shift frequently. It also helps you manage stakeholders’ expectations by clearly defining what will and won’t be done.
For example, imagine you're working on a sprint where your team is building a new feature. During planning, you use MoSCoW to define the backlog:
- Must: Complete core functionality that allows users to log in securely.
- Should: Implement user feedback tool for the dashboard.
- Could: Add UI animations to improve experience.
- Won’t: Explore dark mode toggle—revisit next quarter.
If mid-sprint a blocker appears or priorities shift due to new input from stakeholders, your team can easily realign by reviewing the MoSCoW categories. The "Must" items stay protected, while "Could" or "Won’t" items can be moved or cut without impacting delivery. This method helps Agile teams stay adaptive while still maintaining clear focus on delivery outcomes.
5. The Pareto Principle
Also known as the 80/20 rule, the Pareto Principle suggests that 20% of your tasks create 80% of the value. Focus on the high-impact, critical tasks that drive the biggest results.
This is a game-changer when you’re feeling overloaded. It helps you identify your most important tasks and eliminate the busywork.
To apply the Pareto Principle effectively, project managers should ask:
- Which tasks are directly tied to project success or client satisfaction?
- What deliverables support our long-term goals?
- Which tasks, if completed today, would unblock other team members or accelerate progress?
You can also look at metrics like:
- Time spent vs. outcome generated (i.e., did a task that took 1 hour result in a major milestone or just admin cleanup?)
- ROI of individual tasks—do some actions consistently lead to measurable progress?
- Stakeholder impact—are some items on your list critical to maintaining stakeholder alignment or momentum?
By reviewing past sprints, project retrospectives, or KPI reports, you can spot patterns in what typically moves the needle. The idea isn’t to ignore the rest of your task list, but to consciously allocate your best energy and time to the efforts with the biggest payoff.
Once you've identified your 20%, you can use other prioritization techniques—like time blocking or the Eisenhower Matrix—to protect time for those high-value activities.
What Is The Best Way To Prioritize Tasks?
Different prioritization strategies work better depending on the project management methodologies you are using:
- Agile teams benefit from the MoSCoW and 1-3-9 methods due to iterative planning and shifting priorities.
- Waterfall projects often align well with the Eisenhower Matrix and ABCDE for structured, sequential planning.
- Hybrid models thrive when combining techniques like Pareto (for high-value focus) with MoSCoW (for stakeholder alignment).
Choosing the best strategy depends on your team, your tools, and your overall project goals.
Examples Of How To Prioritize Tasks
Let’s look at how this works in practice:
Scenario 1: Digital Project Manager at an agency
A DPM uses the ABCDE Method each morning to create their priority list, ensuring the most important tasks are tackled first.
Task List Example:
- A: Finalize client presentation for tomorrow
- B: Follow up on dev QA issues
- C: Update project board
- D: Send calendar invites
- E: Review old Slack threads
This method is especially useful in an agency setting, where project managers often juggle multiple clients, shifting scopes, and fast-paced deadlines. By assigning clear priority levels to each task, you can quickly zero in on what’s most urgent and impactful for the day, without losing momentum on ongoing projects. It also brings structure to chaotic mornings, helping you focus on value-driving work instead of getting sidetracked by less consequential admin tasks.
Scenario 2: Scrum Masters at a tech company
By incorporating prioritization techniques into team meetings, workflows can remain focused and aligned with long-term goals.
Using MoSCoW in sprint planning with your team:
- Must: Resolve critical bugs
- Should: Conduct performance tests
- Could: Optimize minor UI elements
- Won’t: Explore new tool integrations this sprint
To make these priorities visible and actionable, the Scrum Master logs them directly into the team’s project management tool, such as Jira, Trello, or ClickUp, under clearly labeled columns or tags that reflect the MoSCoW categories. This ensures every team member can see what’s most urgent, what can wait, and what has been intentionally deprioritized. For teams with less robust tools, a shared spreadsheet or simple kanban board can achieve the same clarity. Making priorities transparent helps the entire team stay aligned and reduces confusion throughout the sprint.
Best Practices For How To Prioritize Tasks
- Set Clear Objectives First: Know what success looks like before building your to-do list. Clear goals help you spot your highest priority deliverables and ensure your energy is going toward tasks that actually move the project forward. Ask yourself: What needs to happen for this project to succeed? Which outcomes would make the client or stakeholders happy? Starting with the end in mind makes it easier to break through the noise and get things done.
- Break Large Tasks Into Subtasks: Avoid feeling overwhelmed by slicing big deliverables into smaller, manageable tasks. Breaking down work makes it easier to track progress and creates opportunities to automate or delegate routine or small tasks. It also helps you identify time-sensitive elements earlier, ensuring nothing critical slips through the cracks when deadlines approach.
- Use Digital Tools: Project management software like Asana, Trello, or ClickUp helps visualize your task list, set due dates, and assign priority levels—crucial for staying aligned across teams. You can tag high-priority and time-sensitive items, automate recurring tasks, and streamline communication. These tools also integrate with calendars and other platforms to keep your task management centralized and efficient, freeing up more time to actually get things done.
- Review & Adjust Regularly: Revisit your priorities weekly. Changes in scope or dependencies may impact what’s high-priority and what can wait. Use this time to update your backlog, check for bottlenecks, and shift resources toward tasks with approaching due dates. Regular reviews help catch misalignments before they escalate and give you space to automate low-value work, so your focus stays on what’s urgent, strategic, and truly impactful.
How Do You Prioritize Tasks And Manage Time Effectively?
Task prioritization and time management go hand-in-hand. Here’s how to align them for a more productive, less chaotic workday:
- Use time blocking to reserve focused periods for high-priority tasks. Blocking out specific times in your calendar allows you to work on your most impactful, time-sensitive responsibilities without interruptions. Treat these blocks as non-negotiable appointments with your highest-value work, and avoid booking meetings or responding to notifications during these times.
- Say no to multitasking; it splits your focus and leads to errors. It may feel productive, but switching between tasks actually reduces efficiency and increases mental fatigue. Instead, focus on completing one task at a time, ideally one from your highest priority list, before moving on. This approach also helps you complete small tasks more quickly and with fewer mistakes.
- Learn to delegate tasks. Especially those in Quadrant 3 (urgent but not important). Delegation frees up your time for strategic planning and execution. Use your team’s strengths and existing tools, including free collaboration tools, to automate or assign out routine items so you can focus on high-impact deliverables. Delegation is not just about offloading work—it’s a smart use of resources to ensure the team can collectively get things done.
When you pair intentional prioritization with a structured schedule, you create room to make progress on what truly matters, reduce stress, and handle unexpected challenges without derailing your day.
Prioritize Tasks Using Cloud-Based Tools
You can use task management tools to organize and prioritize your daily tasks. Below are a few of the options you can consider:
FAQs
How do I decide which tasks to tackle first?
Use a framework like the Eisenhower Matrix or ABCDE Method to weigh urgency and importance. Start with your most urgent tasks that also support your long-term goals.
How do I create a priority list?
Start with a task list, assign a priority level to each item using a method like 1-3-9 or MoSCoW, and plan your day around that structure. Don’t forget to revisit your list at the end of the day.
How do you prioritize tasks under pressure?
Pressure can cloud judgment. Lean on proven frameworks to remove emotion from the process. Focus on critical tasks that have the biggest impact and use templates to reduce decision fatigue.
How do you prioritize multiple projects?
Centralize your to-do list across projects and look for overlaps or conflicting due dates. Use the Pareto Principle to identify high-value deliverables, and coordinate with stakeholders to adjust expectations if needed.
How do I create a sustainable prioritization system?
- Build a process you can follow daily.
- Use templates to simplify decision-making.
- Integrate prioritization into team workflows and stand-ups.
- Use your prioritization efforts as communication strategies. Encourage team members to flag blockers and suggest re-prioritization.
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