Organizing for Professionals

How to juggle multiple priorities

1. First, plan and prioritize on a daily basis and if necessary, several times a day. Do your main planning for the day, the day before. Then stay flexible in order to reprioritize, if necessary, throughout the day.
2. Second, use the right planning tools that give you enough of an overview. I’m not talking about a flood of reminder notes scattered all over your desk. Such tools could include a wall chart that shows upcoming deadlines, a project or time management software program that lets you see priorities in a variety of ways or a master list.
3. Third, to prevent having to remember too many things in your head use an appropriate follow-up system. A tickler system that you use every day, for example, can save a lot of wear and tear on your gray matter.
4. Fourth, use effective communication tools, techniques and systems with those people making demands on you. Get clarity from others in terms of the real, not imagined, urgency of each request, Have the request and the time frame for it completion. A written request doesn’t interrupt you and lets you plan and prioritize similar requests and time frames more easily.