How to prioritise effectively

The art of effective prioritisation is absolutely vital in most walks of life but particularly in the deadline driven worlds of accountancy and software development. Here are some tips that I've picked up in my journey as an accountant come software builder

1. Have a clear picture of your main goals

As a detail driven professional it's all too easy to go down a rabbit hole to figure out something that's niggling at us. Before devoting time to it, always ask yourself if the problem is worth solving -ie does it help achieve your overall objective.

2. Avoid jumping from one task to another

Of course we sometimes have to drop everything to put out a fire. When we get an urgent call or email, we need to react urgently. However, that's different to constantly checking emails and answering them while losing focus on the task in hand. It might only take a few minutes to answer an email but it then takes time to refocus.

3. Use tools available to help

There are a number of tools available to help with organisation and prioritisation. Asana is excellent to help delegate and prioritise tasks for accounting teams. Jira is invaluable in keeping track of software development tasks.  

4. Organisation is key

Schedule tasks in order of priority. Remember to leave a buffer for unforeseen urgent tasks that have a habit of popping up on a regular basis. I find it helps to divide up time for work into categories. For example it can help to devote several uninterrupted hours for deep focus, an hour a day for daily tasks, an hour for quick wins depending on the exact nature of your role.

5. Flexibility is important

It's important to be able to adjust your priorities depending on outside forces. In software development, the customer should be the driver in deciding which feature or improvement comes next. The feature that is a nice to have may have to be moved down the priority list if a prospect or customer has a particular requirement. At the end of the day you're building for customers not for yourself. For accountants you need to be flexible depending on stakeholder requirements which are also subject to change.  

6. Don't forget non-urgent items

Non-urgent items can sometimes stay at the bottom of your to do list. It's important to schedule in time for non urgent items so that they will eventually get done.  

‍