Business Growth Tips: How To Improve Your Productivity Using A Priority Matrix

  The success of your projects partly depends on how well you’ve planned them. Ideally, such plans should come with clearly defined steps for execution and parameters for measuring performance. They should also specify what tasks are more important or pressing, and which ones require the greatest or least effort to complete. In simple terms, they need to prioritize tasks. This lets you deploy your resources efficiently, and achieve the best possible results with them.

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A priority matrix is an excellent tool for getting this prioritization done. It’s used by project managers, and by business people who want to make the most of their time, physical power, equipment, and finances.

What Is the Priority Matrix?

The priority matrix is a chart that ranks tasks according to their potential impact (or importance) and the effort required to execute them. The four quadrants correspond to the four categories that come from the combination of these two aspects:

• Quick wins (high impact, low effort)
• Major projects (high impact, high effort)
• Fill-ins (low impact, low effort)
• Thankless tasks (low impact, high effort)

Each task will fit into one of these four categories.

Benefits Of The Priority Matrix

1. It lets you see what project aspects you should tackle first, and which ones to take on later.
2. Allows you to determine which tasks are better off delegating or deprioritizing.
3. Enables you to improve productivity on your projects.

We’ll describe how to draw the matrix shortly.

Steps To Creating A Priority Matrix

1. Make a list of your tasks or projects.
2. Rank them on a scale of 1-10, on two separate lists. The first ranking should be based on the likely impact (or importance) of the task or project. The second, based on a measure of the effort required to execute them.
3. Draw the matrix. You can do this by following these steps:

1. Draw a blank two axes (‘x’ and ‘y’ axis) chart.
2. Label the ‘X'(horizontal) axis as ‘effort’, and the ‘Y’ (vertical) axis as ‘impact’. Add the scales (numbers 1 to 10) on each axis.
3. Plot the data from the two ranked lists from point 2 above.
4. Divide up the chart into four equally sized quadrants (boxes).

• Tasks located in the top left box are high-impact, low effort (Quick Wins).
• If they are in the top right box, they are high impact, high effort (Major Projects).
• If fall in the bottom left box, they are low impact, low effort (fill-ins).
• Finally, tasks that place in the bottom right box are high-effort, low impact (thankless tasks).

Prioritizing: How To Use The Priority Matrix

Having placed your projects or tasks within these four categories, you should have a clear picture of how to prioritize them (the order in which you should attend to them).

• Tasks that are in the Quick Wins category should be attended to first.
• Assign deadlines, milestones, and performance metrics to items in the Major Projects box. They should be next in line to Quick Win items.
• Tasks that fall in the Fill-ins box may be delegated to others.
• Thankless tasks should be attended to last, or removed.

Final Words

The priority matrix provides you with a way to accelerate decision-making regarding what is a top priority and what isn’t as important. This comes with many benefits, the greatest of which is a boost to your productivity as an individual, and your business as a whole.

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This article was first published on 8th February 2021

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