Are you an employee or an employer in business dealing with clients? Do you find time to be a major drawback to a successful completion of tasks especially when it comes to meeting deadlines? If yes then, it is time to start setting your priorities right, why? Because failure to do so might cost you your business or your job. Every second, minute or hour is counted as money and that’s what most clients can’t just afford to lose. Don’t blame the clients for being too pushy. They chose you because they believed you can meet their targets in time. So it is up to you to meet their targets and in so doing, gain more trust hence develop a long-term relationship with them. Sometimes it isn’t too easy, but when you are able to set your priorities right, nothing is impossible. So what’s the magic behind it? Below are some of the top tips on priority setting that may save your business or job.
THINK OF THE CONSEQUENCES
Try to analyse the consequences. Ask yourself questions such as, what will I lose? How will failure impact my relationship with the client? Compared to other tasks should the task be my first priority? Go for the tasks that are more disastrous both to you and the client. You must be able to distinguish between the most serious and less serious projects put before you. Having the consequences in mind, you’ll be able to come up with the tasks that should make up your top priorities, complete them in time, save yourself and your client the trouble.
CONSIDER THE TIME REQUIRED FOR YOU TO COMPLETE THE TASK
You might have more than one task are equally disastrous and both need yours attention. It will be a coincidence for both of the projects to have the same time of completion. Give the first priority to the project whose time is limited compared to others. Complete it in time then consider the rest. If you feel you won’t be able to make it in time, hire someone to help you, then you can review the work later before submission. By doing this, there are chances you will attend to all the projects since the review will take less time than working on the project from the start.
ALLOCATE SOME TIME TO OTHER IMPORTANT PROJECTS OTHER THAN CLIENT’S PROJECTS
Your business might be the answer in solving problems in your life, but what you must remember is that there are other things that might not give you the money but are equally important. They keep you going and they are the reason you are in business. Some of these things are your family, education and other projects for your own self-improvement. Find time to attend to such projects to ensure they are attended to at the same not interfering with your clients projects.
VALUE THE CLIENT’S DEADLINE
Client’s deadline determines the urgency and priority of the project. You have to meet the deadline in time to gain your client’s trusts. If you realize the deadline of a particular task is approaching, you have to rush, make it more urgent and try to complete it before the time. By being able to complete a task that even clients considered to be challenging in time, you’ll gain their trust and in so doing they will be able to trust you with their projects.
EVALUATE THE VALUE OF EACH PROJECT
Projects with higher value should be prioritized first. If both the project need the same time for completion, but you don’t have the time, then the solution will be to go for the task that is more beneficial. Choose according to pay, the type contract you have with the client and also the company’s potential. There are some of the projects that if you let go might be the start of your company’s failure
HAVE A LIST OF ALL THE TASKS AND THEIR VALUE
List the projects at hand, the time required for their completion and also their value. List them in ascending order starting with those that need to be prioritized first. The list makes you look more organized by preventing chances of forgetting the most important tasks. For example, without the list you might fail to realize you forgot a project that had limited time hence fail to do it.
CREATE YOUR OWN DEADLINE FOR EACH TASK
Sometimes you will have more than one task battling for your attention and their time of completion is close. You can set your own deadline to complete the tasks before the actual deadline. To achieve this, select the tasks that need to be prioritized first, set their deadline earlier, complete them so that you also have time to complete others. This will prevent chances of losing big and also enhance your relation with the client that has the best offer.
YOU NEED BE FLEXIBLE
In the process of completing other tasks, you might receive other new tasks. Take the time to analyse each of them. Decide whether they are important or urgent. You might receive a project that is more urgent and is beneficial than what you are actually working on and missing out might be disastrous to you or the client. In order to ensure that each project is attended to according to the benefit and urgency, make sure you take a look at each of the projects that are coming in as you are working on others.
If you can’t set yours have the right priority setting then be assured that your business is doomed to fail. Make sure each task is given its priority, catered for according to deadline and value. This will prevent the stress on completing your tasks in time. For more information on priority setting, you can follow the following links.
