Have you heard about the book “Eat that Frog!” by Brian Tracy? So Brian also started putting into practice this method to prioritize what is important in your life/work.
The ABCDE Method is a decision-making tool that helps you categorize your tasks based on their importance and urgency. To use the ABCDE Method, you'll need to assign each task a letter based on the following criteria:
A tasks: These are tasks that are important and urgent. These tasks should be your top priority, as they have a high impact and a tight deadline. Here are the musts. It’s ok to have more than one, just remember to prioritize them
B tasks: These are tasks that are important, but not urgent. These tasks should be your second priority, as they have a high impact but a more flexible deadline. These are the shoulds. Don't jump on a B task when you still have A tasks to be done.
C tasks: These are tasks that are not important, but are urgent. These tasks should be your third priority, as they have a low impact on your A tasks/goals. Here stand the maybes
D tasks: These are tasks that are not important and not urgent. These tasks should be your fourth priority, as they have a low impact and a flexible deadline. Delegate
E tasks: These are tasks that you do but you are not sure why you do them and how they help you. So delete them
By focusing on your A tasks first, you'll be able to tackle the most important and urgent tasks first. Brian also mentions that “never do anything that isn’t on your list. If a new task or project comes up, write it down on your list and set a priority for it before you start work on it.”
So what do you prefer? ABDCE or the Eisenhower Matrix?