Regardless of whether you are a student, work-at-home mom, web designer, or Fortune 500 CEO, prioritizing your work is critical to your success. Everyone benefits from prioritizing! Failing to prioritize your work load usually results in inefficiency and stress.

How many times have you thought to yourself, “I have so much to do today, I’ll never get it all done!?”

There is no exact science to prioritizing, but there are several tips that can help you.

• Make a list – this may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many people try to organize their tasks in their head. You’ll often find that you feel a lot better just getting everything out so that you can see it in one place.
• Consider time constraints – what absolutely needs to get done today and what can wait until tomorrow or next week?Everything may be important eventually, but some things are more important now.
• Consider people constraints – all things equal, move things that other people are waiting on to the top of the list. If you know that your manager can’t finish his proposal without your part, that’s more important than the thing that you always do on Wednesday that could just as well be done on Thursday.
• Consider the consequences – are you going to get fired if you don’t do something? Is another task going to give you the inside track on that promotion? Those things should be more important than mildly inconveniencing the sales manager by responding to his email a day late.

Use these tips to help you with your prioritizing list, and check back for Part Two for more helpful tips.