Disclosure: Kalend is ours. The advice works with any app, or with pen and paper.
In short
Write everything down, then ask two questions of each task: what happens if this waits, and when is it really due? Do the one to three tasks with real consequences today, give the important-but-not-urgent ones a date, and hand back, shrink or drop the rest. When everything is urgent, usually nobody has ranked it yet — so rank it, or ask whoever gave you the work to.
- Everything on one list first.
- Ask: what happens if this waits?
- A top three for today, the first with a time.
Step 1: get it all out of your head
Take ten minutes and write down every task, big and small. Half the panic of “everything is urgent” is holding it all in your head at once. On paper it’s a list, and lists can be sorted.
Step 2: ask what happens if it waits
Urgent and important aren’t the same thing. The Eisenhower matrix sorts tasks into four boxes:
- Urgent and important: do it today.
- Important, not urgent: give it a date and time.
- Urgent, not important: do it quickly, hand it to someone else, or batch it.
- Neither: drop it.
If you can’t decide, ask: what actually happens if this is done on Friday instead of today? Often the answer is “nothing”.
Step 3: check the real deadlines
Plenty of “urgent” work has a softer deadline than it sounds. Ask, “When do you actually need this?” At work, when two people’s requests collide, ask your manager, “Which of these should I do first?” It’s a fair question, and it moves the ranking to the person who owns it.
Step 4: pick a top three and give the first a time
Choose the one to three tasks that matter most today. Put the first one in your calendar at a real time — ideally when your energy is best — and start there. Everything else waits until those are done. Our time-blocking guide shows how to fit them into the day.
Step 5: clear the overdue pile honestly
A long overdue list makes everything feel urgent. Go through it once: give each task a new, real date, or delete it. A task that has slipped five times probably isn’t a priority — and if it’s avoidance, these tricks for procrastination help.
How to do it in Kalend
- Give every task a priority. High, Medium or Low, plus a project and a due date.
- See what slipped. Overdue sits at the top, showing how late each task is — and you can move overdue tasks to today in a tap.
- Push what can wait. Swipe to finish a task or move it to tomorrow.
- Give the top task a time. Type “report tomorrow 9am” and Kalend picks out the date and time, on your device, even offline.
Kalend is free, with no account, no subscription and no ads. Your tasks sit beside your calendar, so you can see when there’s actually time to do them.
Common questions
How do you prioritize tasks when everything is urgent?
List everything, ask what happens if each task waits, check the real deadlines, then pick one to three tasks for today and give the first one a time.
What is the Eisenhower matrix?
A way to sort tasks by urgent and important: do urgent-and-important tasks now, schedule important ones, delegate or batch urgent-but-unimportant ones, and drop the rest.
How do I prioritize tasks at work?
Rank by consequence and real deadline, and when requests from different people collide, ask your manager which comes first.
How many priorities should I have in a day?
One to three. More than that and none of them get the best part of your day.
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