Figure 8.2Either of these grids offers an excuseless means of qualifying
the nature of a task. You may wish to assign a rating to your tasks;
pick a range that’s convenient to work with, if you decide to do
this. If you use “1” through “10,” you can be more precise, but it
may not be worth the extra effort in distinguishing between a “6”
or a “7” when a simple “A,” “B,” “C,” or “D” will suffice. You’ll
still end up with a lot of tasks with the highest value in your range,
but it’s likely that you’ll simply discard some as well. You will also
find that as you weigh the importance of a task, rereading some
old magazine articles, for example, you will change that task to a
more practical one, such as “discard old magazines.”
Schedule
At this point, your tasks have been captured, defined, and priori-
tized. You have expended a lot of effort in getting this far in the
process, despite the fact that none of your tasks have been com-
pleted. There is one more step in managing your tasks that greatly
increases the likelihood of their completion: scheduling.
You must assign a place in your schedule for each of your tasks.
This scheduling is a commitment to yourself and to others, by
showing that you have a plan for each task and have allotted time
G E T O R G A N Iz E D