Yesterday I introduced you to the first step to getting productive, keeping a master list of everything you want to do and must do. So what's next? Just pick off the stuff we want to do? No. We need order. We can't do everything at once, but we also want to move towards what we want to do while at the same time checking of those mundane tasks we need to do. We need to prioritise.

Take your list and sort it. It's as simple as that. Put the stuff you want to do sooner at the top and the stuff that can wait at the bottom. Simple right? No numbering systems or sort labels here. Just the order of the list itself. Granted this is easier if your list is managed with something like TaskPaper, but I think that even doing this with pen and paper isn't going to be too long an exercise. Also, with pen and paper it gives you a chance to think about each item on your list. Is it important? Can it wait?

Prioritising your list is one of the simplest things you can do to get your list in an order that makes it easy to tackle. Cherry picking items from your master list will lead to you only doing the easy things or things you want to do. Doing this will mean that you'll never get round to writing that novel or building the next big app that will take the world by storm. Prioritising your list gives you an order in which to tackle your list. You're putting the items that matter or need to be done at the top of your list.

I usually review my master list on a weekly basis. Usually this involves just moving the items that have been recently added to their appropriate space in the list. My priorities are long term, so the order of my list doesn't change drastically from week to week. What I do see though is items gradually moving up the list which shows that I am moving forward with my projects and tasks and there's nothing lying stale at the bottom of the list for too long.

Don't forget to mix the list so that it's not all the things you want to do at the top. Working towards a dream holiday or breaking the top 10 best selling books can't be your only focus. There's still stuff to do on a day to day basis. Bills need to be paid, kids need to be taken to their extra curricular activities and such. So make sure your list is evenly mixed with those things you want to do and things you must do. Keeping this balance is important to working through your master list.