Time management – Don’t just work in order of importance

I think every time management book, article, & blog post I’ve ever read tells you to put all your work in order of importance and then work in order of importance. This is great, since the easiest / fastest stuff is always deceptively drawing you in, but never seems to end … and most of it really isn’t important to your goals.

However, I don’t know about you, but my most important tasks seem to be 100+ hr sub projects, and simple 5 minute job never become the most important task, even though you can knock em down in minutes!

So here’s how I attack my work now:

1. I work on my most important task first.
2. Then I work on the fastest & easiest tasks.
3. Then I work on my oldest tasks.

I also pay attention to the time, and never spend more than a day on the easy stuff, so I don’t spend my whole life on it.