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How to prioritize tasks when everything feels urgent

By Shawn. Updated . Facts checked .

To prioritize tasks, put them all on one list, mark the real deadlines, sort what's urgent from what's important, then rank the important ones by impact. Pick one top task for today and do it before the easy ones. This guide gives the six steps, an example day, and five methods to choose from.

Why prioritizing is harder than it looks

Most of us know which task matters most. We still do the others first, because they're quicker, louder or due sooner.

Researchers have a name for it. In a set of experiments, Meng Zhu, Yang Yang and Christopher Hsee (2018) found people picked urgent tasks over important ones, even when the important task paid more for the same effort. They called it the mere urgency effect: a short deadline makes a task feel more pressing than it is.

So prioritizing isn't about finding the perfect order. It's about deciding which task comes first in a calm minute before the day starts, then keeping that choice when the urgent ones show up.

How to prioritize tasks in six steps

Give it about 20 minutes the first time. After that, five minutes each evening keeps it going.

  1. Put every task on one list

    Work, home, errands, study and any side business, all in one place. You can't rank what you can't see, and tasks spread across notes, emails and your head all feel equally loud.

  2. Mark the real deadlines

    Note which tasks have a date that matters: a bill, a form, a promise to a client. Leave the rest undated. A made-up deadline makes a task look urgent when it isn't, which is the trap you're trying to avoid.

  3. Sort urgent from important

    Ask two questions of each task: does it have to happen soon, and does it move something you care about? That gives four groups: do it now, schedule it, hand it off or shrink it, and drop it. The matrix below shows how.

  4. Rank the important tasks by impact

    Within the important group, put the task with the biggest payoff for the least effort first. If two are close, pick the one that unblocks other work or other people.

  5. Pick one top task, then two to four more

    Your top task goes first in the day, before email. Add today's real deadlines and a couple of small tasks. Everything else waits on the main list, where it's safe.

  6. Guard the top task and review tonight

    Give the top task a block of time and keep it. When something new lands, sort it with the same two questions before you switch. In the evening, check what you finished and pick tomorrow's top task while today is fresh.

The Eisenhower matrix: urgent vs important

The best-known way to sort tasks is named after Dwight D. Eisenhower. In a 1954 speech, he quoted a former college president who said he had "two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important." Time-management writers later drew the idea as four boxes. Here's each box with tasks from an ordinary week.

Urgent and important: do it now

  • Pay the phone billDue tomorrow, with a late fee if you miss it
  • Send the client's revised quoteThey decide today
  • Hand in the course assignmentIt closes at midnight

Important, not urgent: schedule it

  • Study for the exam in MarchGive it a block on three days this week
  • Update your resumeBook an hour on Saturday morning
  • Plan the shop's spring stockPut it on Thursday, after work

Urgent, not important: hand it off or shrink it

  • Most new emailAnswer it in two set slots, not all day
  • A meeting you're only copied onAsk for the notes instead
  • Someone else's last-minute requestSay when you can do it, or who can

Neither: drop it

  • Reorganize your folders againDelete it from the list
  • Read every newsletterUnsubscribe from three
  • Compare gadgets you don't need yetMove it to Someday, or let it go

These are our examples. The box most people skip is the second one, important but not urgent. Nothing forces it, so it only happens if you schedule it.

One day, prioritized

Someone working full time while taking the prerequisite courses for nursing school had eleven tasks on a Tuesday. Here's how they came down to four.

Example goal

  1. Long-termBecome a registered nurse
  2. Mid-termFinish the prerequisite courses
  3. Short-termFinish anatomy chapters 4 to 6

Today's top taskStudy anatomy chapter 4

We wrote this example ourselves. The exam is weeks away, so nothing made chapter 4 urgent. That's why it went first.

The Plan screen in LeapSteps. The task Study anatomy chapter 4 is open: its goal (Become a registered nurse, then Finish the prerequisite courses, then Finish anatomy chapters 4 to 6) and its three subtasks show under it. Quiz me on chapter 4 has a robot icon because an AI is working on it.

Two tasks had real deadlines that day: the electricity bill and a shift swap form for work. Those stayed. Chapter 4 became the top task, done in a 50-minute block before work. Picking up a parcel went on the way home. Of the other seven, from cleaning out the car to sorting old photos, five moved to later in the week or to Someday, and two were dropped. If nursing is your goal too, our page on changing careers to nursing has the full plan.

In LeapSteps, Today on the Plan shows what's due today plus anything overdue. Press and hold a task that can wait and drag it onto the Someday header, so Today stays short. A task can carry a priority, High, Medium or Low, set in the task editor or, on a computer, by right-clicking it. Then start a focus block in Do for the top task.

Prioritize your day in LeapStepsGet it for Windows

Five ways to prioritize tasks, and when to use each

The six steps work on their own. These methods are shortcuts for particular kinds of days. Pick one and use it for a week before you try another.

  • The Eisenhower matrix

    Sort by urgent and important into four boxes, as above. Best when your list is long and mixed, and you need to see what to drop or hand off.

  • The ABCDE method

    From Brian Tracy's book Eat That Frog!: give each task a letter, from A for serious consequences down to E for eliminate, then number the A tasks. Best when everything looks important and you need a strict order.

  • Eat the frog

    Do the task you most want to avoid first. Best when you know your top task but keep putting it off. Our eat the frog guide shows how to pick it.

  • The 1-3-5 rule

    Plan one big task, three medium and five small for the day. Best when your days fill up with small jobs and the big one never fits.

  • Impact vs effort

    Rate each task high or low on payoff and on effort, and start with high payoff and low effort. Best for work projects with many similar tasks, where the matrix puts everything in one box.

  • Plus time blocking

    Not a way to rank, but how a ranking survives the day: the top task gets a slot on the calendar. Our time blocking guide shows how.

Your first week

Seven short tasks to make prioritizing a habit. The aim this week is one top task a day, done first, not a perfect ranking.

  1. Write every task you have on one list15 min You can only rank what you can see.
  2. Circle the tasks with a real deadline5 min Real dates only, so urgent still means something.
  3. Sort the rest into the four boxes of the matrix10 min It shows what to drop as well as what to do.
  4. Delete or hand off three tasks from the bottom two boxes5 min A shorter list is easier to rank.
  5. Each evening, pick tomorrow's top task5 min The choice is easier before the urgent ones arrive.
  6. Each morning, work on the top task before email30 min The first hour is the one nobody else has claimed yet.
  7. At the week's end, list what you did from the "schedule it" box10 min That box is where goals move, and it's the easiest to skip.

What the research says about priorities

Three findings the steps lean on, and what LeapSteps does with each.

  • Journal of Consumer Research

    Urgency pulls us off what matters

    People chose urgent tasks over important ones with bigger payoffs, even when both took the same effort. That's why you pick the top task the evening before, and why Someday keeps the tasks that can wait off Today.

    Read the study

  • Wake Forest University and Florida State University

    A plan quiets an unfinished goal

    Unfinished goals kept intruding on people's thoughts and hurt their work on other tasks, until they made a specific plan for them. That's why the tasks you didn't pick still get a date or a place on Someday.

    Read the study

  • New York University and University of Sheffield

    Decide when, where and how

    Across 94 tests, plans that spelled out when, where and how people would act had a medium-to-large effect on reaching their goals. That's why the top task gets a time, and a focus block in Do.

    Read the review

These studies test the ideas behind LeapSteps, not the app itself. Most of them studied students or volunteers in a lab. Checked November 5, 2026.

When prioritizing stops working

Most priority lists stall in one of four ways. Here's the next move for each.

  • Everything is high priority.

    Then nothing is. Allow one top task a day and three high-priority tasks a week, and move the rest down a level. If you can't choose, ask which task you'd regret not doing by Friday.

  • The urgent tasks eat the day.

    Do the top task first, before email and messages, and answer the rest in two set slots. Urgency makes tasks feel more pressing than they are, so a fixed slot keeps them in their place.

  • Your manager keeps changing the order.

    Share your top three for the week and ask which one to drop if something new comes in. It turns a new request into a trade, not an extra.

  • The top task never gets started.

    It's probably too big. Cut it to a first step you can do in one sitting, the size Stanford's learning center suggests for any list item. Our guide on how to stop procrastinating covers the task you keep avoiding.

Sources checked November 5, 2026.

Questions, answered

What is the best way to prioritize tasks?

Put every task on one list, mark the ones with real deadlines, then sort the rest by two questions: is it urgent, and is it important? Do the urgent and important tasks, schedule the important ones that aren't urgent, hand off or shrink the urgent ones that aren't important, and drop the rest. Then pick one top task for the day and do it first. No method suits everyone, so choose one, such as the Eisenhower matrix or the ABCDE method, and use it for a week before you judge it. The habit of choosing the evening before matters more than the method.

How do you prioritize when everything is important?

Ask what happens if each task waits a week. Some will have real consequences, such as a missed payment or a client who goes elsewhere, and those go first. For the rest, pick the one with the biggest payoff for the effort, or the one that unblocks other people's work. If two still tie, do the one you've been avoiding, because it costs you more attention the longer it waits. Limit yourself to one top task a day. A list where every task is high priority hasn't been prioritized yet.

What are the four boxes of the Eisenhower matrix?

The matrix sorts tasks by whether they're urgent and whether they're important. Urgent and important tasks you do now, such as a bill due tomorrow. Important tasks that aren't urgent you schedule, such as studying for an exam next month. Urgent tasks that aren't important you hand off, batch or shrink, such as most email. Tasks that are neither you drop. It's named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, who in a 1954 speech quoted a college president on the difference between urgent and important problems. The second box is the one people skip most, because nothing forces it.

What is the 1-3-5 rule for prioritizing tasks?

The 1-3-5 rule plans a day as one big task, three medium tasks and five small ones, nine in all. It forces a choice about what the big task is, and keeps small jobs from filling the whole day. It's a rule of thumb, not a research finding, so adjust it to your day: on a day full of meetings, one big task and two small ones may be all that fits. If you finish the nine early, take the next task from your main list rather than adding a second big one.

How do I answer "How do you prioritize your work?" in an interview?

Describe the routine you really use, with an example. A good answer covers three things: how you see everything (one list), how you decide the order (deadlines first, then impact, or a method such as the Eisenhower matrix), and what you do when priorities change (you check with your manager and say what will move). Then give a short story from a past job, school or volunteer work where two deadlines clashed and how you handled it. If you're changing careers, a story from your current job works as well as one from the field you're moving into.

One top task, then the rest

LeapSteps keeps Today short: drag what can wait onto Someday, mark what matters with a priority, and start a focus block on the top task. LeapSteps is out now on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac and Windows.

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