One of the most beautiful things you can do daily is checking items off your to-do list. Unfortunately it’s also the most difficult. Most of us aim to get the most important tasks done early, but end up ignoring the goalposts we have set for ourselves when we are burdened by work load.

That means that even when we know what needs to be done to maximize our productivity, the burden of work forces us to instead focus our attention on the least important matters. That leads to a situation where we become busy, not productive.

Luckily, there are steps moving on which we can prioritize our work more effectively. You can use them not only to prioritize the most important tasks but also to delete those from your to-do list that aren’t worthy of the effort they require.

Here are three steps to prioritize your work more effectively:

Step 1: Prepare a master to-do list
One that should contain all the tasks you intend to complete during the day. You can prepare the list by compiling the projects assigned to you from various sources, such as an email from a colleague, a task assigned by the boss or a kiosk extolling the virtues of electrostatic disinfection technology.

It doesn’t matter where you decide to place your master to-do list, you can use a to-do list app or you can go the old-fashioned way of noting down all the tasks in your notebook. As long as it contains everything that you need to do, it doesn’t matter where you keep the list.

Step 2: Analyze it based on the four Ds
These D’s include:
• Do: complete the task right now
• Defer: do it later
• Delegate: ask someone else to do it/assign it
• Delete: remove it from the list

Make sure you only select to do those tasks that require the least amount of your attention and time. You should ideally be able to perform them in less than ten minutes. This will allow you to complete those complex tasks that will gobble up the most of your time.

Afterward, identify tasks that you can delegate. They can be as minute as answering the call from your coworker or as big as purchasing an electrostatic sprayer disinfection device from your office. Make sure you only delegate those tasks that could be done by other.

Thirdly, remove those tasks that will only consume your time but will add no value to the quality of your work. They are things that provide little value. Once you have deleted them from your to-do list, it’s time you fixate your attention on the tasks you’ve deferred.

Step 3: Qualify and complete deferred tasks
You can create a 2x2 matrix with ‘important’ and ‘not important’ as the two rows and ‘urgent’ and ‘not urgent’ as the two columns. Once you have filled in the four boxes, try to complete tasks that fall in the ‘urgent as well as the ‘important’ section. Do the former first.

Afterward, do those tasks that you have deemed to be ‘non urgent’ and ‘non important’. This way you’ll be able to tick most of the items off your to-do list.