How to master prioritization (8 Proven Methods)

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” - Warren Buffett

Why it works

Warren Buffett (pictured) is an American businessman and philanthropist, widely regarded as the most successful investor in history. As the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett is also known as the “Oracle of Omaha.” With a net worth of $147 billion, he is currently the eighth-richest person in the world. He developed his investment philosophy during his time as a graduate student at Columbia Business School, where he studied under Benjamin Graham, the “father of value investing.”

Both in and beyond investing, Buffett is a strong advocate for ruthless prioritization. According to a popular anecdote, his private pilot once asked him for career advice. Buffett’s alleged response was to focus solely on the five most important pursuits at any given time – while saying no to everything else. Although Buffett later clarified that he never gave such advice, this idea gained traction in productivity circles as the 25/5 Method (explained below).

Here’s how to apply that method — along with 7 additional proven ones — to master prioritization both personally and in a team.

How to do it

1) 25/5 Method
Write down your top 25 goals. Identify the 5 most important goals. Direct all your focus towards these 5 goals. Ignore the remaining 20 goals to stay focused. Personally, I use the “Warren Buffet” method every December to set my goals for the upcoming year. To do so, I write down 25 professional and personal yearly goals. Then, I choose the five that will make the biggest positive impact on my life. Lastly, I commit to pursuing those with all that I’ve got, and say no to the rest.

2) Ivy Lee Method
List the 6 top tasks for the next day each evening. Arrange the tasks by priority. Start with the top task until it's done. Move to the next task and repeat, no distractions. Importantly, keep the list focused on what’s truly achievable in a single day to avoid feeling overwhelmed; break larger projects into smaller, actionable steps to ensure progress on complex goals; and review your progress at the end of the day to refine your list for the next day.

3) 80/20 Rule
Find the 20% of tasks that give 80% of results. Spend your time on these high-impact tasks. Reduce or delegate the other tasks. Check and adjust your focus to stay on track. Also known as the Pareto Principle, the 80/20 rule applies to many domains of life and business — including your relationships, wardrobe and possessions. Here are ten powerful ideas to get you started.

4) The Pomodoro Technique
Work for 25 minutes with full focus. Take a 5-minute break to rest. Repeat for four cycles. After four cycles, take a longer break to recharge. While Francesco Cirillo’s approach is a powerful method for shorter tasks, it’s far from ideal for challenging deep work that requires extended focus. That’s why, for longer focus intervals, I use an altered version of that method called Pomodoro 2.0. Learn more about it here.

5) MoSCoW
List tasks as Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have. Focus on completing all Must have tasks first. Move on to Should have/Could have tasks. Ignore Won't have tasks to stay focused on priorities. Also, allocate specific time blocks in your schedule for Must have tasks to ensure they are addressed early in the day and periodically review what you’ve categorized as “Won’t have” to ensure they rem
ain irrelevant and aren’t distracting you.

6) OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)
Define clear, ambitious objectives aligned with your goals. Identify measurable key results for each objective. Review all of this regularly and adjust as needed. Ensure teams are aligned and accountable for results. On top of this, limit the number of objectives to 3-5 per cycle to maintain clarity and avoid spreading efforts too thin; ensure each key result is measurable to track progress effectively; and regular check-ins to assess progress, address roadblocks, and refine objectives if priorities shift.

7) Theory of Constraints
Identify the largest bottleneck in your process. Devote resources to resolve this bottleneck. Adjust workflows to prevent the bottleneck. Continuously repeat the process for improvement. Also, visualize the entire workflow to clearly identify where delays or inefficiencies occur; focus on changes that will have the most significant impact on alleviating the bottleneck; and track performance metrics before and after resolving the bottleneck to evaluate the effectiveness of your adjustments.

8) Value vs Effort
List all tasks and assess value and effort. Rank tasks from high-value, low-effort to low-value, high-effort. Focus on completing high-value, low-effort tasks first. Regularly re-evaluate tasks for priorities and productivity. Additionally, plot tasks on a simple 2x2 matrix (value vs. effort) to visualize priorities and make decisions quickly; delegate or remove tasks in the low-value, high-effort quadrant to free up time for more impactful work; and revisit your rankings weekly or after completing major tasks to ensure alignment with evolving goals and circumstances.

The key to productivity isn't busyness.

It's getting the right things done, at the right time, for the right reasons.

Take control of your day, one priority at a time.

And please share this post with one person who might benefit from it.

Until next week,
Christian

2 more ways I can help you

1) Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 Coaching Program
Are you struggling to focus on the important work being busy with urgent stuff? Are you feeling tired throughout the day despite sleeping for 7 or 8 hours at night? Are you having trouble dealing with high stress at work – and “switching it off” at home?

If so, check out our new Becoming Ultraproductive 1:1 coaching program. In it, I help executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs increase their productivity by up to 10x — by building rock-solid habits for deep focus, deep sleep, and mastering stress.

That way, I’ve coached 70+ executives, entrepreneurs and CEOs on Becoming Ultraproductive since 2023. The program includes:

• 6 individualized one-on-one coaching sessions with me over 12 weeks

• Tailor-made habit systems to optimize your focus, sleep and stress

• A guaranteed 100% increase in productivity (not kidding)

Interested? Learn more and book a free discovery call here while you can. I’m only taking on 10 clients at a time and seats are booking fast.

2) Becoming Ultracreative 1:1 Coaching Call
There are 800 million users on LinkedIn, and 99% of them aren't creators. Translation? There has never been a better time to become a thought leader on LinkedIn.

The platform is ready for you to quickly build your distribution, monetization and recognition – thus becoming Ultracreative. My co-author Eric Partaker and I noticed this while coaching hundreds of entrepreneurs, executives, and CEOs. We were able to achieve the following in just 12 months:

• A 1+ million audience

• A 7-figure business around it

• A book deal with Portfolio Penguin

Most importantly, we’ve deconstructed what it takes to help you become Ultracreative, too. Learn more and book your call here.

PS: Interested in sponsorships for my newsletter and LinkedIn post?

Get in touch with me here.