Task Prioritization & Triage Protocol
Separate the vital few from the trivial many and deliberately procrastinate on everything else.
This framework integrates Tracy's chapters on the 80/20 Rule (Ch 3), Creative Procrastination (Ch 5), and the ABCDE Method (Ch 6) into a comprehensive triage system for sorting tasks by value and eliminating, delegating, or deferring everything that is not critical. The foundation is the Pareto Principle: 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results. If you have a list of ten tasks, two of those tasks will be worth more than the other eight combined. The tragedy is that most people procrastinate on the top 10-20% of high-value items and busy themselves with the bottom 80% of low-value tasks.
Creative Procrastination is the strategic complement to traditional prioritization. Since you can never do everything, you are always procrastinating on something. The question is whether you procrastinate consciously on low-value tasks or unconsciously on high-value ones. Tracy introduces the concept of posteriorities -- the opposite of priorities -- things you deliberately choose to do less of, later, or not at all. The zero-based thinking question is powerful here: Is there anything in my life that, knowing what I now know, I would not start again today?
The ABCDE Method provides a daily tactical system. Before beginning work, you label every item on your list: A = must do (serious consequences if not done), B = should do (mild consequences), C = nice to do (no consequences), D = delegate (anything someone else can do), E = eliminate (not worth doing at all). Within the A category, you further rank as A-1, A-2, A-3, and so on. The iron rule: never do a B task when an A task is left undone. Never do a C task when a B task remains. This creates an enforceable hierarchy that prevents the gravitational pull toward easy, low-value work.
- Twenty percent of your activities account for 80 percent of your results -- identify and focus on that 20%
- You are always procrastinating on something; make it a conscious choice to procrastinate on low-value tasks
- The worst use of time is to do very well what need not be done at all
- Resist the temptation to clear up small things first -- this is a trap that keeps you from your most important work
- An A task (serious consequences) must always take priority over a B task (mild consequences), which must always take priority over a C task (no consequences)
- Posteriorities are just as important as priorities -- deliberately decide what you will stop doing
- The ability to say no to everything that is not a clear, high-value use of your time is a prerequisite for accomplishing what matters most
- Apply the 80/20 Rule to your full task listLook at your complete task list and identify the top 10-20% of tasks that will generate 80% of your results and value. These are your 'vital few.' Everything else is part of the 'trivial many.' Resist the temptation to focus on the number of tasks completed rather than the importance of tasks completed. One high-value task completed is worth more than ten low-value tasks done perfectly.
- Practice Creative Procrastination by setting posterioritiesReview all your activities and identify the tasks, activities, and commitments you can deliberately reduce, defer, or eliminate. Apply zero-based thinking: ask yourself, is there anything I am currently doing that, knowing what I now know, I would not start again today? If the answer is yes, figure out how to discontinue it. Learn to say no to anything that is not a high-value use of your time. Remember that you can only get control of your time to the degree that you stop doing things of lower value.
- Label every task using the ABCDE Method each morningBefore starting work, write your task list for the day and label each item: A = must do (serious positive or negative consequences for completion or non-completion), B = should do (mild consequences -- someone may be unhappy but it is not critical), C = nice to do (no real consequences either way), D = delegate (anything that can be done by someone else, freeing you for A tasks), E = eliminate (tasks that make no difference at all and can simply be dropped). Within your A tasks, rank them A-1 (most important), A-2, A-3, and so on.
- Execute in strict priority order starting with A-1Begin work immediately on your A-1 task and discipline yourself to stay with it until it is complete. Do not allow yourself to work on a B task while any A task remains undone. Do not work on a C task while any B task is available. Delegate all D tasks immediately. Eliminate all E tasks from your list entirely. This discipline alone can double or triple your productivity.
They apply the ABCDE method and discover that only 3 items are true A tasks (client deliverable due today, budget approval needed for a stalled project, and a critical hiring decision). Seven items are B tasks, eight are C tasks, four can be delegated to team members, and three can be eliminated entirely. They start with A-1 (the client deliverable) and work in strict order, delegating the D tasks immediately via email before beginning.
They apply zero-based thinking and ask of each commitment: knowing what I now know, would I get into this again? Three of their five current projects fail this test. They develop exit plans for those three, set posteriorities on low-return marketing channels, and refocus their 80% of effort on the one project generating the most revenue and the one with the highest future potential.
Tracy attributes the 80/20 Rule to Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who discovered in 1895 that 80% of wealth was controlled by 20% of the population, a pattern that proved universal across domains. Tracy reports that after years of teaching this principle to hundreds of thousands of people, the consistent finding is that most people spend their time on the bottom 80% of tasks -- the 'trivial many' rather than the 'vital few.' The ABCDE Method evolved from Tracy's earlier work with the simpler ABC prioritization approach, expanded after he observed that people needed explicit categories for delegation and elimination to break the habit of doing everything themselves.