In the hustle and bustle of daily life, staying organised and productive can often feel like an uphill battle. Whether it’s managing work tasks, attending to personal commitments, or simply finding time for self-care, your to-do list can quickly become overwhelming. However, a simple yet powerful strategy can help you take control of your tasks and maximise your productivity—the ABCDE method.
To-do lists are crucial because they help you prioritise your daily tasks, a key component of productivity. Usually, it is advisable to use the Eisenhower Matrix, which allows you to arrange tasks based on their importance and urgency visually. However, there is another approach that you can use, called the ABCDE method, which is derived from Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy.
Planning out how you’ll complete the remaining tasks is crucial, even if eating the frog—or completing your biggest, toughest task—is undoubtedly the best way to start the day. Here’s how it functions.
How does the ABCDE method work?
Sorting tasks into categories is easy with the ABCDE approach. Utilising it can be a good starting point for creating your to-do list, particularly if you’re using a format such as the 1-3-5 list, which calls for completing one large job, three medium-sized tasks, and five little tasks each day. It is a task in and of itself to determine what the major, medium, and small tasks are (sorry, but that doesn’t count as one of the five).
You are going to assign a grade to every task that you come across when you are organising your day. Make a list of all the things you need to do first. Your daily, weekly, or monthly duties can be listed here; you’ll eventually sort them all out. After that, grade each of them using the following framework.
A is for the most crucial assignments, such as those that have repercussions if they are not completed. These are the “frog” jobs that need time and resources, but they can also be quick chores with a high price for failing to complete them, like paying a bill on time.
B tasks are those that must be completed as well, but they won’t have as much of an impact if they’re not finished right away. There is some leeway in when you complete them, but you know you must do them eventually (lest they become as urgent as an A task).
C tasks should be completed even though there are no repercussions for not finishing them. A C task for me would be telling a PR pitch that I’m not interested in speaking with their client.
Although I didn’t have to, it’s a great gesture to maintain good connections in a work setting. (On the other hand, a B’s duty would be to get back to a person’s publicity agent as soon as possible in order to help them set up an interview time. The interview would be an A task).
Tasks that you can assign to another person are known as D tasks. It should become a priority for the person you hand it to, even if it’s not a big task for you or just something you believe they’ll get done well. They shouldn’t have any A or B tasks that it will subtract from.
E tasks are ones that you completely abandon. Don’t do things if they have no purpose at all, no consequences, or even the potential to derail you or be detrimental to you. That being said, this grade is somewhat relative; let’s say you have plans to visit the grocery shop tonight but are just pressed for time.
You may order takeout or have plenty of food at home. You can skip it this time, but the grocery shop trip will quickly reappear higher on the list once you run out of food. Some E assignments are just unimportant and might never come back. To ease your own pressure, ignore them.
Arranging your day according to the ABCDE grades
Plan out your day (as well as your week and month) as soon as each task has been graded. That 1-3-5 to-do list is useful in this situation; the one important task needs to be an A task—one that demands significant attention and resources, is urgent and timely, or both. There may be one little A-level job among the three medium-sized projects, but they will almost certainly be Bs. For the five smaller assignments, use any remaining B and, if desired, C grades.
Regarding the D-level activities, depending on how much effort they truly require and how your day is going to go, outsourcing and cooperating on them may still require enough work to count as one of your five lesser jobs. Don’t shoot the messenger, but in order to complete the delegation, you might need to revert to a C task.
The E grades are simply deductible. You can now strike them out or remove them. Getting that finality on them will feel nice and be constructive.
After you’ve determined which things are essential for the day, plan out the next week and make sure to remember any B-level obligations. If you don’t have time on a given day, roll them over to another day that works for you. Postponing them will quickly turn them into As.
From there, plan the rest of the day using timeboxing as usual. Set up time on your calendar for every activity, making sure that you give important A-level tasks the greatest attention and that you give B and C tasks less and less time. Do each activity in order, beginning with eating the frog and working through the others one at a time until they are finished.
Avoid multitasking. (Within reason, though; if you’re assigning someone a task, attempt to finish it ahead of schedule so they have enough time to finish something that ought to be an A- or B-level assignment for them).
One simple method to gain perspective on your obligations and increase your sense of urgency about them is to grade them. This will force you to be more productive. Organising everything into a list will save you time throughout the day, offer you structure and direction, and, most of all, make you feel accomplished when you’re done. This is a productivity win in and of itself.
(Tashia Bernardus)