5.5 Time Management Strategy: Identifying Priorities with an ABC Analysis

One way you might identify what activities to add to your schedule is to conduct an ABC analysis through which you can identify priorities and classify them in terms of importance and immediacy. You might do this at the beginning of each week or each term.

Let’s walk through these steps:

1. Begin by making a list of things you spend your time on. This includes the big priorities like classes and career-related tasks, as well as work, family obligations, social events, and self-care activities.
2. Next, assign a letter to each item: A, B, or C.
   • Assign an A to the things that are important and urgent. These are your highest priorities—the aspects of your life that mean the most to you, require immediate attention, and that cannot be ignored.
   • Assign a B to the things that are important, but not urgent. These aspects need and deserve your attention, but they are secondary to the A items.
   • Assign a C to the things that are meaningful, but they are not of great importance or urgency compared to the others. C items are the things that would be nice to do, but not necessary.
3. Once you’ve assigned a letter to all tasks, review your list and think about how you typically spend your time. Most of your time each week should be spent on your A priorities, your C priorities should involve substantially less of your time, and the B priorities should fall somewhere in between. Think about your weekly schedule and ask yourself if this is how your life is organized. If you are spending a lot more time on C aspects of your life compared to items given an A or B, it might be time to make an adjustment.

Your analysis will look different each time you do it. Things will become more or less urgent or important depending on deadlines or circumstances.

This analysis can be done for daily tasks, as well. You could make an ABC list each morning based on what you need or want to accomplish each day. Some take it a step further to assign an A-1, A-2, A-3 ranking system to each task to help ensure the most important things get done each day.