3 Ways to Prioritize in a Fast-paced Environment

To work effectively, you must work on the most important, highest value tasks.  However, the danger to this is that those lower priority items need to get done too, and if they sit on the back burner for too long, they can become a problem.  This is one of the deficiencies of using a simple rating method to prioritizing your work. 

If  something is always a C priority, you’d better believe that you will ALWAYS have an A or B priority to do at any given time that will jump ahead of that C item. 

Some of what we do is automatically prioritized for us.  Think about the things that we like to call “fires.”  However, there are a multitude of other items throughout our days that also have to get done, and the priorities are not as well defined. 

Managing your work is a key skill that will enable you to be successful in any industry, especially the insurance industry.  One of the most important ways to manage your work is to get really good at prioritizing. 

Here are three tips to help you prioritize;

1. Review Everything : Effective prioritizing goes hand-in-hand with planning your day.  At different times in your day, you will find the need to review everything that is on your goal list for the day (including follow ups, meetings, phone calls, renewals, internal questions, etc.) and evaluate it. 
2. Change Your Priorities : You may change your priorities throughout the day.  For example, in the morning you review your desk and see what you have.  Run through a prioritization right there.  
3. Revisit Your List : As you are doing this, you will, undoubtedly, be answering phone calls and dealing with fires.  By mid-morning, you may need to revisit the list again and see how it has changed.  Doing this several times a day can really help you to keep up on your work and constantly prioritize the items that are to be done. 

This is hard to illustrate, but you get the idea.  It’s about constantly looking at what you have, shuffling it around, hitting certain things, and then looking again – repeat several times throughout the day!

About the Author : Jeanne Callan, Illinois Branch Manager

Jeanne has been a member of the J.M. Wilson Team for over three years and currently serves as the Illinois Branch Manager.  She works closely with her team of underwriters to give our retail agents the resources that they need to write business.  From underwriting to training to motivating to marketing to answering the phones, Jeanne does whatever it takes for her team to succeed!  Jeanne loves that there is never a dull moment in her position. She loves the variety.  She also admits to being a bit of a sap – she loves insurance!  In her free time, Jeanne enjoys experiencing live music.  She has seen over 160 artists in the past ten years – some of them more than once!

Disclaimer :  This article is for informational purposes only.  There is no legal advice being suggested or proffered.  The author assumes no responsibility or liability for the actions taken or not taken by the readers based upon such information.  This article is the opinion of the author and is not supported or endorsed by J.M. Wilson.  It should not be relied upon and may contain inaccuracies or content may have changed over time, contact your underwriter for the most current and accurate information.  Any comments or responses are the opinions of their authors.  Content on this site is believed to be covered under Fair Use.

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