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Lining Up Your Ducks: Prioritize!
ing lamp for your desk that improves your work environ-
ment dramatically, browsing through a stationery store
and discovering an organizational tool that will make your
filing much easier, or rereading your cell phone instruc-
tions to find out some wonderful functions you never
knew it had.
The beauty of the ABC system is that it helps strip away the
emotions we have about each task. Maybe the last thing you
want to do is your expense report, but giving it an A pri-
ority the night before might
be just what you need to The ABC System
get past your distaste for in a Nutshell
To summarize, here are the
the process.
tasks the letters represent:
For some, even the
• A tasks: Critical and time-sensitive
ABC system remains too
• B tasks: Important, but slightly less
constricting. Or it spawns time-sensitive than A Tasks
too many A’s or C’s. In this • C tasks: Not time-sensitive—yet
case, you may wish to • D tasks: Optional—nice, but nei-
subdivide even further: A1, ther important nor time-sensitive
A2, A3.
Applying this system to your own situation should help to
give you a clearer sense of how it works. Make a list, for exam-
ple, of 10 things you would ideally like to accomplish tomorrow.
Then select from this list four items that you really expect to do,
ranking them in order of importance. The first two will be A
tasks and the second two B tasks. Now, from your list of 10
choose two more items that will probably be on your mind
tomorrow but can be put off, if necessary. These are C tasks.
The remaining four items are most likely D tasks: nice to do but
in no way pressing. You might do them tomorrow if you have
nothing better to do and feel ambitious or motivated.
This little exercise can reveal clues to your behavior—both
actual and ideal.

• Did the first random list reveal a logical progression of
activities or how your responsibilities feel to you? What