How to Manage Priorities with Excel

PDF download Download Article
PDF download Download Article

Writing your priorities on paper works if you’re able to knock them off in an afternoon. With a torrent of incoming tasks at home or work, many get carried over to the next day (or week or month). This Excel spreadsheet watches approaching deadlines and shifts task priorities accordingly. In 20 minutes the steps below provide a more effective way to manage your priorities.

Steps

PDF download Download Article
  1. Open a new Excel spreadsheet. Right click on the "Sheet1" tab at the bottom and click on Rename. Type in "Home" or "Office".
  2. by repeating Step 1.
    Advertisement
  3. On the Points tab, fill in columns A, B and C:
  4. Select from Cell A2 to C7. Click on Insert Name Define
    • Define the name as "Importance" and click OK.
  5. Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 to create the Effort table in columns E, F, and G. Select cells E2 to G6 and give them the name "Effort".
  6. Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5 to create the Urgency table in columns I, J and K. Name them "Urgency".
  7. Click on the Home tab and insert headings in row 1:
    • A - Priority A formula, 1 for the most important task, but can be over 100
    • B - Task Name of the task.
    • C - Importance An A, B, C, D, E, or F from the table.
    • D - Effort A 1-5, from the Effort table.
    • E - Urgency A formula based on Due date.
    • F - Due Date when the task should be finished. Due dates are not hard and fast. Ramp Up tells you how early you could start the task and Extension tells you how many days it could slide. Getting a haircut might have a Ramp Up of 5 and an Extension of 4 - it doesn’t make sense to get a haircut 2 weeks early and people might notice if it was more than 5 days late.
    • G - Ramp Up Days prior to Due date you could start task.
    • H - Extension Automatic extension of Due date
    • I - Days Left Formula. Number of days before Due date; negative if Due date has passed.
    • J - Finished Date task was actually completed.
    • K - Comment Any details for the task.
  8. Note Priority, Urgency and Days Left are left blank. They will be filled in with formulas. Here’s a sample of home tasks.
  9. The formulas below are for row 2.
    • I (Days Left) =F2-IF(ISBLANK(J2),TODAY(),J2)
    • E (Urgency) =IF(I2>G2,5,IF(I2>0,4,IF(I2=0,3,IF(I2+H2>0,2,1))))
    • A (Priority) =VLOOKUP(C2,Importance,2,FALSE) + VLOOKUP(D2,Effort,2,FALSE) +VLOOKUP(E2,Urgency,2,FALSE)
  10. by right clicking on the cell, selecting format and make it a Number with 0 Decimal places.
  11. Select cell E2 and type CTRL-C. Select cells E3 to E10 and click CTRL-V . Repeat to copy cell I2 to cells I3 to I10. Finally, repeat to copy cell A2 to cells A3 to A10. Ignore the odd values you get for undefined tasks.
  12. Select from cells A1 to K, for as many rows as you have data. Then click on Data Sort.
  14. As you complete tasks, mark the date in the Finished column. Remember CTRL - ; (control key and semi-colon) immediately enters the current date.
  15. Here are the priorities over several days. On July 13 all tasks are before the Ramp Up period, so have large numbers. On July 20th, higher priorities (smaller numbers) appear for four tasks, including Mow Lawn which has hit its Due date. On the 21st, the priority is higher because we're in the Extension period and on July 23rd it's even higher because it's beyond the Extension period. Pay bills also goes through an escalation on the 23rd and 25th.
    16. Advertisement


Community Q&A

Search
Add New Question
  • Question
    My priority formula doesn't seem to work. Any ideas?
    Community Answer
    Make sure that you copy the formula starting with the = sign. Also, make sure your ranges in the Points sheet are properly named.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
    If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
    Yes No
    Not Helpful 5 Helpful 1
  • Question
    Where do I find priorities?
    Community Answer
    In step 9 you will see the formula for priorities, which you will enter (or copy/paste) into cell A2 and then copy to the rest of column A, from A3 - A10.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
    If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
    Yes No
    Not Helpful 0 Helpful 0
  • Question
    For step 3, where am I supposed to enter the data?
    Community Answer
    In the points sheet, A1-C7. The points sheet serves to hold 3 tables of weight measurements for your tasks: importance, effort and urgency.
    Thanks! We're glad this was helpful.
    Thank you for your feedback.
    If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. We’re committed to providing the world with free how-to resources, and even $1 helps us in our mission. Support wikiHow
    Yes No
    Not Helpful 2 Helpful 1
See more answers
Ask a Question
200 characters left
Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
Submit
      Advertisement

      Tips

      Show More Tips
      Submit a Tip
      All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published
      Name
      Please provide your name and last initial
      Submit
      Thanks for submitting a tip for review!
      Advertisement

      Warnings

      • Instead of carrying your Excel files with you all the time, use Google Spreadsheet so your files will always be available to you.
        Thanks
        Helpful 3 Not Helpful 2
      • Save the spreadsheet every few sessions for recovery.
        Thanks
        Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
      • Time management is highly personal and this spreadsheet may not fit with your needs and preferences. It may feel intrusive or just too demanding to visit daily. It may work for you, but not your friends or vice versa.
        Thanks
        Helpful 0 Not Helpful 3
      • The calculated priorities are not ordinal numbers. Completing a “1” priority task doesn’t shift all the others up. Priorities can range to over a hundred and not all numbers are possible. Focus usually on priorities between 1 and 12.
        Thanks
        Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
      • Don't worry about having too many tasks - even two months of tasks can wait at the bottom of the list until their due date approaches.
        Thanks
        Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
      Advertisement

      You Might Also Like

      How to
      Manage Your Time
      How to
      Apply Conditional Formatting in Excel
      Easy AutoFilter Basics for Beginners
      How to
      Prioritize
      How to
      Create a Financial Calculator in Microsoft Excel: Step-by-Step Guide
      How to
      Merge Cells in Microsoft Excel: A Quick Guide
      How to
      Unprotect an Excel Sheet
      How to
      Unhide All Rows and Columns in Microsoft Excel
      How to
      Use If‐Else in Microsoft Excel: Step-by-Step Tutorial
      How to
      Insert Pictures in Excel That Automatically Size to Fit Cells
      How to
      Create a Mortgage Calculator With Microsoft Excel
      How to
      Create a Graph in Excel
      How to
      Show Hidden Columns in Microsoft Excel & Unhide Column A
      How to
      Fix Ethernet Doesn't Have a Valid IP Configuration on Windows
      Advertisement

      About This Article

      In other languages
      Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 403,504 times.

      Is this article up to date?

      Advertisement