Overhaul Your To-Do List With the ‘ABCDE’ Method

A major part of productivity is prioritizing your daily responsibilities and tackling them in a logical order, which is why to-do lists are so important. Usually I suggest using the Eisenhower matrixwhich helps you visually sort tasks based on their urgency and importance, but there is another method: the ABCDE method, which comes from Eat that frog! : 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy. Obviously, eat the frog— or doing your most important, most demanding task each day first — is one way to approach the day’s tasks, but structuring how you’ll do the rest is also very important. Here’s how it works.

What is the ABCDE productivity method?

The ABCDE method is a simple way to categorize everything you need to do and determine which things are most urgent, most demanding and most relevant. Using it can be a solid first step in building your to-do list, especially if you follow a template like this. List 1-3-5which requires you to complete one major, three medium-sized, and five small tasks each day. Determining large, medium, and small tasks is actually a task in itself (but it doesn’t count as one of the five, sorry).

This approach is a bit simpler than similar prioritization techniques because it is more subjective. When you plan your day, you will assign a grade to each task that awaits you. First, list everything you need to do. This could be a list of your tasks for the day, week, or month. You will end up eliminating everything. Then give them each a rating based on this diagram:

• A represents the most important tasks, such as anything that will have consequences if not completed. These are the “frog” tasks that will require resources and time, but they can also be something that doesn’t take a lot of time but carries a heavy punishment for failure, like paying a bill on time.

• Task B must also be completed, but will not have as serious consequences if not done immediately. You know you have to do them at some point (lest they escalate into an A-task emergency), but you have a little wiggle room. If you have a decisive exam in a month, studying now might be Task B, but if you wait too long, it will quickly become Task A.

• C tasks have no consequences if they are not done, but they are things that would be good to take care of. For me, a C task might be responding to a PR pitch to say I’m not interested in interviewing their client. I didn’t need to do it, but it’s a good thing to do and helps maintain a friendly professional relationship. (Conversely, a B task would be to respond immediately to a person’s publicist when they try to set up a time for an interview. A task would be TO DO maintenance.)

• D tasks are anything you can delegate to someone else. The person you entrust it to should not have A or B tasks taken away from them; it should become a priority for them, even if it’s not major for you or just something you trust will be done well. This is where it gets a little subjective and may not work for everyone. If you’re a manager at work or an adult in your household, this is pretty straightforward, but if you’re working on personal tasks, it’s not always relevant. You can think a little more abstractly here, if that helps. Sometimes when I have a lot of laundry to do and I’m too busy and it’s almost an A task, I turn it into a D task by calling a pickup and delivery service. Think about things you can outsource, even if you’re not really able to “delegate.” Even an A or B task like “plan tonight’s meal” or “clean the house” could be a D task if you are able to order a pizza or hire a housekeeper. Be open to seeing D tasks among everything on your list, even if it takes a little practice, because it paves the way for more A’s and B’s.

• E tasks are those that you eliminate completely. If they serve absolutely no purpose, have no consequences, or might even throw you off course, don’t do them. This is on a fairly relative note, though: let’s say you wanted to go to the grocery store and try a new recipe tonight, but you just don’t have the time. You have enough food at home, so you don’t even need takeout. It’s okay to eliminate it this time, but when you’ve used up all your food, the trip to the grocery store will come back on the list in a higher position. Other E tasks may never reappear; they are simply inconsequential. Ignore them to reduce the pressure on yourself. Even giving yourself permission not to do things can be a major motivator and is a productivity method in itself.

As I said, it’s a bit subjective and it may take some time to understand your task categorization accurately. There are other, more intense ways to prioritize your daily responsibilities, and if you’re having trouble assigning a grade to your tasks, you may need to try something a little more data-driven. The goal here is to be quick and efficient so you can stop stressing about what needs to be done, then prioritize it and just start doing it.

Use ABCDE notes to be more productive

Once each task has been given a grade, start planning your day (and your week and your month). Here’s where that 1-3-5 task list comes in: The one big task should be an A task, something that is urgent and timely, and/or requires significant resources and focus. The three medium-sized tasks might include a smaller A-level task, but most likely they will be B-level. For the five smaller tasks, collect the remaining B grades and, if you want, the Cs.

When it comes to D-level tasks, outsourcing and coordinating them may still require enough work for delegation to be considered one of your five smaller tasks, but it depends on how much effort it actually takes and what the rest of your day looks like. Don’t shoot the messenger, but you may need to fall back on a C task to support delegation. E grades can simply be crossed out. Go ahead and delete or delete them. It will feel good (and be productive) to achieve this finality.

Once you have organized the necessary tasks for the day, look ahead to the week and be sure to keep all Level B responsibilities in mind and move them to a day that works for you if you don’t have time that day. Putting them off until later will turn them into Aces pretty quickly.

As always, count on timeboxing to plan the day from there. Schedule time for each task on your calendar, allowing the most time for major A-level tasks and less and less time for tasks B and C. Don’t multitask; instead, do each thing in order, starting with eating the frog and moving on to the other things one by one until they are finished. (The exception here is that if you are delegating tasks, try to do it early so the other person has time to complete what should also be A or B level work for them.)

Assessing your responsibilities is a simple way to put them into perspective and reinforce your sense of urgency about them, which forces you to be more productive. Putting it all in an ordered list gives you structure and direction, wastes less time throughout the day, and will give you a feeling of accomplishment when you’re done, which in itself is a productivity boost.