Are you tired of setting your priorities for the day and then go to with regret at not having completed them all?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with work and not sure which task to complete further, maybe the 1–3–5 priority setting method can help you overcome that feeling. This article is a beginner’s guide to this interesting new method called the 1–3–5 priority setting method to help boost your personal productivity as well as your productivity at work.

What is the 1–3–5 rule?

The 1–3–5 rule is simple: you need to commit to accomplishing three types of tasks every day to stay at your productive best: 1 Major Task, 3 Medium Tasks, and 5 Small Tasks.

This way, you can make progress on big projects and deliverables, complete all your small daily tasks, and also take care of any repeating daily commitments you might have. The reason this rule is effective is that it’s so simple.

How to make the 1–3–5 rule a daily habit?

Here are some tips on how you can make the 1–3–5 rule a daily habit and incorporate it into your lifestyle without consciously working too hard for it:

1. List out all your tasks for the week

Start on a Sunday and list every task you plan to accomplish in the upcoming week in your journal. Don’t think about how important they are or how urgently you need to accomplish them. The goal of this step is to get all the tasks in your head onto your planner or journal.

This is more of a brain dumping exercise and it serves the purpose of not having to remember your to-dos when you actually set yourself to achieving them the next week.

2. Divide them into groups

The next step is to group all your tasks into “major”, “medium”, and “small” tasks. If you’re not sure what criteria to consider while grouping them, here’s a guide to help you:

• If the task requires three hours or more to be completed, consider it a “major” task.
• If it takes one or two hours to be done, you can consider that task to be a “medium” task.
• If it takes thirty minutes to one hour, it’s a “small” task.

Aside from the time taken, you can also take into consideration the mental energy a task requires. Some tasks can be completed in a few minutes but take a huge toll on your energy.

3. Write your to-do list

Once you have all the tasks grouped, write a to-do list with one major task, three medium tasks, and five minor tasks.

You can either plan to-do lists for the entire week, or make your to-do lists for each day before you go to bed at night. Use a new journal to make this kind of list as it’s a radically different approach from your usual journal or to-do lists.

4. Start with the biggest tasks

When you’re starting your work for the day, you usually have the most energy and motivation. Starting with the most complex and time-taking tasks will help you get them completed, and thus start the day with a feeling of accomplishment.

5. Incorporate the Pomodoro technique

The Pomodoro technique is a great tool for boosting productivity. The concept is simple: you work in blocks of time (usually twenty-five minutes), interspersed with breaks where you can recharge.

Because you have those short breaks of five minutes strewn in so generously, you can get more work done in a short time. This helps you achieve more without feeling burned out.

6. Use technology

Get help from people who have experience dealing with your problem of not being productive enough. You can hire an accountability coach who will share helpful tips and tricks and also hold you accountable for your promise of sticking to setting the 1–3–5 method each day.

You can also get a habit tracker and mark each day on the calendar where you successfully managed to set your priorities for the day. Gamifying your habits can be a helpful way to get the most of this challenge and adopting a more productive lifestyle.

How do you establish priorities for the day, so you don’t lose track of everything that needs to be done and complete all your work? This sounds complex, but the best news is that you can complete setting your priorities for the day in just ten minutes.

This post discusses the exact steps you need to take care of to set priorities for the day and achieve them without spending a lot of time or effort on this simple task.

Step one: Get in the mood.

This is the most important step for the process, and the best thing is that it takes a minute or less barely. Before setting yourself down to the task of setting priorities for the day, you need to bring your mind on board the task.

Breathe in, breathe out, and tell yourself that the next few minutes are going to be the most important minutes of the day. Tell your brain it needs to filter out all distractions and be present in the moment.

Step two: Write it out

The next step is to write out all the work you hope to achieve during the day. Don’t hesitate to add moments for self-care and relaxation as well. A journal can help you do exactly that. No wonder journaling has been established to be a great way to organize your day by spending the least amount of effort.

At this stage, don’t worry about writing the most important task first. Until now, the goal is to get everything off your head and onto the paper.

Step three: Prioritize 

Once your priorities for the day are written down in front of you, you’ll get some clarity on what you need to achieve and how to do it. The next step is to prioritize your priorities. This means you need to order them in the sequence of how important they are to you.

You can characterize your tasks into these four categories as proposed first by the Eisenhower Matrix:

• Urgent and important: do it now.
• Important, but not urgent: decide when you will do it.
• Not important, but urgent: do it later.
• Urgent, not important: delegate to someone else.

Step four: Make a plan.

Once you’re written down your priorities and addressed the order in which you need to tackle them, the next step is to plan out your day according to the tasks at hand.

Make checkboxes on your planner and time block your entire day. Visualize completing each task and mentally calculate how long each task will take. Then, accordingly, fill your planner with details on how you will complete each task, how long it will take, how long a break you’ll allow yourself after they are complete, and what will be the time of the day when you’ll be done.

Some important points to keep in mind here are:

• Batch your tasks.
• Don’t add important but not urgent tasks earlier in your routine.
• Schedule breaks so you don’t run the risk of burning out.
• Any work that can be delegated to someone else — do it now.

Bonus: Have a partner

Having someone else do it with you can make building any new habit easier. If you can’t find a friend who’s also learning to set priorities for the day at the same time as you are, you can hire an accountability coach to help keep you on track. These are trained individuals who will hold you accountable and help you get back on track if you ever fall off the wagon.

You can also turn to technology and download a free habit tracker. This is a great way to mark your progress on the calendar and use it to motivate yourself to keep pushing on.