Eat Dessert First

Well, here I am again at the end of the year with a number of different projects and tasks facing me.  I guess it's not really all that different from any other time of the year, except that in this week between Christmas and New Year's I can get a bit more done since there are fewer interruptions.  But that presents a different challenge.  Which tasks to do first?

I have small projects and long projects.  I have tasks that should be fairly quick to complete, and some that require thinking and incubating to complete.  I have tasks that rely on others to complete, and ones I can complete myself.  I have tasks that will be relatively fun to work on, and some that are like pulling teeth.  Some that are challenging and some that are easy.

Being a guy who strives for productivity, I understand that I've got a limited number of hours to complete the work in front of me.  The real question is, to do the best job I can within the hours I've got, given the work and the types of work to do, what's the best way to work my way through this pile?

Some things are obvious.  I can work on some tasks up to a point and put them aside, waiting on others to complete their work.  Some tasks can be completed very quickly and should be done now.
Some are less obvious, however.  Should I spend more time on the tasks that are more difficult and/or tedious, and leave the fun stuff for later?  This is the "eat your spinach" approach.  Or should I work on the stuff that's more interesting and engaging now and leave the more difficult stuff for later?  The Eat dessert first option.

When confronted with a lot of tasks and limited time to accomplish them, I try to put them in a set of categories:

- Tasks I can do well alone
- Tasks I can do quickly
- Tasks that I will enjoy doing

Then there are the other tasks:

- Tasks that will require others
- Tasks that will take a lot of time
- Tasks that I won't enjoy or that are tedious

Of course all of these tasks are then ranked by importance.

At this point, I've got a couple of "groups" of tasks ranked by importance.  What I still don't have is which tasks to tackle first.  Will I be more productive if I leave the "fun" tasks till the end, or will I be more productive if I knock them out first?

Generally speaking, I eat dessert first.  I try to do the things that are important first, and then work on things I enjoy.  I schedule blocks of time in my calendar to work on more tedious tasks or ones that require help from others.  I think you'll do your best when you work on items you enjoy and find interesting or challenging.  This does not mean that I slack on ones I don't find interesting.  I just have more energy and attention when I do them in a very scheduled manner, while the other work is accomplished with a bit more free flow.

I don't know if this is the "right" way to work, but it has worked for me.