Know exactly what to work on next — scored by urgency, importance and effort.
Most to-do lists are a mixture of high-impact strategic work, urgent-but-low-value requests, tasks that could be delegated, and things that have been on the list so long they feel important simply by virtue of their age. Without a systematic way to differentiate between them, people default to one of two dysfunctional patterns: doing the most urgent thing (reactive mode) or doing the easiest thing (avoidance mode).
Neither pattern produces high performance. The most urgent tasks are often not the most important. The easiest tasks rarely move the needle on meaningful goals. And tasks that require significant effort but produce enormous value — strategic planning, deep creative work, relationship building — get perpetually deferred in favour of whatever is demanding attention right now.
A task priority score gives you a quantified, objective number for any task before you decide where to put it in your day. It removes the cognitive bias that makes the urgent always feel more important than the significant.
The task priority score formula is derived from the principles behind the Eisenhower Matrix (urgency vs importance) with an added effort-weighting variable. It calculates: Priority = (Urgency × 0.6 + Importance × 0.4) ÷ Effort.
Urgency receives a higher weight (0.6) because time-sensitive tasks genuinely require earlier action regardless of their importance. Importance receives a lower weight (0.4) because importance without a deadline is a less immediate driver of action. Dividing by effort normalises the score: a highly urgent, highly important task that takes 2 minutes scores much higher than the same task if it takes 8 hours, and should be done first.
The result is a score from approximately 0.2 to 10. High scores (above 7) represent tasks that are urgent, important, and relatively quick to complete. These are your highest-leverage activities and should anchor your day. Low scores (below 3) are candidates for deferral, delegation, or deletion.
The score is most useful as a relative ranking tool rather than an absolute measure. Score your top 10 tasks at the start of each day and work through them in descending order. This single practice, done consistently, can dramatically shift your output from reactive to strategic.
The Eisenhower Matrix is a 2×2 grid that sorts tasks into four quadrants: Do (urgent + important), Schedule (not urgent + important), Delegate (urgent + not important), and Delete (not urgent + not important). It is a powerful mental model but has two limitations: it treats urgency and importance as binary (yes/no) rather than continuous, and it does not account for effort.
The task priority score addresses both limitations. By rating urgency and importance on a 1–10 scale and dividing by effort level, it generates a continuous ranking that distinguishes between a task that is slightly important from one that is critically important, and between a task that takes 5 minutes from one that takes 5 hours.
The two approaches complement each other well. Use the Eisenhower Matrix for strategic planning (monthly and weekly reviews) and the task priority score for daily execution (morning planning and mid-day re-prioritisation).
Use Week Plan to schedule your top-scored tasks at your peak energy times — drag them directly into time-blocked slots and never lose sight of your highest-priority work.
Everything you need to know about using this tool effectively.
Week Plan turns your scores into a structured weekly plan — goals, tasks, time blocks, and priorities in one focused view.
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