Using a Decision Ranking Matrix

Published: Feb 14, 2005

Problem

In what order to do four outstanding Important and Not Urgent tasks.

The significance of such tasks is described in our Introduction to Time Management Tutorial.

Four tasks have been sitting in your "To Do" area long enough to cause you some anxiety.

You suspect your procrastination may be caused by your indecision over which task to do first.

You do your best work when you focus on one task at a time.

Your partner (spouse) expects and keeps insisting you can do all four at once.

All alternatives are equal in respect to being:

Best Rank Order for Pending Tasks
Alteratives:	Budget	BusPlan	PR Stmt	Decision	Row Sum	Rank
Budget		1	0	0	1	3rd
Business Plan	0		0	0	0	4th
P.R. Statements	1	1		1	3	1st
Decision Analysis	1	0	1		2	2nd

Starting with the Budget row, compare its preference with each of the other alternatives.

Enter a score of 1 when Budget is more preferred and a score of 0 when one the column alternatives is more preferred.

Continue scoring for each row alternative.

In the "Row Sum" column, enter the total of scores for each row.

Give the highest score a "1st" ranking. Rank other scores accordingly.

In this example, you will do the tasks in the following order.

As you compare you use your own set of criteria such as relative importance, relative urgency or task duration.

This will consume only a few minutes if you jot this matrix on a piece of paper. If you use a square-ruled sheet you don't have to draw the lines.

Now, you have the rationale to show and placate your impatient partner (spouse.)

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