1. The (quality, schedule, cost) expectations of the recipient of your work product.
2. Whether some work can be cleared from your "to do" list with little or no impact to the remaining work.
3. Whether some work on your "to do" list must be accomplished before other work can begin. (There are "but first" projects: I can do A, but first I must do B.)
4. What work is on a critical path to project completion. (Delay of this work will delay the project.)
5. What work has no immediate impact, but has a long-term effect that cannot be ignored.
6. What work has the highest benefit to cost ratio for the enterprise.
7. What work reduces the impact of a constraint on work output of the enterprise.
8. What will prevent the need for rework in the future.
9. What work is affordable.
10. What work is ready (all the necessary resources are available).
11. Your level of stress and enjoyment.
You may want to choose the "ready to run" task with the highest future value. (You can measure the highest present value, instead, realizing that things with a long-term payoff may be discounted below the threshold.) The future value of present customer satisfaction should be given a large multiplier in most cases.
2. Whether some work can be cleared from your "to do" list with little or no impact to the remaining work.
3. Whether some work on your "to do" list must be accomplished before other work can begin. (There are "but first" projects: I can do A, but first I must do B.)
4. What work is on a critical path to project completion. (Delay of this work will delay the project.)
5. What work has no immediate impact, but has a long-term effect that cannot be ignored.
6. What work has the highest benefit to cost ratio for the enterprise.
7. What work reduces the impact of a constraint on work output of the enterprise.
8. What will prevent the need for rework in the future.
9. What work is affordable.
10. What work is ready (all the necessary resources are available).
11. Your level of stress and enjoyment.
You may want to choose the "ready to run" task with the highest future value. (You can measure the highest present value, instead, realizing that things with a long-term payoff may be discounted below the threshold.) The future value of present customer satisfaction should be given a large multiplier in most cases.
