How I Prioritize Tasks

One question I often get in interviews for EA roles is, “How do you prioritize your tasks?”

Interviewers usually expect me to talk about urgency, impact, and how long each task will take. I do consider all three. But my answer always starts with “It depends on my client.”

A quick note before we start: the tasks below are my normal tasks as an Ops and EA. They didn’t all land in one week. I put them together as a demo, to show how I’d handle my list if everything looked urgent at the same time.

Why it depends on my client

I once supported two clients at the same time, both founders. Client A and Client B were siblings, so we shared the same team, customers, and priorities. But even when they gave me similar tasks, they had different ideas about what should come first. They also communicated differently. I had to learn what each of them wanted to know right away, what could wait until my next update, and what I could decide on my own.

Once I understood that, I could look at my list and make the call without asking, “Which one do you want me to do first?”

The demo: a week where everything looks urgent

Imagine all of this lands at once:

• The game isn’t working.
• An employee has a question about his paycheck.
• Client A needs an apartment abroad and is living in a hotel.
• Client B needs an apartment in another country by next month, in a tech house with other CEOs as housemates.
• A report comes in about why some payments failed.

Everything looks urgent. (And yes, it is!)

Nobody ever handed me a rulebook, and nobody said it out loud. But when you work with someone long enough, you just know. You learn it from what they react to quickly, what they follow up on, and what they trust you to handle. That’s an EA skill, and it only comes from time.

So I knew where my clients stood: the company and the employees come first. If a customer is unhappy, they leave. The same goes for an employee.

I also knew how my two clients differed. Client A would rather I prioritize his house hunting. Client B would rather I finish the report before working on his house. Same list, two different orders, depending on who I’m working for.

How I’d sort it

1. The game, and a message to the employee first. The game isn’t working for most of our users, so it’s the top priority. But before diving in, I’d message the employee with the paycheck question. I’d tell him it’s all hands on deck with the game and that I’ll get back to him as soon as we figure out the issue. On an async team, setting expectations early is essential, so nobody is left wondering what’s happening.

2. The paycheck question. Once the game is handled, I’d work with him to figure out what’s actually wrong. Pay is personal, and it’s stressful when it looks off, so I don’t want it sitting for long.

3. Client A’s house hunt. He’s living in a hotel, which costs more every day. The time difference also makes it hard to reach house agents, so I’d switch to his timezone for a few days to talk to agents directly and arrange his place. This is also what he prefers I focus on first.

4. The failed payments report. This one is company-impacting, so I won’t ignore it. I’d check how many people are affected first. If it’s only a few, it doesn’t jump ahead of the game or Client A’s hotel costs. But Client B prefers that I finish it before working on his house, so it goes right after Client A’s search. Once I find the cause, I share it with the developer.

5. Client B’s house hunt. His task is just as complex as Client A’s, but he knows his sibling needs a place first, and he prefers the report be done before his house, so he’s okay with waiting. In the meantime, I keep listing houses for him to look at. By the time Client A’s search is done, Client B has already filtered the list I sent him, and we can move on to scheduling house visits and finding housemates.

What I ask myself

When everything looks urgent, I run through a few questions:

• How many people does this affect? The game affects most users. The payments report affects a few.
• What does waiting cost? Client A’s hotel stay costs money every day. Client B has time.
• What does this client prefer? Client A wants his house first. Client B wants the report first.
• Who already knows about the delay? The employee does, because I told him. Client B does, because he chose to wait.

I also keep difficulty separate from priority, because they answer different questions. Client B’s search is a hard one, but Client A’s is more urgent. A hard task with a later deadline still needs time blocked off today, or it becomes an emergency later.

How the tracker helps

My tracker shows each task’s priority, difficulty, status, planned work date, and deadline. Here’s a simplified view of the demo:

You can see difficulty and priority doing different jobs here. The game is only a 3 but sits first. Client B’s search is a 5 but sits last.

I like sharing the tracker with my clients. After five years of working asynchronously, I know how helpful it is when someone can check progress on their own time. They can see that I’ve sent options and I’m waiting on a reply, or that I’ve set aside time for tomorrow’s meeting, without waiting for us to be online together.

What I decide on my own, and what I ask

I handle small, easy-to-undo things on my own, tell my client right away when something changes their day, and ask first when money or a commitment is involved.

But even this depends on the client.

Client A is very specific about what he wants, so I usually wait for his go-signal. I don’t wait empty-handed, though. I prepared options and a recommendation, so his decision takes minutes.

Client B has his preferences, but he trusts me to decide the rest. I make the call and update him afterward. The rule is simple: always do the right thing. When money is involved, I still wait for his approval. But by then I’ve already made the decision and know what I’d recommend, so it’s usually a quick yes.

For me, that’s what “it depends on my client” looks like in practice. Prioritizing is less about the list and more about knowing what my client would choose.

View my sample Notion task tracker