Being an IT manager means you have dozens of tasks you need to accomplish, and they are all important.
From implementing redundancy to upgrading security solutions to adding solutions that benefit your users, you need to check all of them off your to-do list while you’re still tending to the daily user issues.
Where do you even begin on this never ending list?
At The KR Group, we juggle our own IT needs as well as those of our customers. While each one undoubtedly needs to be addressed, everything will go smoother if you first build trust with your users.
Building a Rapport with Users
Talking with your user base — everyone from the executive team to the front desk — is crucial for several reasons. 
By asking them what applications and solutions they use, which ones work well, and which ones don’t, you will get a better idea of what’s going on in your IT environment than if you just made assumptions.
The information they provide will also help you prioritize tasks based on how it affects your users and how many are affected by the same problem.
Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, this step lets your users know you care about their individual needs.
This right here can go a long way when a more urgent IT problem arises, and you can’t get to a user’s issue as soon as you said.
And, when you create a good working relationship with the executive team, it can help budget requests go smoother.
Prioritizing Your IT Tasks
Now that you have assured your users you’re concerned about their specific IT needs and made a list of all the concerns; it’s time for you to prioritize them.
Every business’s priorities will look slightly different because what solutions are most important to you may not be the same as another company’s.
Since it wouldn’t be completely accurate to list what tasks you should focus on first, we’ll talk about the following categories and help you determine what items fall into each one:
- High Priority
- Medium Priority
- Low Priority
While you’re tackling tasks under each category, you’ll likely still have user requests come up. Those generally should take precedence over projects to ensure your users can continue doing their jobs.
What IT Tasks Are a High Priority?
The tasks you designate as a high priority will represent your most prominent points of failure or vulnerability.
To come up with this list, ask yourself questions, such as:
1. A failure of what systems would halt production?
Some common answers to this question are internet circuits, power supply to your data center, and other core elements in your data center. But, again, it all depends on what your business does and how you set up your IT environment.
By adding redundancy and backup, you can keep production going even if there is a failure or an outage.
The good news is it’s often straightforward to make a case for solutions for backup and redundancy when its cost is less than the lost production.
2. What areas of my IT environment do I need to protect the most against a cyberattack?
It’s essential to secure all of your data, but realistically, you’ll need to do this in phases.
You’ll certainly want to look at what data is the most critical and will be most detrimental if it were destroyed or compromised from a cyberattack. However, the basic step of keeping up to date with security patches from vendors like Microsoft is just as important.
If you’re not sure how to dive into determining your risks, check out articles on our IT security risk assessments to learn more about how an IT consultant can identify these risks.
Identifying Medium Priority Tasks
This category encompasses non-urgent IT issues that, given time, will become a high priority. While not as pressing as high-priority tasks, you still need to keep these tasks in mind.
A few questions to help you determine what fall under this designation are:
1. What failures would impede the company’s productivity?
This could be a specific application or device that helps your users do their job but isn’t mission-critical.
Often these issues have workarounds, but they’re not ideal.
2. What problems do you foresee becoming a significant issue?
If you keep an eye on your technology, you can anticipate upcoming end-of-life and end-of-support dates and place replacing or upgrading these solutions as a medium priority.
Designating it as a low priority could mean you don’t get to it by the expiration date. However, categorizing it as a high priority is overkill since, right now, the task isn’t affecting your business or compromising your security.
3. What issues do you have that could soon pose a security risk?
It’s crucial you address the blatant, high-risk cybersecurity issues first. From there, you can move on to ones with the potential to cause problems.
These could be outdated solutions that you should replace with newer, more effective ones. A good example of this is upgrading your antivirus to a next-generation antivirus that will better protect you from evolving threats.
You might find some overlap here with upcoming end-of-life solutions and future security risks.
Determining Your Low Priority Tasks
The items in this category are important, but it won’t be detrimental to your IT environment if they are put on the back burner while you tend to other high-priority items.
Questions you may want to consider when figuring out which of your to-do items are considered a low priority.
1. What IT improvements would make your users more productive? 
Once you’ve addressed the high and medium priority tasks, you can start thinking about what upgrades and improvements would make your users’ jobs easier and your company more productive.
For example, your current phone system may work adequately, but by switching to a newer platform, you’ll get more features that can help your users collaborate better.
2. What security solutions would help you refine your IT environment?
These items are generally “wish list” tasks. They will strengthen your security posture; however, they aren’t posing a security risk while you wait to work on them.
Help Completing IT Priorities
At this point, you’ve likely started making a mental checklist of to-do items you know are high, medium, and low priority. Remember to check with all of your users to see if there are any issues you’re unaware of. If there are any problems, add them to the list.
As you think of every single task you have to place on a list, you may feel overwhelmed and exhausted just anticipating the work.
One way you can make this process more digestible is to download our free IT Priority To-Do List.
This PDF includes a synopsis of this article and blank lines for you to fill in with your organization’s tasks. Additionally, it is color-coded to help you visualize your high, medium, and low priority tasks.
