Priorities and calendars

Tasks can be sorted by two criteria: urgent (must be done soon) and important (affects your goals). First do tasks that are important and urgent, then important but not urgent ones (for example learning a language). For advice use should / ought to: You ought to start the big project early. Had better is stronger advice or a warning: You’d better leave now, or you’ll miss the bus. Need to shows necessity: I need to revise for the test; needn’t / don’t need to shows no necessity. To say what will matter in the future combine will with an adjective: Learning to code will be important in the future. Useful sequence phrases: first of all, most importantly, after that, last but not least.