Priority Ranker
Rank your tasks or goals by importance using the priority matrix method (urgent vs important).
Add 3-10 items and rank them by pairwise comparison
How the Priority Ranker Works
Add 3 to 10 items - tasks, goals, projects, anything you can list - and the tool pairs them up two at a time and asks 'Which is more important?'. You answer each pairwise comparison, and the items get a win count. With 5 items there are 10 comparisons; with 10 items there are 45. At the end, items are ranked by how many one-on-one matchups they won. The progress bar shows how many comparisons you've answered out of the total.
This method is called pairwise comparison and it's surprisingly more honest than asking yourself to rank everything in one go. Trying to compare 8 things at once is mentally overwhelming - the brain settles for whatever order they happened to come out in. Comparing two things at a time is something the brain is good at, so the answers are more decisive, and the aggregated win counts produce a final ranking that reflects your actual preferences rather than your tolerance for ranking exercises. It's the same principle behind chess Elo ratings and tournament brackets.
Pairwise Comparison vs the Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower matrix splits tasks into four quadrants - urgent and important, not urgent but important, urgent but not important, neither - which is great for thinking about what to do today versus what to delegate. Pairwise comparison is different: it gives you a single ranked list, which is what you actually need when you're trying to pick the next thing to work on from a long backlog. Use the matrix to triage; use pairwise to sequence.
The MoSCoW prioritisation model (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have) is another useful framework, especially for product backlogs and feature lists. Pairwise comparison can be used inside any one of those buckets to sequence your Musts. For tasks where importance is much more obvious than the order, just keep a simple to-do list - the [Decision Matrix Maker](/decision-matrix-maker) is overkill for daily work but useful when the stakes are higher.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does it ask so many questions for 10 items?
Pairwise comparison needs n*(n-1)/2 questions to compare every item to every other item. For 10 items that's 45 comparisons, which sounds like a lot but takes about 5 minutes because each individual question is so easy. The benefit is that the final ranking reflects every possible matchup, not just the order you happened to think of items in.
What if two items are tied at the end?
Ties are normal and meaningful - they tell you those items are roughly equivalent in your eyes, so the choice between them probably doesn't matter much. If you need a definitive answer, do another pass with just the tied items and add a tiebreaker criterion (deadline, effort, energy) that wasn't in the original consideration.
Should I use this for daily tasks or big life goals?
It works for both, but the value is highest when you have 5 to 10 items that genuinely all feel important and you're stuck. For 30-item daily to-do lists, a quick pass through the Eisenhower matrix is faster. For big life goals where you have 8 things you want to pursue this year, pairwise comparison forces honest sequencing.
Can I redo a comparison if I changed my mind?
Currently each comparison is final, but you can hit Reset and run the whole thing again. Most people find the second pass produces almost the same ranking - the method is more stable than it looks because borderline calls get averaged out by the sheer number of comparisons.
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