# Effort and impact

Adding impact and/or effort on work items is a great way to communicate and share rough estimations and sort work so that the low-hanging fruits (high impact, low effort) get prioritized over things that have less impact and/or require more effort.

<figure><img src="/files/2Bs8YECF4G0wFL1EKd27" alt=""><figcaption><p>Impact and effort on a work item</p></figcaption></figure>

From the “...” menu on a work item, select **Set effort** or **Set impact,** press `e` (for effort) or `i` (for impact), or click the existing impact and effort. You can by default choose between **Small, Medium, Large,** or **None** in the selector, but you can also customize them.

<figure><img src="/files/NsclhRfpivI0O35XjrrD" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

## Custom impact and effort

You want to customize your impact and effort scale, you can do so in the “Impact and Effort” section in space settings:

<figure><img src="/files/iUDLRXxLHoRRyW684vbI" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

You can drag them to order them (remember to keep smallest on top) and can choose name color, as well as add up to 9 custom levels.

## Prioritizing based on effort and impact

Kitemaker can automatically sort the work items based on impact and effort. From the menu at the top of the status column, select I**mpact & effort** in the **Ordering**. Kitemaker will use a scoring formula to ensure that at all times low-hanging fruits are on the top and lower impact higher effort items are further down.

<figure><img src="/files/QqcHAKyqATiioLcRACQU" alt=""><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

{% hint style="info" %}
The scoring used in prioritization is defined as `$\frac{Impact}{Effort}$.`

Where *Impact* is 0.5 for small, 1.0 for medium, 2 for large, and 0.25 if it’s missing. *Effort* is 1 for small, 2 for medium, 3 for large, and 4 if it’s missing.
{% endhint %}


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