Prioritizing
I admit, I’m easily distracted. On top of a developed habit of forgetfulness, sometimes I pretend I’m good at multitasking and other times I just let new tasks and questions take over already existing things-to-do. I wrote a global grind blog about being goal oriented before but wanted take it a step further and research/discuss prioritizing. Prioritizing falls right in line with being goal oriented because having goals and actually achieving them are two completely different things. Prioritizing gets right to the meat of achieving our goals. If your tired of not completing things or finishing tasks late, prioritizing will help.
‘Prioritizing is determining what needs to get done and in what order.’ Here are a few tips on how to stay focused and get what needs to be done, done.
THINGS TO DO:
-WRITE IT DOWN. Take all things that need to be done, grab a piece of paper and list them. This prevents forgetting and helps visually with putting things in order based on their importance.
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-WHAT IS URGENT? WHAT IS IMPORTANT?. Separate your to do list into urgent and important, you should focus your energy on the important tasks. Urgent issues are rarely important in the big scheme of things. Often times, other people will try to push their crises (urgencies) onto you. Dont let poor planning or execution from someone else become your problem unless it is absolutely necessary.
-DETERMINE THE FUTURE IMPACT.R Ask yourself, What is the future impact of a current action? High priority items will have a big future impact. Low priority items will have no (or negligible) future impact.
– Go through your list and identify those items that absolutely have to get done today. These are critical tasks that are very important. Sometimes these items are important and urgent. Mark them with an A. Now, go through your A list and prioritize by marking your most important item as A1 and your next most important item as A2, etc.
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
– The 80/20 rule. Recognize that 20% of your activities give you 80% of the value. So focus on the high impact tasks. Ask yourself, Am I doing the things that give me the most value?
– If you are embarking on something new, you have to decide what you are going to give up. You cant continue to accept new responsibilities without getting rid of others.
– Learn to say no. Learning to say no can be difficult, but it is a necessary skill if you want to stay focused on the things that are most important to you. Ask yourself, does the assignment, activity or responsibility align with your overall goals? If the answer is no, then decline the temptation to get involved.
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-If you have the ability to outsource or delegate, do so with tasks that can be easily handled by others. This will free you up to work on more important priorities. Remember to follow-up to make sure the tasks were completed to your satisfaction and give feedback as necessary to ensure things will be handled correctly in the future.
Like I said, I’m not the most focused person in the world. I’m really going to use the
