How to be Better at Prioritisation
Prioritisation or Procrastination
For me the hardest part of prioritizing is not getting distracted once I have identified my priorities for the day. I actually sat down to write this article then went to get a glass of water. I got distracted and forgot about it until I sat down to turn off the computer. So now I am in the process of writing two documents. My novel which I have scheduled to write at this time and this article which was scheduled for earlier in the day.
Priorities with no hard deadline
Part of the issue is I’m actually quite excited about both documents and neither have a hard deadline. I have soft deadlines as both these projects are things I want to do but don’t have to do. So sometimes it’s easy to get drawn into other activities.
Calendar Your Day to Stay on Track
To help me with this I have started to calendar my day. This was suggested to me by a friend and I have found it most helpful. When my youngest son was home based learning I needed to put my highest priority items between the hours of three pm till six pm. I have scheduled my own personal learning activities for when he is doing his work. This meant I was able to assist him and my concentration levels could be lower during those times.
Define Your Priorities
Prioritization with multiple projects is really just a matter of deciding what is of greatest importance (for me that generally means income producing) and what is most urgent. So income producing and has a firm date should take precedence over all other tasks. This is the easy part.
The problem with this formula is what if everything is urgent and important. You still only have the same 24 hours and other meetings, calls ad hoc interruptions to deal with. For me, I find writing a list at the end of the day to be the best way to manage when it’s otherwise unmanageable.
I also find that sometimes it’s easier to just do some quick items first thing in the morning. Get a few ticks done and you start to feel better when you can cross several items off the task list.
If I need to do some high concentration work I try to schedule that when I am least likely to be interrupted and when I am at my most alert.
Managing Competing Priorities
Generally we have competing priorities. Personal tasks, work tasks must be balanced against each other. Swing too far either way and you are either starving or overworked. A coach can help you to identify what your priorities are by helping you to look deeper at why you want to do something.
If you want to do an Ironman for instance you will need to eek out at least 17 hours for training a week. On top of that you need to be aware that you will be seriously tired everyday. If you are working a full-time job and you have a family then you have many equal and competing priorities to balance.
What do you need to discard?
You need to work out what is the highest priority and what are things you can delegate or ditch. Before you commit to a race you should have a good hard look at what you are willing to sacrifice in order to meet this goal.
The same goes for work priorities.
Can you delegate some routine tasks to those around you?
Do you have to attend every meeting?
Can you send a staff member in your stead?
What technology can you use to help you to better manage your time and get through your to-do-list more effectively?
Talking to a coach can help you to sort through these questions. Sometimes a fresh look at the same way of doing things can help you uncover new ways of doing things.
