It is easy, in the onrush of life, to become a reactor – to respond to everything that comes up, the moment it comes up, and give it your undivided attention until the next thing comes up.
This is, of course, a recipe for madness. The feeling of loss of control over what you do and when is enough to drive you over the edge, and if that doesn’t get you, the wreckage of unfinished projects you leave in your wake will surely catch up with you.
Having an inbox and processing it in a systematic way can help you gain back some of that control. But once you’ve processed out your inbox and listed all the tasks you need to get cracking on, you still have to figure out what to do the very next instant. On which of those tasks will your time best be spent, and which ones can wait?
When we don’t set priorities, we tend to follow the path of least resistance. (And following the path of least resistance, as the late, great Utah Phillips reminded us, is what makes the river crooked!) That is, we’ll pick and sort through the things we need to do and work on the easiest ones – leaving the more difficult and less fun tasks for a “later” that, in many cases, never comes – or, worse, comes just before the action needs to be finished, throwing us into a whirlwind of activity, stress, and regret.
That’s no way to live!
Three Approaches
There are three basic approaches to setting priorities, each of which probably suits different kinds of personalities. The first is for procrastinators, people who put off unpleasant tasks. The second is for people who thrive on accomplishment, who need a stream of small victories to get through the day. And the third is for the more analytic types, who need to know that they’re working on the objectively most important thing possible at this moment. In order, then, they are:
1. Eat a Frog
There’s an old saying to the effect that if you wake up in the morning and eat a live frog, you can go through the day knowing that the worst thing that can possibly happen to you that day has already passed. In other words, the day can only get better!
Popularized in Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog!, the idea here is that you tackle the biggest, hardest, and least appealing task first thing every day, so you can move through the rest of the day knowing that the worst has already passed.
When you’ve got a fat old frog on your plate, you’ve really got to knuckle down. Another old saying says that when you’ve got to eat a frog, don’t spend too much time looking at it! It pays to keep this in mind if you’re the kind of person that procrastinates by “planning your attack” and “psyching yourself up” for half the day. Just open wide and chomp that frog, buddy! Otherwise, you’ll almost surely talk yourself out of doing anything at all.
2. Move Big Rocks
Maybe you’re not a procrastinator so much as a fiddler, someone who fills her or his time fussing over little tasks. You’re busy busy busy all the time, but somehow, nothing important ever seems to get done.
You need the wisdom of the pickle jar. Take a pickle jar and fill it up with sand. Now try to put a handful of rocks in there. You can’t, right? There’s no room.
If it’s important to put the rocks in the jar, you’ve got to put the rocks in first. Fill the jar with rocks, now try pouring in some pebbles. See how they roll in and fill up the available space? Now throw in a couple handfuls of gravel. Again, it slides right into the cracks. Finally, pour in some sand.
For the metaphorically impaired, the pickle jar is all the time you have in a day. You can fill it up with meaningless little busy-work tasks, leaving no room for the big stuff, or you can do the big stuff first, then the smaller stuff, and finally fill in the spare moments with the useless stuff.
To put it into practice, sit down tonight before you go to bed and write down the three most important tasks you have to get done tomorrow. Don’t try to fit everything you need, or think you need, to do, just the three most important ones.
In the morning, take out your list and attack the first “Big Rock”. Work on it until it’s done or you can’t make any further progress. Then move on to the second, and then the third. Once you’ve finished them all, you can start in with the little stuff, knowing you’ve made good progress on all the big stuff. And if you don’t get to the little stuff? You’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you accomplished three big things. At the end of the day, nobody’s ever wished they’d spent more time arranging their pencil drawer instead of writing their novel, or printing mailing labels instead of landing a big client.
3. Covey Quadrants
If you just can’t relax unless you absolutely know you’re working on the most important thing you could be working on at every instant, Stephen Covey’s quadrant system might be for you. Covey suggests you divide a piece of paper into four sections, drawing a line across and a line from top to bottom. Into each of those quadrants, you put your tasks according to whether they are:
- Important and Urgent
- Important and Not Urgent
- Not Important but Urgent
- Not Important and Not Urgent
The quadrant III and IV stuff is where we get bogged down in the trivial: phone calls, interruptions, meetings (QIII) and busy work, shooting the breeze, and other time wasters (QIV). Although some of this stuff might have some social value, if it interferes with your ability to do the things that are important to you, they need to go.
Quadrant I and II are the tasks that are important to us. QI are crises, impending deadlines, and other work that needs to be done right now or terrible things will happen. If you’re really on top of your time management, you can minimize Q1 tasks, but you can never eliminate them – a car accident, someone getting ill, a natural disaster, these things all demand immediate action and are rarely planned for.
You’d like to spend as much time as possible in Quadrant II, plugging away at tasks that are important with plenty of time to really get into them and do the best possible job. This is the stuff that the QIII and QIV stuff takes time away from, so after you’ve plotted out your tasks on the Covey quadrant grid, according to your own sense of what’s important and what isn’t, work as much as possible on items in Quadrant II (and Quadrant I tasks when they arise).
Getting to Know You
Spend some time trying each of these approaches on for size. It’s hard to say what might work best for any given person – what fits one like a glove will be too binding and restrictive for another, and too loose and unstructured for a third. You’ll find you also need to spend some time figuring out what makes something important to you – what goals are your actions intended to move you towards.
In the end, setting priorities is an exercise in self-knowledge. You need to know what tasks you’ll treat as a pleasure and which ones like torture, what tasks lead to your objectives and which ones lead you astray or, at best, have you spinning your wheels and going nowhere.
These three are the best-known and most time-tested strategies out there, but maybe you’ve got a different idea you’d like to share? Tell us how you set your priorities in the comments.
I usually start a day with something I like and then quickly pickup the most difficult item on the list. This is because if I successfully avoid a tough task till late afternoon, then chances are high, I wouldn’t pick that up the rest of the day and it remains pending
What usually works for me is the 1 hour rule. I heard this from an author who was having trouble staying motivated to write. Each morning I choose my most important task and commit to working on it for 1 hour. I set a timer. Sometimes I struggle to keep at it for an hour. Other times, like yesterday, it’s three hours later and that project is done!
really interesting post i like the fact that one must “eat the frog”
[...] Back to Basics: Setting Priorities – Stepcase Lifehack There are three basic approaches to setting priorities, each of which probably suits different kinds of personalities. The first is for procrastinators, people who put off unpleasant tasks. The second is for people who thrive on accomplishment, who need a (tags: productivity webworker) [...]
When we have a lot of tasks that need completing its often a good idea to mix big tasks with shorter tasks.
When we have a long “to-do” list, some jobs will be bigger then others. If we only focus on the big jobs it can be disheartening when, after a couple of hours, we’ve only managed to cross of one item from the list.
By mixing short 10 minute jobs between longer ones, it will motivate us when we see two or three tasks completed in the same time.
Well, I
Sorry, hit wrong button. Well, I don’t know if my “method” counts, but I call it “The Way I Clean My Room”. Sometimes, my room just ends up in a jungle of junk. When I don’t know where to begin, I throw everything into a big pile, literally, and I pick 3 things out. I take those 3 things and figure out where they need to go, or what I need to do with them. If it’s immediate, or something I can do instantly, I’ll just do it. If it’s something that will take some time, I just take it and put it in diffrent pile, with other LONG tasks. That’s how I sort my stuff out.
Eat a frog in the morning and moving a big rock are really interesting concepts. That should work in most cases. Good post.
By all accounts there shouldn’t be any procrastinators in France then!
This might sound flaky to some…but as someone who is a practicing Pagan/Tarot reader/astrology buff, I do things by the celestial cycles, especially our moon. For example, our moon takes 28 days to go through each astrological sign. The first 14 days are New, Waxing and 98% Full. The 14 days after that are Full, Waning and New. If I want to start something new, I begin during the New or waxing moon phases. If I’m winding down with a project, I’ll finish it during the waning phase. But what if Mercury is retrograde, meaning that communications about ANYthing will be screwed up or perhaps a server will crash? Make it a good time to review your projects and see which ones deserve to be continued, or thrown in the recycle bin.
That’s just a general overview of how I manage my projects. I still have yet to work on not letting myself get distracted with other things. I’m getting better but there’s always room for improvement.
Setting priorities and keeping to them is a daily challenge. I start out with good intent but could easily get distracted. I have so many ideas and so many things I want to do. There just aren’t enough hours in a day. I do try to focus on family first though since this is my top priority.
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[...] Back to Basics: Setting priorities is interesting, but it only reminded me of the guilt of the things i promised people that i would do – blogged and not… [...]
Great post. I agree that everyone might have their own method of establishing priorities that work for them, and being aware of various options helps us to find an effective tool that we can use.
I would encourage people to have a look at the system put forth by Charles R. Hobbs in his “Time Power” book. This is out of print, but you may be able to find it in a library somewhere. In regards to prioritization, his approach is to spend some time defining your own personal ‘unifying principles’ and then develop long-term and medium-term goals. These are then used on a regular basis to guide your priorities which are congruent with the things in life that are most important to you.
You don’t need to follow any one system, but understanding what is important to you, and taking steps to accomplish objectives related to those priorities, will always yield the most personal satisfaction.
As a further comment to my earlier post, I believe the ‘unifying principles’ approach is a great complement to Covey’s quadrants. It is one thing to say you should categorize tasks as ‘important’ or ‘unimportant’, but you still need to define the criteria that defines that boundary.
That said, you do need to keep your prioritization criteria simple enough that you can manage and utilize it.
[...] the most of everyday is possible if your priorities are [...]
I want to tell you some thing important . Procastination may harm a person but equally it harms a person who is tied to procastinator.Trust me.I am living with a guy who postpones things for years and later forgets them.But that is affected my life in a huge blundered way. Can anyone tell me how to guide a procrastinator?
[...] Back to Basics: Setting Priorities (practical information) [...]
[...] ARTICLE 3 – Back to Basics: Setting Priorities [...]
Procrastination can be like an addiction. The procrastinator may have made a habit of choosing their actions based on their emotions, as opposed to acting on their aspirations. As a procrastinator, my self-talk often goes like this: “I feel nervous/overwhelmed/depressed, etc., so I can’t tackle my plans (or responsibilites) right now. That concept is untrue. If I catch myself thinking this way, I must tell myself, “I will not be controlled by my moods, but instead I will direct myself according to my value system and my goals. My true identity is a product of my actions, not just my thoughts. I must screen my decisions on how I’ll spend my time with these questions: Does this thing I’m choosing to do have value? Is it important to me and/or to my loved ones? Is it honorable or good for me? Is it what I’d like to be known for? Do I want people to remember that this was my priority? Laziness may appear like it’s a way of escape, but it’s the bait that wraps you in chains of guilt. You can’t expect the results you want unless you are willing to put in the effort to attain those results. A procrastinator may agree that these simple truths are obvious, but when they are at that vital point of deciding what to do next they tend to fall back on their habitual emotional decision making. Like establishing any change in behavior, they need to consistantly practice the way of doing things that doesn’t seem natural to them until they have learned the skill and formed a good habit.
I like the idea in the article about picking 3 things from your to-do list, and setting them as priorities for the next day. I have 2 different types of priority-setting that I try to deal with: 1) daily tasks/work & 2) long-term goals. To help me set priorities in my daily tasks, I have 16 file folders kept in 2 hanging files, numbered 1-2, 3-4,… 27-28, ’29-30/31′, and ’Next Month & Beyond’. I put the paperwork for the things that need my attention in the folder with the date that I want to work on that task, and check the folder every day or 2. At the end of the month move the items from the last folder into the dated folders. Then I have an “immediate action folder in a stand on my desk. I put all of the things (mostly related to my business) that I want to get done today in that folder. I use colored card stock as dividers in that folder. I sort the tasks in order of priority, and then I just work from the front of the folder to the back, and try to get it all done. I also make notes on a calendar and a daily schedule checklist/to-do list that I customized for my weekly routine. For my long-term goals (or ‘resolutions’), I made my list for the year of things I would like to achieve or maintain good habits in. Then I answered the questions “why do I want to do this?” and “how am I going to do it?” for each goal. I made a “report card” for each goal, in which I check off “No progress, Little Progress, Maintaining Good Habits, Significant Progress or Reached Goal”. On the 1st & 15th of every month, I grade myself and make notes and adjust my goals accordingly. I also copied photos from clipart sites for each of my goals, and printed a page with those photos and a short description of the goal. I look at those pictures every few days to remind myself to do the things to help me reach those goals or maintain those desired habits.
Having difficulty setting priorities and procrastinating are often linked. It may help to examine some common differences between procrastinators and non-procrastinators, and try to adjust your way of thinking, or doing, to the way a non-procrastinator would.
P’s see their own intentions as more of a wish, and often see their failures as being out of their control.NP’s see their intentions as responsibilities; they take charge of their life, and feel successful by living up to the responsibilities that they have set as their priorities.
P’s tend to let their moods dictate their actions.NP’s begin tasks, even when they are not in the mood to.
P’s don’t take into account the likelihood of unforseen last-minute distractions or problems, so they put tasks off until right before they are due.NP’s realize that things don’t always go according to plan; they begin tasks well in advance of when they are due so they don’t have to worry about interruptions or unforseen obstacles.
P’s think they must wait until they have a sizeable amount of time to tackle a big project, which can give them an excuse to put it off indefinitely.NP’s put time-lines on their long-term goals, stick to an action plan, and progress towards completion with “do-able” apportioned efforts.
P’s tend to be easily discouraged by their own negative self-talk, like “I don’t know how to do this” or “I dread doing that” or “I should do this”.NP’s encourage themselves with affirming self-talk, like “I can figure out how to do this” or “I can’t wait to get started on that” or “I want to do this”; then, they apply their problem-solving skills to the task, and persist at it.
Extreme procrastination, or lack of priority-setting skills, is no small problem. Working with a professional organizer may be the ticket. It helped me a lot. Yet, if I can’t get my act together in some remaining problem areas, I’m considering scheduling a visit with a psychiatrist.