Play the Priority Game
June 1st, 2009 Posted in Make More Money, Make More of Your Life, Prioritize, Time Management, Work Less 
Prioritizing is a big part of working more and making less. Most people are bombarded with things to do every day. They find themselves moving quickly from one task to the next, from that task to another, all day long. When you’re in that kind of cycle, it’s hard to really get going on any one thing. Your mind is jumping from one thing to the next.
What does it mean to prioritize? It means doing the most important things first.
Until you learn to prioritize, brilliant things aren’t going to happen. Even if you get everything on your list done, it’s not going to get done in the right way.
Let me explain.
I have a client named Kelly who owns and operates a marketing company. Kelly is a tsunami of energy. One of those people who can do in one day what three normal people can do in a week.
Kelly is a list-maker. And she is driven to adhere to her schedule. The stuff on her list gets done. She had found a balance between her personal life and her work life. By all accounts things should have been going pretty well for Kelly.
So I was a bit puzzled to learn that, despite the fact she seemed to be doing everything right, Kelly was still feeling stressed and disorganized.
I asked Kelly how she approached her day. Finally, I stumbled upon the magic question.
“Which things to you tackle on your list first?” I asked.
“The easy things,” Kelly said confidently. “Sometimes the sheer volume of my list stresses me out. Getting the little things off first makes me feel like I’m accomplishing things right out of the gate. It definitely cuts down on the stress.”
I had to laugh. She devoted the first part of the day spending lots of time on the things that didn’t matter. By the time she got around to the important stuff she didn’t have much time to complete it, and her energy level was depleted as well. While she did get some of the important things crossed off her list, they weren’t getting done properly. No wonder Kelly was stressed!
You have to tackle the meaningful things first. Prioritize your tasks by ranking them in terms of importance. I know all tasks seem important. But all tasks are not important. Important tasks are those that impact your goals. If not doing the task causes little or no impact, it’s not important. Knowing the difference is key to working less and making more.
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