I don’t really like priorities. I think prioritizing causes more trouble than it’s worth. It’s one more layer of complexity between you and simply doing it. Don’t get me wrong, prioritizing does have its uses and we all (need to) do it on a very basic level every day. The customer that comes through the door has to take priority over the paperwork you’re filling in. But when it comes to the whole prioritizing tips and tricks that self-help and business books go on about (even I came up with my own), all it’s doing is covering up the fundamental problems – you’ve got too much to do and/or you’ve not got enough time to do it all.
Whenever I have had a big change in my life, such as going to university which would require lots of study, or getting a full time job that would need lots of attention, people have always said that I would have to forget about doing this and that. There would be no time for having fun, or indulging in hobbies. Forget about any other goals and dreams you may have, I’d have to knuckle down and focus on my studies or work. In other words I’d have to prioritize. Not likely!
If you need to do a bunch of things, then they are all important to you at some level otherwise they wouldn’t be on your radar. So why should you have to pick and choose which is more valuable? Which is priority A? Which is low priority? To me, prioritizing involves sacrifice. It’s the equivalent of deciding whether to drop your son off at football training or drop your daughter off at her piano class. And I don’t believe you should have to sacrifice.
Prioritizing is the medicine you take after you’ve caught a bad case of Excessive Workload or you have the painful symptoms of Lack Of Time. As is typically the case with any answer to what ails people in the 21st century, the focus is on managing the symptoms rather than preventing the problem in the first place.
If you had enough work to fill up your 9-to-5 workday without any overtime, would you need to prioritize? Would it matter which tasks came first? Likewise, if you had twelve uninterrupted hours each day to do all the work you needed to do, would it again matter which order you did it? Would you even have to contemplate which projects were more important than the other? Ideal scenarios they may be, but it is possible to use your time more efficiently and trim your workload of excess baggage. So why are you putting so much focus on prioritizing?
December 7, 2009 at 10:50PM
Hi, there are some good points here, but I would have to disagree with prioritizing past the basic level. I currently work full time, do university part time, have two kids and a third one due at end of the month! Maybe I am an exception to the norm, however prioritizing is a major part of my life, and this does include prioritizing relaxation and fun as well.
However, I can see what you are alluding to here – we all should forget prioritizing the stuff that at end of day is not going to get you where you want to be.
December 8, 2009 at 08:40PM
Thanks for the comment Greg. Under your circumstances prioritizing would certainly have to be a factor. My enthusiasm for 80/20-ing my life often leaves me with time to spare. However, I’d be interested to know what prioritizing techniques you use, and in how much depth you go into it.
December 9, 2009 at 05:38AM
Hey James, my prioritizing efforts outside of work mainly consist around my family duties and study commitments, so my techniques is quite simple. In a way, like you explained, I do have to choose what’s more important and make sacrifices to a certain degree.
Each day I set the most important tasks for the day and make sure they get done before anything else that is not quite as important.
In a way I am working towards 80/20-ing but by starting at the opposite end of the spectrum, focusing on doing the most important, rather than on removing the least valuable.
Yes, I suppose prioritizing is a form of sacrifice. There are plenty of times now where I have to prioritize my study instead of going to a social function or doing something else I love, but the end benefit of the education I am receiving allows me to discover and work out better ways to reach that 80/20 lifestyle that I may not otherwise be able to achieve.
I hope that makes sense!