Practice the Power of Prioritizing
In my experience, when people do more planning, more informally and naturally, they relieve a great deal of stress and obtain better results.
—David Allen
Dan swung around in his office chair when he heard me enter. He smiled and waved me in as he wrapped up his phone conversation. “OK. I have to go,” he concluded. “My professional organizer is here, and she’s going to get me organized. Don’t laugh. I’m really going to do it this time. You just wait—I’ll be a changed man.” With that, he hung up the phone.
“Boy, am I glad to see you,” he told me. “I’ve got at least ten projects to complete before I leave for my next trip. Do you think I’ll be ready day after tomorrow?”
I took note of the sea of papers on the desktop. I also noticed two brief-cases on the floor and a credenza and conference table full of stacks of paper. I almost said yes—and then I noticed three boxes of paper under his desk with as much order as a recycle bin. I asked what they were doing there.
Dan appeared sheepish. “They’re the papers I put away when I knew you were coming. It’s my way of cleaning up my desk.”
We both laughed. I shook my head and smiled. “I have a hunch it’s a matter of prioritizing. And from the looks of things, you need that skill. Let’s get going.”
Prioritizing Accomplishes More in Less Time
Setting priorities is one of the higher-level skills necessary for simplifying your time. To get started, ask yourself two questions:
1. What am I going to do first?
2. How many things do I plan to accomplish in the time available?
I asked Dan if he cooked. He responded, “No, but I like to eat.”
I suggested we look at his priorities in the same way a chef looks at preparing a meal. For example, if a chef were serving a lasagna dinner with Caesar salad and French bread with melted butter, he’d put the lasagna in the oven first, toss the salad while the dish is baking, and then add the French bread at the last moment so everything gets finished at the right time in the right order.
Prioritizing Under Pressure
I suggested that Dan use that model to look at what he had to do to prepare for his trip. He came up with the following list:
Bring closure to everything before leaving for overseas for ten days, including e-mail responses, paper projects, and phone calls.
Prepare for the trip by confirming final details with the other team members and packing my work-related paperwork and personal belongings.
Delegate work for my new assistant to do while I’m away, such as handling the boxes under my desk.
As much as Dan had to do, and as challenging as it would be to finish so much in such a short time, I knew we had one big factor on our side: people are most productive right before a trip. Tasks that would have taken weeks for us to do otherwise we would now finish in short order. Time pressures make some people more decisive, and I had a feeling Dan was one of them.
Prioritize According to Important and Urgent
In a time crunch moment, you need to do the urgent and important. For Dan, that meant confirming flights, packing paperwork for the trip, and leaving contact numbers and instructions for emergencies.
Delegate the Checklist
To maximize your time, delegate the list to an assistant or family member who can take care of it while you move to the next priority. Save your time for what you do best. If there is no one to delegate the list to, do it at a low-energy time like midafternoon. Stick to the task, time the procedure, and list the time frame on the checklist to refer to next time.
Make a List of the Top Five Items
Our short-term memory can hold only a limited number of items at a time. So I asked Dan to focus his activities by listing the top five things that come to mind. He rattled off his mental list while I jotted the items down:
1. Call travel agent and find out where the airline tickets are.
2. E-mail the team and tell them the details of the trip.
3. Prepare my speeches and PowerPoint presentations for the trip.
4. Give assistant a list of things to do while I am gone.
5. Wrap up phone calls and e-mails.
Deadlines Create a Need for Decisions and Closure
Dan discovered, as most of us do, that no matter how much we prepare for a trip, there are last-minute things to do. Keep a reusable checklist for the three days before any trip to minimize that stress. Going from memory is the most stressful thing you can do.
Dan decided to pull together his PowerPoint and first of three speeches while he kept a pad of paper handy with three columns: Assistant To-Dos, Phone Calls, and E-mails.
A Personal Turning Point
Dan now had to decide whether he would focus on his speeches or spend the time getting things in order for his assistant. It all boiled down to time choices.
After we talked, he chose to focus his time among the three items, doing first the item that required the highest concentration. He limited speech writing to one-third of his time and moved on to his three-column list.
Dan was catching on. With this new bit of information, Dan divided up the remaining 1.5 hours before departure to a half hour on his first speech, a half hour on pulling together action items to leave for his assistant, and a half hour returning calls and e-mails, picking out the highest priorities.
The “One Thing” Principle
The “one thing” principle is simply this: sometimes there is only enough time to do one thing. At such times, focus on the urgent and postpone the rest of your activities. Although postponed activities can create trouble, there are times when it’s a risk worth taking.
When your priorities are not clear to you, try finishing this statement regarding those items that need attention: “If I could only do one thing, I would . . .” Then write down that action step and put a number by it. Then ask yourself the same question for #2, #3, and so on until you have assigned each task a priority number.
For example:
1. ___ Call the travel agent.
3. ___ E-mail the team.
2. ___ Pull together my PowerPoints and speech.
5. ___ Assign my assistant work.
4. ___ Return critical phone calls and e-mails.
Remember, you always have time for the things you do first. Just make sure you divide your time to include the remaining priorities as well.
Be proactive about prioritizing your to-do list first thing in the morning so you can be productive the rest of the day. It takes a disciplined person to act on difficult items early in the day. Once you do so, however, you will yield a high return on your investment.
It’s Your Time
Practice the Power of Prioritizing (Time Tool #5)
□ Always prioritize your to-do list with numbers, especially the top three items.
□ Divide your available time to complete the tasks and keep moving forward.
□ Prioritize by asking the relief question: “What one task would give me the most relief it I got it out of the way?” Complete that task first.
When you get right down to the root of the meaning of the word succeed, you find it simply means to follow through.
—F. W. Nichol