Sixty

               Twenty Four

               One Hundred Sixty-Eight

               These are all numbers everyone one of us have to deal with.  The number of seconds in a minute and minutes in an hour.  The number of hours in a day and the number of hours in a week.

               They are all finite.  When I ask people in casual conversation how they are doing the most common answer I hear is “I’m busy.”  This is a reality for all of us, and one of the greatest stressors is how we manage our time.  That is the number one area we need to lead ourselves in. 

               Allow me to shift the perspective.  We don’t need to manage our time but manage our priorities.  In this post, I’m going to share four steps to help you lead yourself well by prioritizing.

Decide What is Important

               You have a task list and maybe you feel like everything is a top priority.  Take a moment and ask yourself “what is important?”  It may be important for achieving your goals or the team’s goals.  I can’t tell you what is important, but I can tell you scrolling social media probably is not on that list.

Decide What is Urgent

               Now that you have decided what is important determine what is urgent.  This could be urgent because of someone else’s need that is aligned with what you are trying to accomplish.  It could be because of an emergency.  Possibly this could be because of a deadline you need to meet.  Only you can determine if this important item is urgent or not.  If you are a little stuck here I will help you a little more in step four.

Determine Where It Fits

               Years ago the late Steven Covey popularized in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People the Urgent/Important matrix.  I’m not going into it deeply here, but will share a way you can learn more in a moment.  Look at your list of tasks and decide which of these categories it fits into:

Important & Urgent – It must be done now

Important & Not Urgent – It must be done, but can wait

Not-Important & Urgent – Usually someone else’s emergency and probably not on the list you just made

Not-Important & Not-Urgent – Stop scrolling your phone! 😊

               Once you have this done you are ready for the next step.

Determine Where to Purposely Procrastinate

               Rory Vaden’s book Procrastinate on Purpose introduced me to the idea of purposely procrastinating.  To apply this concept look at your important tasks and ask yourself:  do I need to do this or can someone else?  If it ultimately falls to you, then ask:  Do I need to do it now, or can I wait until later?  If the answer is now . . . do it!  If the answer is later, schedule the task on your calendar and do it then.

               This is a way to help you prioritize your time and lead yourself well.  If you want to dive deeper into this idea of prioritizing, check out my digital program, Prioritizing for Success, and use coupon code BLOG to get 75% off this resource.  Keep prioritizing and Lead Well!

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