This material is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical, psychological, or psychotherapeutic advice. If you are experiencing an acute psychological condition or need professional support, please contact a doctor, psychologist, psychotherapist, or crisis service.
We learn to set priorities
Why is it so difficult to learn to set priorities? The answer is simple: because we live in turmoil.
Our mind sometimes works much faster than life because we feel overwhelmed. We want to satisfy everyone, solve everything.
Therefore, when we close our eyes at night, we do it with the unpleasant feeling that the next day we will wake up with a huge list of things to do.
When it gets worse, anxiety and stress try to take over. Everything becomes so confused and destroyed that every primary goal is completely blurred.
Learning to prioritize means, first of all, minimizing. We need to learn to save our efforts in order to direct them to a certain goal.
This is something we can only achieve by carrying a relaxed mind that knows how to focus its attention on what is important.
All this leads us to a specific conclusion. Maximizing our time and our priorities cannot be achieved without one simple tool. It is not enough to make a classic list of "key goals".
The ability to prioritize time goes hand in hand with personal development. This means developing a more focused mind capable of identifying opportunities.
It means using emotions to our advantage to drive motivation.
This requires something important: courage and leadership skills. It is with this that we decide what suits us in each moment and what is better left aside.
Clarify the goal, reduce complexity, set priorities
A person who doubts the clarification of his priorities will find that gradually the priorities of others become his own.
Without a clear definition of our own goals that motivate us each day, we will end up believing that the goals of others are more important. This is not just a real problem, but a means of destroying our self-esteem.
So, let's see what steps we need to take to start growing in this area of personal development.
If you don't clarify your goal, someone else will
If we want to learn how to set priorities, the first step should be nothing less than clarifying our purpose. To do this, we cannot simply ask ourselves what is most important to us. Because, probably, at this moment, a monumental meaning appears - family, health, financial well-being.
We must look deeper. Let's ask ourselves the following:
- What do I love in my life?
- What am I passionate about?
- Where would I like to see myself in 5 years?
- What really defines me?
Leave everything behind
Prioritizing means choosing between several things and sticking with one. This means choosing one goal from a list of tasks. Moreover, it is something that is often more difficult: it is very important to learn to prioritize and leave things and people behind.
We should prepare well for this. Because prioritization sometimes involves costs, it will lead to happiness, stronger self-esteem and the achievement of our main goal.
Reduced complexity
Complexity inhabits our minds and our lives. When we suffer from anxiety, our priorities become blurred, our present becomes confused, our thoughts, anxieties and fears get mixed up. Complexity dominates us and distances us from our true priorities.
Importantly! One of the powerful ways to solve this problem is to work daily on balance, internal and external. Practices like mindfulness can help us relax our minds. At the same time, as far as our external daily life is concerned, there is nothing better than the application of the so-called minimalism.
This life philosophy is based on a firm mantra: "Determine what is important and eliminate everything else." It means taking a step down that path to a lifestyle where we place value on what inspires us, what makes us feel good, what enriches us emotionally. Everything else is considered superfluous...
If we want to learn to prioritize, we must be able to create a more conscious reality. At the same time, we must have a clear goal. Only in this way will we be able to pave our own path, knowing how to decide what suits us at each moment, and which direction is the most suitable.
How to set priorities in life and work: tips
A person has a certain goal and strives to achieve success, but one should be able to prioritize the most important. We will tell you how to do it below
We reveal the essence of priorities
Often people find themselves in situations where they cannot cope with the planned affairs. They are always in a hurry, get annoyed with others and do not understand how others manage everything.
And this applies not only to everyday life - there are situations when people are happy in their family life, but they are not satisfied with their social status or income level, so there is an incorrect distribution of benefits between values.
Priorities in life can be intangible things that play a role at a specific time, and thanks to them the desired result is achieved.
For example, you have a choice: stay at your job with a lower salary, but have more free time, or go for a promotion, work more and get a good income.
If the advantage is on the side of material benefit, then the priority will be a change of job.
Setting goals is a simple task. However, it can be difficult to correctly define what is necessary. There are folk rules for determining priorities that help in difficult situations to step forward. Experts are somewhat skeptical about them. The fact of their existence does not allow us to bypass these councils.
- It is recommended to do what first catches your eye. When going to work, don't plan too much. Arriving at the workplace, do what became your goal in the first minute. This method is called the target method.
- Don't be surprised when you are told that the most annoying things should be out of the queue. According to the squeaky wheel method, what matters is what you least want to do.
- When deadlines are burning, time is long overdue, the ability to set priorities is determined by the method of a fried rooster. In this case, you need to pay attention to what is overdue, and you can no longer postpone this matter.
- One of the most pleasant is the lazy man's method. This is when preference in work is given to what is not stressful, but brings pleasure. More serious tasks are postponed for later.
The listed methods can be used both in private and in the working sphere of life.
How to focus on the goal and find your direction
There are many tips for making plans and organizing time properly. If you listen to the effectiveness of each of them, you can say that success is achieved extremely easily. However, in practice, everything is much more complicated. Therefore, we have prepared a description of several methods so that you can choose the best one for yourself.
- We recommend first assessing the real state of affairs. Try to set yourself goals and don't be afraid to plan more than you can do. Such a situation will always keep you on your toes.
- The prioritization method for assessing the current state of tasks is effective in that you will be able to understand at what stage of development your life is right now. The essence of the method is to verbally analyze or describe what is happening right now. Try to look at your life from the outside. Highlight positive and negative states and make adjustments.
- Use the wishful thinking rule after a year. Try to imagine your life in 365 days. Plan your actions, think about how you achieved your goals. Appreciate everything that got you there. Try to distance yourself from reality, and imaginary experience will help you understand whether your strategy is working or contains errors. Then you can decide if you are moving in the right direction or if you need to choose other options for success.
- Using "Reverse Thinking", you can understand the importance of tasks, thanks to the to-do list. To do this, you need to work with a board of desires, on which you should write the main goals. Repel from the opposite, that is, why you achieve something, what is the meaning of it. This will allow you to determine the main things.
Working with a wish board is useful because it collects all plans in one place, and a person thus immediately understands what he wants.
Fundamentals of prioritization
When making plans for your personal life or trying to implement important work projects, you must always set goals correctly. In order to understand what we are doing right and what is wrong, we need to decide how to set priorities in life. The basis of such work will be the criteria that determine the course of our lives.
You can use the achievements of others or create your own standards. In the last option, it is important that the reference points are recognized and respected by experts or people close to us.
You also need to develop criteria in your personal life. For example, to decide how best to spend your free time, to understand what is rest, and what is just masking an additional load for it.
Develop principles by which you can learn the immediate environment. Then you will not have to communicate with unnecessary people.
Simplify your task by grouping work priorities according to the following criteria:
1. Necessary
2. Preferably
3. Maybe
The first group will include everything that you cannot do without. If it is related to work, then it should bring you the desired income. Is it personal life? Then decide what you cannot do without in this area. For example, it can be maintaining good relations with loved ones.
The second group is everything related to your pleasure. Thus, you will not always benefit, but the moral aspect of the matter will bring results.
The third is what you are indifferent to.
Consideration of effective methods
Thanks to Dwight Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States of America, the world received a way of setting priorities that helps define goals and direct time in the right direction. Using the Eisenhower matrix, we group our cases into four types.
First, we divide the sheet into 4 parts with two arrows. In the upper part, we will have urgent cases, and in the lower part - non-urgent ones. On the right are important, and on the left - unimportant.
Combining all, we get the following:
- Important and urgent matters. This usually includes all deadlines, the work that brings the most income is our priority. Experts advise not to overload the first segment with more than 1-2 tasks, so you need to approach structuring very realistically. This includes, for example, important business meetings, and on a personal level, a trip to the doctor in case of acute pain.
- The second group is occupied by unimportant but urgent matters. This is usually something that appears out of the blue and requires immediate action. However, it does not carry much value. Let's say you need to send congratulations to colleagues on the occasion of a professional holiday. As for private life, it is necessary to correct mistakes related to the placement of priorities as early as possible so as not to offend your loved ones.
- The next segment is important but not urgent. Work to which you need to treat responsibly, but the terms of its execution are not critical. This includes setting up business meeting contacts, reading important literature, learning languages, etc.
- The last type — unimportant and non-urgent affairs — can include conversations with friends, leisure activities, etc. This group is lazy people who exist to "kill time".
An interesting method of setting goals is the ABCDE method. It helps to understand what priorities are in life.
To do this, create a list and assign cases to the following categories, where:
A is the most important work, mandatory. If these things are not done, serious consequences should be expected.
B is important work, but without serious consequences.
Z is what you want to do. Failure to do things in this group will bring certain consequences, but they will not be significant.
D — this includes tasks that can be postponed or delegated to someone else.
E — refer to this type of things that cannot be excluded and should not be spent at all, if possible, at this time.
The essence of success is to be able to limit oneself in the bad in order to achieve effectiveness in more necessary things. The principle of the pyramid of priorities according to this theory is based on determining the degree of importance of tasks / affairs.
To draw an analogy, you can use the example of a bottle neck, that is, a narrow passage that prevents the effective implementation of work.
In the case of a pyramid, the priority should be determined as follows: how much the control procedure can affect the achievement of the final result.
Using the Pareto method, you need to divide cases in the proportion of 20% by 80%. According to this system, 20 percent of the effort made brings 80 percent of success. And vice versa: 80 percent of work brings only 20 percent of efficiency. Therefore, you need to include what you think is most important in the 20% and focus on execution. And up to 80% should be attributed to minor matters.
According to the GTD system, in order to plan one's own efficiency, it is necessary to involve additional devices and systems, for example, to delegate tasks.
To do this, make lists and be sure to complete tasks yourself or with the help of other people, while specifying deadlines for completion. It is best to use web notes for this.
The main thing is to complete everything on time, make a schedule for the day and rest at other times.
Another method is the business game "Forced Prioritization". For this you will need from 3 to 10 participants.
Its essence is that, using lists of tasks and criteria for assessing the importance of each, the group should arrive at a single list of priorities. With this game, you judge each stage and each action against the others.
In the end, you compile a list by rating and discuss the result with each participant.
We plan the day correctly
According to the recommendations of specialists, the day should be divided into three stages — to allocate urgent, medium and not urgent matters. Try to do all the important work in the first half of the day and don't put things off until later.
An important prerequisite for success is the analysis of completed tasks. Make lists, group them by importance and evaluate the work done.
In order to say that there is no non-priority task, it is worth highlighting important matters among unimportant ones. Do not be afraid to refuse to do the work that will not bring benefits. Then you can focus on the main thing.
Create a reminder to yourself that unimportant matters do not concern you. Make it a rule to say "no" to unnecessary responsibilities for at least one month - then this habit will become established.
Assistive technology in time management
ClearFocus is suitable for applications on the Android operating system. It helps to control your time and allocate it to the performance of important tasks.
Pomotodo — an application by Chinese developers for both IOS and Android. The principle of operation is similar to the first service. Includes a 25-minute work timer and a 5-minute rest timer. Performance graphs in the application will help you track your progress.
Any.do - to-do list for Android in Google Play. The application also includes a system of reminders about scheduled tasks and a special calendar.
With the help of TickTick, everyone will be able to make lists with tasks of different priorities. You can mark the completion of tasks, add new ones and switch lists.
The Pomodoro Technique is a special program that divides time into certain segments. For example, half an hour is divided into 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of rest. Before work or study, write a to-do list and strictly follow the "tomato" segment. After you complete one task, take a break of 15-30 minutes and then start performing the next tasks according to the scheme of 25 + 5 minutes.
Examples about which practice tells
A well-known method of prioritization is the "20% Rule" in Google. According to it, each employee was allowed to devote 20 percent of his working time to other projects that are not related to the main place of work. Thus, one working day per week was free from work.
The "Rule of 10%", or "The Law of the Energy Pyramid" says that only a part of the energy received by a certain person is passed on, namely 10%.
Can this rule help in setting priorities? Yes, most people answer positively to this question. Just remember that 10% of your working time should be devoted to your non-working activities.
Here it becomes clear why the "20% rule" and the "10% rule" are similar.
In real life, there are many ways to set priorities. However, each person must choose individual ways of organizing his life. Therefore, it is worth adding your own methods to the borrowed experience, which will be effective both in work matters and in personal ones.
The concept of "life priorities" is closer to the field of psychology and philosophy than to time management. But they certainly have points of contact.
Life priorities are a universal category that reflects the importance for a person of certain spheres or key areas of his life. Why universal? Because the spheres of life are known and have the same meaning for many people.
The main spheres of human life
4 main areas can be distinguished: image, family, love, work. Spheres of life, they are supports, resources — sources of strength and energy. Such an understanding of the spheres of life gives a lot of advantages for the development and disclosure of all the possibilities inherent in a person. Developing this or that sphere of life, you can draw energy, inspiration, and motivation from it for the development of other spheres.
Family: personal relationships, children, relatives
Job: profession, skills, colleagues, career
Study: professional education, self-development
Hobbies / free time: hobbies, interests, travel
Health: healthy lifestyle, health methods and systems
Friends / society: close friends, acquaintances, neighbors, like-minded people
Image: your external expression, your body, facial expressions, gait, style.
What affects the setting of priorities in life?
Age. For young people, in descending order, the priority areas of life will be studies, career, friends, family, hobbies, health.
For older people, the sequence is likely to be: health, family, leisure, friends.
Some areas of life can disappear from the field of view if they lose their significance for a person.
Life events. For example, the birth of a child will certainly affect the lifestyle of new parents. For a mother during her maternity leave, care for the child will be a priority, work and career will take a back seat.
Problems in any area of life. For example, while there are no problems, health is not a priority area of life for most people. As soon as health problems appear, this area of life becomes the main one. How much depends on the nature and duration of the disease.
Problems at work will make it a priority for this period of time. Also with studies - the time of the session changes the priorities characteristic of a carefree student life "from session to session".
As you can see, spheres of life are a moving, dynamic system in which events can occur that change the degree of importance of one or another sphere for a particular person.
It must be understood that such changes occur at the surface level and are usually temporary in nature.
Thus, after the birth of a child, women with a high priority in the field of "work / career" quickly return to work and continue their career growth.
The inner "core" of priorities, if they are correctly defined, remains unchanged for a very long time.