Balancing Multiple Priorities

One of the biggest challenges for every professional is how to know whether you are working on the things that matter most. It’s easy to stay busy all day and into the night without accomplishing anything.

If you are working hard but not seeing progress, it may be that you are working on the wrong things. One way to manage your productivity is to manage your priorities.

First thing Monday morning, make a list of your top five priorities for the week and post it somewhere that you’ll be able to see it. Throughout the day, check yourself by looking to see whether the thing you are working on fits into one of those priorities. If not, why are you doing it?

When the phone rings, you have to answer it. When someone sends you an email, you have to respond. But the amount of time you devote to that phone conversation or email may be reduced if you are consciously aware that it isn’t related to this week’s priorities.

At the end of the day on Monday, review your list. Did you complete something? Did something else come up that is now a higher priority than the items on the list? Write a new list for Tuesday, even if it contains all the same items as Monday’s list.

You will be amazed at how the simple act of writing your list helps focus your attention. Writing the same item down day after day will force you to remember it — and act on it.

If the same task appears on your list for more than a few days and you don’t find time to get it done, ask yourself if it is really a priority. Is it important? Or is it one of those things that you think you should care about, but don’t? Is your failure to complete it hindering your progress in another area? If not, take it off the list and stop feeling guilty about neglecting it.

Prioritization (and re-prioritization) clears your mind and enables increased productivity.

Original author: Christine Lambden. Reprinted with permission.