{"id":4566,"date":"2019-01-01T09:31:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T16:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2019-01-01T09:31:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T16:31:22","slug":"its-the-new-year-and-lets-forget-goals-ask-what-your-priorities-are-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/its-the-new-year-and-lets-forget-goals-ask-what-your-priorities-are-instead\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the New Year and let\u2019s Forget Goals\u2014Ask What Your Priorities Are Instead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s the start of the new year, and I am asking you what\nyour priorities are. Notice that I did not ask what your goals <\/em>are. Why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, there is nothing wrong with setting goals for the new\nyear. But nearly everyone<\/em> suggests setting\ngoals and I am sure you\u2019ve gotten that message by now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And really, I think what most people need to do at the start of the year is to learn how to set priorities<\/em> effectively. There is no point in setting goals if you cannot execute those goals throughout the year by effectively setting and managing your priorities\u2014you need to start there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Focus on\nPriorities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Priorities refer to shorter term, more tactical activities,\ncompared to goals. They often refer to tasks<\/em>\nand small projects. If you keep a to-do list, your higher priorities are what\u2019s\nat the top of that list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is, even with a to-do list, most people fail at\nprioritizing their activities and instead spin their wheels. Too many people\nspend day after day, month after month, consistently focused on various small\nstuff\u2014stuff that keeps them feeling<\/em> busy<\/em> but not moving ahead<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Problem with\nPriorities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem with setting priorities is in answering the\nfollowing question: on what basis does a to-do list item get a high priority?\nMost people say that things that are important<\/em>\nshould get a high priority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay fine. But, what\u2019s important?<\/em>\nWell, that\u2019s where the problem starts. There are a hundred different ways to\nmeasure importance. It can be based on urgency, it can be based on financial matters,\nit can be family, it can be career, it can be what your boss wants, and so on.\nThere are many, many dimensions<\/em> of\nimportance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And unfortunately, almost any<\/em> task can have one of those dimensions used as a justification\nfor making it important. Which is why after only a few weeks or months of using\nan unregulated to-do list, it seems like everything<\/em>\nends up in the High section of that list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What should you do? I recommend the following. In your to-do\nlist, focus almost exclusively on urgency.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Urgency? Really?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now wait. Most self-appointed time management gurus state\nthat urgency is exactly what you should NOT prioritize with. They say if you do\nthat your day will be spent fighting fires all day and you\u2019ll never get to\nlonger-term priorities. And there is some truth to that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the thing. It\u2019s because you don\u2019t have a formula<\/em> for dealing with urgency<\/em> that unregulated urgency derails your\ndays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, my solution is to do this: address urgency head on, first\nthing. Get it under control. And then<\/em>\ntake a step back, and from a calmer perch address your important things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key distinction is this: getting urgency under control is\nvery different from focusing only on urgent items all day. Those are two\ncompletely separate and distinct things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trick is to Manage<\/em> Urgent Items<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is what I mean by that. If you scan your issues for the\nday or week\u2014your problems, your regrets, your missed opportunities, your complaining\ncustomers or bosses, then, yes, everything will look urgent. You\u2019ll likely have\ntens or hundreds of items that seem to need urgent attention. That list will\nalways be long, and it will always be there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here is the trick. Pick only 5 of them, no more. List those\n5 and only<\/em> those 5 at the top of your\nlist and commit to doing them today. I know you have way more than 5 urgent\nitems on your mind but pick the 5 most<\/em>\nurgent and put only<\/em> them in the top-most\nposition. That\u2019s the key, you are not committing yourself to a day full of\nfire-fighting, rather only committing to a short list. And guess what? That opens\nyour time to more thoughtful and core-important activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So do that\u2014pick only 5. Then below those 5 in a new section\non your to-do list, list the 20 things you\u2019d like to get to today, or this week, or next<\/em>. Be sure to list a\nnumber of your important items there so that you can address them calmly, once\nthe 5 urgent things are managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then below that section create a space to list the very large\nnumber of things you\u2019d like to get to eventually, when the above lists are done\nor become less urgent. Store things there for later reconsideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bite-Sized Action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously those 5 urgent things at the top should be bite-sized,\naction-oriented things that are doable in a relatively quick sitting each. So\ninstead of recording \u201cWrite the Great American Novel\u201d do this: list the next step<\/em> for that, like: \u201cPick my topic\nfor my Great American Novel.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again. 5 maximum urgent items for today. 20 at the next\nlevel. And unlimited at the third level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is your priority list for today. And here is the\namazing and stupendous outcome: You now have urgency under control, because you\u2019ve made a decision to limit your fire-drill\nactivities to 5<\/em>. It\u2019s likely those 5 items will not take all day, and now\nyour day is largely open for important but less urgent work\u2014work that you can now\ndo in a more thoughtful way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power and Clarity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s amazing how much power and clarity you can gain when\nyou make a firm decision like this. You see, the feeling of being overwhelmed\nis just a feeling. It\u2019s one that you can allow or not allow based on how you\nmanage your day. And the above method gives you a firm way to manage your day,\nevery day. Just refresh the top part of that list each day, and throughout the\nday, and be firm with your 5-item urgent list. If you do that every day, I\npromise, the rest of your year will be successful and will have an amazingly\ncalm demeanor to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And by the way, the approach I just showed above is the core\nprioritization approach that I use in both my One Minute To-Do List (1MTD)<\/em> system, and my Master Your Now (MYN)<\/em> system. There are more details of course, and\nI encourage you to take\na bit more study<\/a>, but that\u2019s essentially it, that\u2019s how both systems work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, start your year with a good manageable list of\npriorities, and celebrate the control you finally have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the year!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael <\/p>\n\n\n\n


PS: I dismissed setting goals at the start of this article, but goals are still important, you just need to do them right. If you want to learn more about my<\/em> recommended way to set and achieve goals, check out my book Master Your Workday Now<\/a><\/em>. That book shows goal-setting methods significantly different from how others do it, and they really work!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the start of the new year, and I am asking you what your priorities are. Notice that I did not ask what your goals are. Why not? Well, there is nothing wrong with setting goals for the new year. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4568,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions\/4568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michaellinenberger.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}