Solutions most sought and frustrations most felt are being shared in my online survey for the needs of a more introverted person in business. One of the recurring themes out of 15 or so that came up in different ways revolved around – productivity.
One person asked it this way: I need to set better priorities. How do I do that when I am already pressed for time?
Start with being clear on your values. Values help you to focus and be clear about what is important to you. They can help you determine your priorities. I find most people aren’t clear on values. For example, my top three values are my health, my family, my authenticity or integrity. Recently I had a dilemma: my husband switched his birthday celebration from the actual day to two days before. I had committed to a women’s group event. But, I’m clear on my values. Can you guess what I did? I cancelled my reservation for the women’s event and I am going to celebrate with my husband. I don’t need to second-guess this. There are many lists online for you to get clear on your values if you haven’t done so: www.listofvalues.com/ is a good one with both a list and definitions. I suggest you first go through and choose your top 20 and then narrow things down to your top 10.
Values clarity will go a long way is securing a foundation for better priortization.
Next move to the time management category of priorities. A way to set better priorities is to identify your activities as to: URGENT – like due dates, projects, emergency and crisis. Things that are not on your calendar all the time but add to the greatest productivity. These things get done first. Then, go to: NOT URGENT – things that add to your quality of life like planning, preparation, scheduling, networking, relationship building. These activities would be next to do on your list. Then you have: URGENT BUT not IMPORTANT! Apparent emergencies, most are a phantom of #1 but usually not important. For example, (and I have not yet mastered this but am getting better!) checking email ALL day long. Say no to this. Check in just 2 or 3 times a day. Then there is what my coach last year called, BRAINWASHER ACTION. Watching tv, computer games, activity that make you think you are creating a quality of life but not really. These things would be last on your list. This 4 Way Productivity Approach is something that Stephen Covey talks about.
Another technique to be productive is called Focus Five. Set your top five priorities for EACH day. Not a long list like you might get in with the 4 Way Productivity Approach above, but just 5 priorities. They could be anything that can move you further ahead in just 30 to 90 minute chunks of time usually. You FOCUS on these until they are all done.
Try one of these approaches for 90 days, then try the other. Measure which one your best results are and go another 90 days with it. Some of us need to switch up tactics to set better priorities.
How do you set better priorities? There are many ideas floating around but – what works for you?