Prioritizing Your Priorities
28 January 2015
Read by 2355 persons
I know several people who use paper planners and like to check off the activities they have accomplished during the day. As for me, I even write down in my electronic planner the activities that occupied me during the day, even if I hadn't planned them. Why write them down now that they're over, you might ask? It's a way of experiencing a sense of satisfaction from having been busy.
Psychologists agree that checking off items on a list helps release endorphins in our brain and helps us feel good. However, this is only a false sense of contentment. Indeed, in our society, we tend to overvalue the quantity of work and the increase in activities to the detriment of the quality of work done or more intensely experienced activities. Moreover, in business, the more intelligent we are, the less hard we have to work, and the more productive we are. Personally, my maternal grandfather worked hard all his life and unfortunately died penniless.
It is therefore not so much the quantity of work that counts, but much more the quality.
At the end of a day, for example, most people will have checked off eight out of ten activities, and will say: "Wow! I was busy today, I'm proud of myself!" And yet, these two activities left undone were by far the two most important on their list. Why didn't they accomplish them? It's simply because they weren't urgent. It would be better, when planning your weeks, to determine the activities that bring in more and plan to do them first.
At the beginning of the day, make the decision to always prioritize your most important activities rather than wanting to deal with the most urgent.
Keep in mind that just because a task seems urgent doesn't mean it's necessarily important. Moreover, to avoid falling into this trap, you should simultaneously consider not only the urgency of the issue, but above all its importance. This is what I mean by "prioritizing your priorities." It simply means defining what is most important to you, in relation to achieving your goals, and doing those activities first. Certainly, if you don't act this way, these activities will not be accomplished. Why? Because they are not urgent, you can always postpone them.
Your goal should be to eliminate or delegate any activity that does not directly contribute to achieving your goals.
When planning, determine your most rewarding activities and plan to do these activities first in your schedule. Not putting your priorities in order gives us the impression that there is a gap between what we do and what we really want to achieve. We then feel extremely busy without accomplishing anything truly significant.
Here is a nice metaphor to illustrate this point:
After filling a large transparent vase with large stones, an old professor asked his students if they thought his vase was full. His students all answered yes in unison, convinced that no other stone could fit in the vase. The professor replied: "Is that really what you think?" In two shakes of a lamb's tail, he took out a bag full of small pebbles which he poured into the vase. These small rocks nestled into all the spaces between the large stones until his vase was full. Then, he asked his students again: "And now, do you believe that my vase is full?" The students were now hesitant to answer yes. Fortunately for them, because they would have been wrong again. Immediately, the old professor took a bag of sand from under the table and poured it into the same vase. The sand also made its way between the large stones and pebbles, until it was full. He then asked the question of the moment: "And now, do you believe that my vase is finally full?" And all the students cried out: "No, no, you can still add water!" Indeed, the professor hastened to take out a pitcher of water from under the table and poured the water into his vase until it was filled to the brim. Once again, he asked his students the same question as to whether his vase was finally full. His vase was finally completely saturated, nothing more could go in. He then raised the question that I also ask you: "What lesson should we learn from all this? What does it mean?"
As the old professor then explained, this analogy simply aims to make us understand first and foremost that this space inside the vase represents the time we have in a week; the large stones represent the priority activities in our lives, and that the pebbles, sand and water express activities of lesser importance. The purpose of the exercise was to make his students understand that if they wanted to do the activities that are priorities for them: family, relationships with friends, education, leisure, health, vacations, contribution, etc., they had to put them first in their vase, or if you prefer, in their lives. Otherwise, what could happen? They will never really be able to integrate themselves.
If we put the small pebbles, the sand and the water first, what could happen? The large stones will never be able to carve out a place for themselves. Prioritizing your priorities simply means establishing what matters most to us and planning to do these activities first in our schedule.
Patrick Leroux.
Lasolutionestenvous.com
Posted online January 28, 2015.
Psychologists agree that checking off items on a list helps release endorphins in our brain and helps us feel good. However, this is only a false sense of contentment. Indeed, in our society, we tend to overvalue the quantity of work and the increase in activities to the detriment of the quality of work done or more intensely experienced activities. Moreover, in business, the more intelligent we are, the less hard we have to work, and the more productive we are. Personally, my maternal grandfather worked hard all his life and unfortunately died penniless.
It is therefore not so much the quantity of work that counts, but much more the quality.
At the end of a day, for example, most people will have checked off eight out of ten activities, and will say: "Wow! I was busy today, I'm proud of myself!" And yet, these two activities left undone were by far the two most important on their list. Why didn't they accomplish them? It's simply because they weren't urgent. It would be better, when planning your weeks, to determine the activities that bring in more and plan to do them first.
At the beginning of the day, make the decision to always prioritize your most important activities rather than wanting to deal with the most urgent.
Keep in mind that just because a task seems urgent doesn't mean it's necessarily important. Moreover, to avoid falling into this trap, you should simultaneously consider not only the urgency of the issue, but above all its importance. This is what I mean by "prioritizing your priorities." It simply means defining what is most important to you, in relation to achieving your goals, and doing those activities first. Certainly, if you don't act this way, these activities will not be accomplished. Why? Because they are not urgent, you can always postpone them.
Your goal should be to eliminate or delegate any activity that does not directly contribute to achieving your goals.
When planning, determine your most rewarding activities and plan to do these activities first in your schedule. Not putting your priorities in order gives us the impression that there is a gap between what we do and what we really want to achieve. We then feel extremely busy without accomplishing anything truly significant.
Here is a nice metaphor to illustrate this point:
After filling a large transparent vase with large stones, an old professor asked his students if they thought his vase was full. His students all answered yes in unison, convinced that no other stone could fit in the vase. The professor replied: "Is that really what you think?" In two shakes of a lamb's tail, he took out a bag full of small pebbles which he poured into the vase. These small rocks nestled into all the spaces between the large stones until his vase was full. Then, he asked his students again: "And now, do you believe that my vase is full?" The students were now hesitant to answer yes. Fortunately for them, because they would have been wrong again. Immediately, the old professor took a bag of sand from under the table and poured it into the same vase. The sand also made its way between the large stones and pebbles, until it was full. He then asked the question of the moment: "And now, do you believe that my vase is finally full?" And all the students cried out: "No, no, you can still add water!" Indeed, the professor hastened to take out a pitcher of water from under the table and poured the water into his vase until it was filled to the brim. Once again, he asked his students the same question as to whether his vase was finally full. His vase was finally completely saturated, nothing more could go in. He then raised the question that I also ask you: "What lesson should we learn from all this? What does it mean?"
As the old professor then explained, this analogy simply aims to make us understand first and foremost that this space inside the vase represents the time we have in a week; the large stones represent the priority activities in our lives, and that the pebbles, sand and water express activities of lesser importance. The purpose of the exercise was to make his students understand that if they wanted to do the activities that are priorities for them: family, relationships with friends, education, leisure, health, vacations, contribution, etc., they had to put them first in their vase, or if you prefer, in their lives. Otherwise, what could happen? They will never really be able to integrate themselves.
If we put the small pebbles, the sand and the water first, what could happen? The large stones will never be able to carve out a place for themselves. Prioritizing your priorities simply means establishing what matters most to us and planning to do these activities first in our schedule.
Patrick Leroux.
Lasolutionestenvous.com
Posted online January 28, 2015.
