Seven Proven Tips for Prioritizing
Do you know what it takes to prioritize?
Prioritizing things in life isn't the easiest thing to do. It takes careful thinking.
And it takes time.
When our schedules become loaded with deadlines and responsibilities, it’s completely natural to just want to keep chugging along.
But without taking time to take a step back and really make sure that we are focusing on the right things, we may not be serving our organization—or ourselves.
What brings the most value to your organization? Is it your effort, your leadership, your communication skills?
If you have trouble understanding what brings value to your organization, you may want to consider some tips for prioritizing that can help you better serve your organization.
Sometimes, we can become so focused on catching up with our workload, that we begin to forget the starting point for every single day.
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey
Scheduling priorities is an ongoing activity that takes effort and focus. Here are seven proven tips for prioritizing to help keep you on track.
Seven Tips for Prioritizing
- Go over your priorities at the start of each day.
The way a leader prioritizes says a lot about their leadership style, and the first step to ensuring you are doing it the right way is by reviewing your priorities at the beginning of each day.
This is one of the most important things you can do before you start your day. The best leaders understand this, and if you want to get a good hold of your organization, you should too.
Going over your priorities will keep you focused and calm.
Make this a habit, and you will notice the difference it makes (and if you want to learn more about how habits can help you grow as a leader, read this blog post).
Turn your attention to what is most important, and you will carry that confidence with you throughout the whole day.
- Concentrate on things only you can do.
None of us have time to take care of everything that crosses our desk.
In fact, there may be someone else better suited to the task.
If you delegate things that can be done by others, you can concentrate on the unique skills and talents you bring to the organization.
- Do what brings the most value to the organization.
In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John C. Maxwell teaches the Pareto Principle.
The Pareto Principle is a handy way to check your priorities.
The idea is simple: focus your activities on the 20 percent that is most important and you will get an 80 percent return on your effort.
- Make the most of your areas of strength.
We all have passions. These are the things we enjoy doing—and do well.
Our passions are the best parts of ourselves that we can offer to the world. It only makes sense to rank these as priorities.
Prioritize your strengths and take advantage of them. This will help bring the most value to your organization. You can learn more about how to bring value to your organization through our various different coaching programs.
- Say no to activities that do not align with your priorities.
To be a good leader, you have to know when to say no.
In fact, an essential part of prioritizing is the ability to say no.
When you’re clear about the activities that add value, as well as the strengths you bring to your organization, it is easy to see when something isn’t aligned with your priorities.
- Share your priorities with the team on a regular basis.
The priorities we set affect others.
As a leader, the priorities you set will have a direct effect on your team.
So make a point of regularly sharing your priorities with your team and encouraging them to share theirs. It will also empower them.
Work together for higher goals. This will improve your influence and impact on your team (to find out how else you can have a positive impact on your team, consider taking one of our Mastermind Training Programs).
- Track how you use your time.
We all have goals, and we all like to think that we’re working according to our priorities, but the only way to be sure is to keep track of how you use your time.
Sometimes this points to areas where you may want to spend more time. Other times it points to areas where you need to back off.
Tracking how you use your time will help you become more efficient. It will also help you reach your full potential by giving you the freedom to focus on the most important aspects of your business. If you want to learn more about how to reach your full potential, check out this blog post.
Remember: setting priorities is a cycle that repeats itself every single day.
Think of it as vision in action. It’s where what we hope to achieve falls into our hands and we are responsible for getting the work done.
As leaders, our job is to think ahead, know what’s important, and see how everything relates to the overall vision. John C. Maxwell calls this The Law of Priorities. You can learn more by reading that chapter in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership.
The best is yet to come. It starts with you.
Your friends,
