Mr. Achievement - Stanley F. Bronstein - Personal Development BlogPersonal Development Blog of the Founder of the Achievement IQ Movement and Creator of the Laws of Positioning

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. (Stephen R. Covey)

This is Part 1 of a 3 part series on Prioritizing. The other parts can be read by clicking on these links:

Priorities - Part 2 - Establishing Your OWN Priorities

Priorities - Part 3 - Sorting Out YOUR Priorities

Some Definitions

Key - Something that affords a means of clarifying a problem. Chief; major; important; essential; fundamental; pivotal component.

Prioritize (verb) - To organize or deal with something according to its right to be given special attention.

Schedule (noun) - A timetable. A plan of procedure, usually written, for a proposed objective, esp. with reference to the sequence of and time allotted for each item or operation necessary to its completion.

Schedule (verb) - To plan or appoint for a certain time or date.

Priorities (noun) - Something deserving of being given special attention.

Source: Dictionary.com

What’s The Difference Between A Priority And Prioritizing?

The difference is simple.

A priority is something that is deserving of being given special attention. In other words, a priority is something that needs to be done AND that is worthy of your attention.

Prioritizing is the act of assigning a priority level to a given thing and then arranging several different things in order of their priorities.

Using The Above Upside-Down Pyramid As A An Example

If you notice, Level 1 on the pyramid is at the bottom. It only contains a small amount of the area within the pyramid. Level 1 is for lower level activities; ones that are deserving of smaller amounts of your time and attention.

Level 2 has a slightly larger area than Level 1, but less than Levels 3, 4 or 5. Activities assigned to Level 2 deserve more time and attention than Level 1, but not as much as Levels 3, 4 and 5.

Level 3 deserves more time and attention than Levels 1 and 2, but less than Levels 4 and 5.

Level 4 deserves more time and attention than Levels 1,2 and 3, but less than Level 5.

Level 5 deserves more time and attention than any of the other levels. Also, since it is at the top of the pyramid, and since it deserves more time and attention than others, activities assigned to that level should almost never be at the mercy of lower level activities.

It Seems Pretty Simple, So What’s The Problem?

The main problems are when:

1. We allow our higher level activities to be at the mercy of the lower ones; and
2. When others force us to put off our most important activities in order to devote attention to theirs.

What To Do When WE Are The Problem?

Quite often, we can be our own worst enemy. By their very nature, the tasks on Levels 4 and 5 are often more complex in nature and require a lot of time and energy. Very often, they are not as much fun to work on as the activities in the lower levels.

HOWEVER, if you want to be a high achiever (an AIQer) and if you want to be successful in all areas of your life, you must learn to devote the proper amount of time and energy to these higher level activities.

How do you do that? By simply becoming aware that you are NOT devoting enough time and energy to your higher level activities, you have taken the first step towards solving the problem. Awareness that the problem exists will allow you to come up with your own solutions as to how to allocate your time and energy properly.

What To Do When Others Are The Problem?

Sometimes, this problem cannot be avoided.

If your boss asks you to do something, you probably need to get it done (unless you want to quit your job).

If your client asks you to do something, you probably need to get it done (unless you want to lose the client).

If your significant other asks you to do something, you probably need to get it done (unless you want to end the relationship).

HOWEVER, this does not mean that you are powerless. Quite often, you have the ability to calmly and rationally explain to the other party that if you drop what you are doing and devote time and energy to their project, something else is going to fall through the cracks. You can then go on to tell them how if that falls through the cracks, it will cause them other problems that they may not have anticipated.

BUT, sometimes you do need to walk away from the situation. I can recall many occasions when I have had to turn away a potential client because I knew that taking them on would require me to make their problems into my problems and that they probably were going to have a “bottomless pit” full of problems, all of which they would want me to solve. While that might be good for business, it’s not always good for your sanity.

Establishing Your Own Priorities

Stay tuned and we’ll talk about that process in tomorrow’s blog posting.