Setting Priorities in your Life.

We can stretch time in our lives by prioritising the order in which we accomplish things. If you routinely set priorities at work, learn to do this in your private life too.  The trick of priority is to establish the dividend or payoff for doing an activity rather than giving attention to stuff that seems urgent rather than important. By doing this you are working toward your higher goals, your long term aims rather than just ‘getting stuff out of your way’

So to achieve Priority you need a Goal.

Goals work best when they’re SMART:

Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Tangible.

Specific: A goal that is exact, distinct and clearly stated, has a greater chance of being accomplished because our brains need to focus on specific targets to achieve them; you can’t hit a target over there, somewhere… Avoid ‘but’ or ‘not’ and be positive to help create a well formed outcome.

To be specific set your long term goals with these in mind:

Who:      Who needs to be involved? Or who can I get involved to help?
What:     What do I want to accomplish?
Where:   Where will it happen?
When:    Establish a time; how far into the future?
Which:   Identify requirements, constraints and new skills you may need.
Why:      Why am I doing this? Be specific on your reasons, purpose and the benefits of your goal.

Measurable; How will you measure your progress toward your goal?  How much? How many? How will I know when I’ve done it? When you measure you stay on target and spur yourself on to continue the effort to reach your goal. Else, how do you know when the goal is completed?  When specifying the goal be clear to yourself about when it is done, how will you feel, what will you know, what will be different in your world? What might you have to leave behind?

Achievable; Your goal must be attainable, only you truly know your strengths and weaknesses. When you identify the goals important to you, you can then begin to figure out ways to make them happen, the attitudes, abilities, skills, or finances you need to develop to reach them. You may begin to see opportunities to bring yourself closer to your achievement, when you plan your steps and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may seem out of reach move closer, because you will grow to match them. As you develop your goals your self-image changes to become worthy of them and as you grow into the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

Realistic; your goal must be something that you are both willing and able to work toward. You are the only one who can decide just how realistic it is. If you truly believe that it can be done, then it can be. Be sure that every step you take towards your goal represents progress, build rewards into these steps and a structure to keep yourself motivated.

Tangible: Monitor your progress and allow yourself enough time to succeed. Break up a large goal into smaller steps and make these into goals themselves.  Work on your step goals or larger goals when you are working your best. Is this daytime, afternoon, nightime?

Tangible means when you experience with the senses, either taste, touch, smell, sight or hearing. When your goal is tangible you make it specific, measurable attainable, realistic and you’ll know when you’ve done it.

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Working on High Dividend Activities:

Once your long term goal is set; make a commitment to them.

Prioritise your day around high dividend activities and leave less important items for any time left over.

Find out the time of day you work best, ‘Night Owl’ or ‘Early Bird’ and use these peak times to your advantage.

Set deadlines and make them specific.

Divide your goal into smaller steps and time units, this way you get smaller but continuing successes, you can measure your progress and reward yourself to keep motivated. Stay focused by concentrating on results.

Get help from anybody you can, this may be surprising to you, but people are always willing to lend a hand if they know what they’re being asked and the why and how much commitment they are being asked for. 

Make your goals fun, it may be useful to have a goal of putting out the dustbin as it reminds you to get the job done, but when its raining?

Put on your raincoat, do a Gene Kelly, be a weathergirl, be your own butler, whatever. But don’t moan, it doesn’t inspire you to keep doing it, you’ll learn to hate it and then you’ll stop doing it. Until the smell builds up again…

Lower Dividend Activities:

Group these together and delegate, trade them or even pay someone else to do them.

Maybe even ignore them, some things that seem urgent can be ignored, try it and see, you’ll soon find out what can’t be ignored. Have certain times or days to return calls, have meetings or make appointments. This really works, if people know you are there only on certain days, times, they’ll call you then, because they know you’re there…sounds simple. It is.

Working out what you want is the starting point. Then break your life into manageable chunks, the small steps which are within your control, then prioritise these, get this right and your goals become reality.

Keep a written record of your goal, keep a log of how and why you wanted it. Then tick off any smaller steps achieved and to improve on what you’ve learnt about yourself on your journey.

Small steps;

Divide this into groups;

Start every week with a ‘To do’ list;

Must Do

Want to Do

Might Do

Before each, mark it; Urgent or Valued, as in things that must be done and some for fun. Then assign priorities, not in terms of urgency, but in terms of your short-term or long-term value.

Begin every day with a must-do item for your long-term or short-term goals.

And then begin to accomplish everything that you can be.

(c)neil benbow