4 Easy Ways To Set Your Priority Right!

The word priority is one not too strange to a common Nigerian man. It cuts across all age bracket and spheres of life. Safely used but poorly implemented. Why? Most people have failed to recognise true meaning of this word. We are going to play around the definition before going through its relevance to today's lesson. 

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, priority can be something that is more important than other things and that needs to be done or dealt with first. This simply means putting your cart before the horse. Placing a bigger weight and absolute attention to more important things at a particular time. Priority can also be a special love for something, The things that someone cares about and thinks are important: the condition of being more important than something or someone else and therefore coming or being dealt with first.

Now from the above definitions, it's obviously stated that anything that is conditionally important than others, and of course you care more about is what should attract the word priority. Any short of these attributes should fall outside the scope of the word.

Having driven that home, I would like to ask, have you ever found yourself in a position where implementing priority is of utmost importance? How did you to react? Did you bring the less meaningful tasks forward just for self-satisfaction and pushed the more important ones into obscurity? How did it turn out? A great success or a blatant failure?

I'll let the answers rest on the table of your heart. 

Setting your priorities straight isn't down to any external factor but you. Most of us blame unforeseen factors - time being the biggest culprit - whenever we are unable to meet up with our class schedules, daily plans or personal goals. Even if time per day is extended from 24hrs to 48hrs, people will still find it hard to finish up daily tasks on time. They will make sure they choke up the extended time so much that there won't be a chance for the importance things to breathe talk less survive.

Stephen R.  Covey, a renowned American Educator famously said, "Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important."

How then can you set your priorities straight and create enough time for important things?

In setting priorities, some things must be kept in check and stuck with no matter what.

1. Create a daily/weekly To-do list

 A To-do is a list of tasks that need to be completed, typically organised in order of priority. Your list must cover your major activities for the day with the most important one coming first. Creating a to-do list is not difficult. Just note down your task for the day, apportion a time frame for each task and a checklist box once each task is completed. Now there's a rule guiding to-do list. Every task must be completed -the most important ones especially -. The less relevant task mustn't be brought forward before the relevant ones no matter the level of urgency. Like I quoted above, handling urgent matters over issues earlier established hurts the chance of successfully seeing off a to-do list.

2. Work with a scale of preference

Hey, remember these fancy words we played with in secondary school? Apparently, they' are very helpful if well utilized. Don't get it wrong. This isn't an Economics class. But we're going to borrow this term. A scale of preference is defined as the list of unsatisfied wants arranged in the order of their relative importance. Key words being unsatisfied wants and importance. Any of your wants that do not measure up to a certain degree of importance shouldn't be given much attention no matter how fancy it looks. Carefully look at the long-term value (not immediate) you would get by putting a want above the rest.

Case study: I want to buy a new phone and I also want to do course in statistics. A nice android phone costs ₦25,000 - ₦45,000 (going by the wobbly exchange rate) while the course would cost ₦50,000. Which would be of immediate value to you?  Maybe the phone. But would it yield benefits on a long run?  Maybe not. The course obviously would give more long term value than the phone. Likewise, we should learn to implement this in similar case scenarios in our lives.

3. Diligence

Diligence is a constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken -clearly stated on your to-do list in order of priority -; persistent exertion of body or mind. It's just not enough to note your tasks down, accomplishing every thing on your list is the key. With diligence comes discipline. Be dogged in your approach to daunting task. Every task has an expiry date as applied on your To-do list so conservatively apply appropriate dose of diligence to each task and this would help you see them out in no time. Do not only work smart, but work hard. With diligence, the sky is your starting point. 

4. Time 

To be able to sustain your priorities, you have to learn how to manage time. Time and tide wait for no man. Ensure every activity your carry out on daily basis is meaningful and rewarding. Every second spent wastefully can never be recovered.

For more on time management,  please read here TIME – The Essence of Fructuous Living

"Know your priorities and identify the action steps you need to move your initiative forward each day. If you go to a tree with an axe and take five whacks at the tree every day. It doesn't matter if it's an oak or redwood tree; eventually, the tree has to fall down" - Jack Canfield