Choosing Your Priorites

Part of what makes people successful is the ability to choose their priorities.

In the last two posts we've looked at creating Master and Daily Lists as a way of helping one to become more productive with their time.

Part of that process includes choosing which items to make your priorities for the day.

Some things will need to be on those lists because they just need to be done that day. Certain projects with deadlines, appointments that have been scheduled, and so on.

But it can be very easy to fill up a day with things that seem to be important when perhaps they're really not. Sometimes it's worth the time now and again to take a good look at what you are doing and why. Are all these things really necessary? Do they help to move you forward to the goals and dreams you have for your life?

Sometimes there are things that need to be deleted from your lists. Sometimes you need to learn to say NO to yourself and to others.

The best way to plan your Daily List is by being clear about your own Goals & Dreams (see next post).

The Daily List

In the last post we looked at creating a weekly Master List. So now what do you do with this Master List?

From your Master List you now create your Daily Lists.

Daily lists can take whatever form best suits you. I happen to like a physical list, so I have a daily planner I write in. It could be a notebook or a computer program or app or whatever works best for you.

Doing your Daily List is usually best done at the end of the day (or work day) before. That way you still have the day fresh in your mind and know what needs to be done the next day.

So at the end of the day, check through your master list and choose 2-3 high priority items to schedule in for the next day. Then choose several other items that would be good to get done as well. Don't overfill your Daily List so that you just get yourself frustrated because you can never get it all done.

If you get a project done in less time than you had scheduled for it, you can always get out your Master List and choose some item that you could do in the extra time you now have available.

The Master List

One way to become better organized and more effective in your time management is to use a Master List.

What is a Master List?

It is a weekly list of all your things to do or to remember. It can be as simple as a lined page or notebook, or some computer program or electronic device, or you can make up a list of your own. Following is one I designed for myself after a sample from the book "Organized for Success" by Kenneth Zeigler.

Make the list something simple enough so that you can easily use it or take it with you.

Then use your Master List to record everything you need or want to do, from appointments to working on projects, from reminders to do the laundry or getting groceries to making calls, writing e-mails, fillling out applications, wish items like where you want to go on vacation, and everything and anything else.

The benefit of using a Master List is that it clears out your mind. When you try to rely on your mind to keep all your stuff "in mind", it keeps your mind subconsciously busy when it doesn't really need to be. In fact, for most of us these days, it probably keeps your subconscious mind overbusy - which may well be why we feel tired and overwhelmed.

But, if you get all that "stuff" down on a Master List, your mind can start to relax, knowing that those items are now "remembered".

It's best to keep this as a weekly list. Longer than that and it becomes too long and complicated.

It's also a good idea to make your list from Friday to Friday. That way you can finish off the week's list on Friday, transfer anything you want to move forward to the next list, and review and plan for the coming week. WIth that done, you are freer to relax and enjoy your weekend.

Okay. So now you have this long list of all these items. What do you do from there?

Now you bring in your Daily List - see the next post for that.