When you can be reached nearly all the time in five different ways, it’s easy to lose track of what really needs doing. Productivity blog 99u suggests figuring out at the start of the day what your priorities are.
Photo by Sina Farhat
Even if you can’t set up meetings at work, having designated check points at the start, middle and end of the day can help you keep track of your individual priorities. If you can share those with people you need to work with, all the better. As 99u puts it:
I have to remind myself that I’m acting against the great cultural tide of urgency. Prioritizing means not getting sucked into that tide. So I prioritise twice a day, as a ritual. The process for figuring out what is important is really just a simple series of questions:
- Do I really have to do this now?
- If so, is it “The Most Important Thing?”
- If not, where does it fit relative to the other tasks?
- Is someone waiting on me for this?
- If so, when do they need it?
- Does working/not working on this now have long-term consequences that I’m missing?
Prioritising your tasks each day won’t necessarily prevent critical interruptions, but it works better than simply adding yet more to-dos to your growing list.
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