The Art of Priorities

Our struggle to put first things first can be characterized by the contrast between two powerful tools that direct us: the clock and the compass. The clock represents our commitments, appointments, schedules, goals, activities - what we do with, and how we manage our time. The compass represents our vision, values, principles, mission, conscience, direction - what we feel is important and how we lead our lives.

Steven Covey, First Things First

You can have the most amazing time/task management system, complete with a calendar, to-do list, reminders and so on, but if you fill it up with everything that you want to do, or that people think you should do, you will have a full calendar and a never-ending to-do list. Task management should be about reducing stress, not increasing it, so how do we deal with infinite tasks?

The answer, as you will probably have been told, is to prioritise - but how exactly do we do that? Some things take priority because we value them highly, some because they need to get done quickly, some because they’re pleasant, and some because not doing them will be unpleasant. When we mix these up, we can end up with a lot of things to do and no idea which ones we should do first, or worse, we end up doing the wrong things. So, let’s consider the factors one by one.

Values

Our constant focus on goals and objectives is jumping the gun. In terms of the Steven Covey quote at the top of this page, it’s looking at the clock before you look at the compass. Anything desirable can be a goal. You could take a piece of paper right now and completely fill it with goals: lose weight, save money, get a good grade for your next essay, clean the kitchen, stop smoking, get that cute girl/boy in your class to notice you, learn jiu jitsu, climb Everest, walk the dog more often … Sure, you could do that, and maybe you even should do that, but before you can makes sense of your goals, you need to think about your values.

A value is bigger than a goal in three ways. First, it’s more general and abstract. “Spend more time with my children” is a goal; being a good parent is a value. Second, it’s not just something you want, but something you feel good about wanting, something you regard as a feature of a good life. You might enjoy shopping, but you probably don’t value it. Nobody on their death bed says, “I wish I’d spent more time shopping.” Finally, you value things for their own sake, not simply as a means to an end. Making money may be an important goal, but if it is a value i.e., and end in itself - then you have a problem.

This may seem very abstract and a long way from to-do lists, but that’s the point. It’s been called the view from thirty thousand feet - your whole life in perspective. Once you’ve been up there, you can come back to the ground and see what really matters. Close-up, it’s very easy to mistake urgency for importance. So, if you actually went and filled that page with your goals, take another piece of paper and write the half dozen things you value most: freedom, kindness, love, art … whatever gives you a reason to get out of bed in the morning. Then look again at your goals page and see if you can link each goal to a value. If you can’t, it probably doesn’t need to be there. Any time your to-do list is getting too full, repeat this exercise. If something on the to-do list clearly aligns with your core values, bump it up the list; if it doesn’t, you might want to cross it off.

Time Factors

Urgency does not always equal importance, but that doesn’t mean that it should never swing the needle. We are told “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today” but equally so, we shouldn’t do things we can put off till tomorrow if it means we don’t have time to do the things that can only be done today. If you have a choice between studying for an exam coming next week and a quiz tomorrow morning, you should study for the quiz today even if it’s only 5% of your grade and the exam is 30%. Combining how much we value something with how urgent it is.

However, there is another time factor that we need to consider, which is how long the task will take. If you can start something right now and it will only take a few minutes, it’s probably not worth putting on your to-do list; just do it! At the other end, if a task or project is going to take up a lot of your time, you should ask yourself if it is worth it. If it really is worth it, you need to think about when you can set aside that much time. It is often better to wait until you have plenty of time for a large task rather than starting it too soon then having to take a long break in the middle. But again, it depends on the kind of task. If it’s the kind of big task that can be broken up into smaller tasks, do that, then tackle the sub-tasks whenever you have time.

Pleasure and Pain

Something can be important because doing it will realise your values, but it can also be important because not doing will cause you pain. When your tooth starts feeling sensitive, you go to the dentist not so much because you value healthy teeth but because you know that it you don’t go soon, that tooth will put you in a lot of pain. (Pro-tip: if you are not registered with a dental practice, that counts as an urgent task, because you don’t want to turn up at the dentist’s with toothache only to be told that they aren’t accepting any new patients!) The pain involved in failing to do a task could be anything from low marks to an argument with your mother, but the principle is the same: anything in your to-do list that has the potential to give you grief later on gets a star next to it!

Then there are the tasks that are painful in themselves (which come to think of it can also be true for going to the dentist). You don’t want to boot an important task off your to-do list simply because it’s unpleasant that would defeat the whole point of task management, but you might want to think about when you do it. You don’t want to do schedule several boring tasks in a row, or schedule a task that requires a lot of effort at the end of the day when you’re going to be tired (or first thing in the morning, if you’re not a morning person).

On the pleasurable side, I mentioned that we sometimes do tasks because they’re easy or (relatively) enjoyable when we should be doing something more important. I remember when I was living in a shared house as a student, the only time the kitchen was really clean was when finals were coming up. Given the choice between cleaning the kitchen and watching TV, we’d watch TV, but given the choice between cleaning the kitchen and studying for an exam, we’d clean the kitchen.

Does this mean that pleasure should never be a factor in prioritising our to-dos? Not at all! If a task is easy or fun but not life-or-death important, you might want to schedule it for a time when your energy is not so low all you can do is slump in front of the TV, but not high enough to do anything resembling hard work. If you have to hard or boring tasks, you can sandwich a short, no-sweat task in between them, e.g.,

• Finish writing essay,
• Post Mum’s birthday present, and
• Study for exam.

Takeaways

• Know what you value; prioritise tasks that align with your values, and as far as possible, ditch ones that don’t. If you can’t say why you’re doing something, you probbaly shouldn’t be doing it.
• Urgency is not the same as importance, but sometimes it’s important to get things done right now.
• If it’s going to take a long time, either wait until you have time, break it up into smaller tasks, or decide it’s not worth it.
• Prioritise tasks that will cause major pain if you don’t do them.
• Don’t do easy or enjoyable tasks instead of hard, important tasks; do them when you’re not up to the difficult stuff.
• And remember, prioritising is an art, not a science, so there is no set of rules not even these ones that can tell you exactly what to do and when to do it!