John Cox

Prioritize

For an introduction to this article, please read the basis of my 7 Habits for Highly Productive People. I will probably have to change the title of this once I hear from Covey's lawyers, but in the meantime it works for me.

My seven habits all have a central theme which is summed up in this article. We all make lists, whether mentally or physically, of our priorities that we need and want to do. What we don't all do is make follow through on our lists. As a matter of fact, I am going to guess that the majority of us don't. We just chalk it up to being too busy to get to everything on our lists, or fire fighting has taken over our day.

Since I have made the small changes in the way I go about my productivity, I rarely miss getting to my priorities. The days that I do miss has more to do with my lack of motivation rather than my lack of planning. I have a simple formula for writing out my theory for figuring out my priorities, and actually I use it for more than just my priorities list, which I will discuss in a later article.

The Reasonable Person Theory

I ask myself on a daily basis, 'Would a reasonable person, looking at the same list, say this is accomplishable?' The reason I do this is to take my own subjective, often wrong and over-inflated view of my own abilities out of the equation. Instead, I look at it in a perspective of a peer or as a manager. Would I expect this person to get all of this accomplished today, and would I be satisfied with their performance? If I can honestly say yes to both questions, then I go with my list.

We all have very high opinions of our abilities. It is called confidence in ourselves. However, we all have a finite set of capabilities to actually accomplish work. Even Superman only has twenty-four hours in a day. When we overestimate our abilities to accomplish our work, then we will always miss our goals. When we miss our goal of work for the day, then our list is basically useless.

Tasks and Constraints

I agree whole heartily with the Covey method on focusing on the important rather than the urgent. Focusing on the urgent will only make what is important urgent at a later date. My list just doesn't look the same as you would see in your normal Franklin Planner. I don't go through and say, these are my priorities for the day, these are my tasks that I would like to get done if possible, and these are my tasks that I don't have to accomplish, but will given the time. Instead I make two lists.

On my first list, I have each week defined. As I know when something must be accomplished by a date, I place it on the proper week. On my second list I have my days defined. I place my daily constraints (defined reoccurring tasks) and add from my weekly lists on what I will accomplish today. My daily constraints include time for phone calls at defined times, time for answering and sending emails at defined times, meetings, conference calls, with my idle time built in.

I know right then and there exactly how much time I have to accomplish the rest of my tasks for the day. I then place the most important (again, not the most urgent) on my list and work down from there. At the beginning of the week I should be able to answer the question, 'what do I have to do to have a successful week?' By the time I finish my daily list each day, I should be able to answer whether or not a reasonable person would look at this list and say, 'I could do that as well'.

Success!

I define my success by meeting my measurements for the day with quality. If I complete my list, I can sleep well at night. If I don't have to redo work tomorrow because I rushed, I was successful. Your bosses are going to place measurements on you, and those are the rules of the game. However, no one says that you can't have your own core values and success metrics as well. My success is defined for myself as to have time with my family without my cell phone glued to my ear, or my attention diverted for an emergency 10PM email.

I am not successful when I don't follow through on my priorities. Not with my personal metrics, nor more than likely with my organizations. My success shouldn't be mutually exclusive to my organization's success. My lists are worthless if I don't follow through on them. I also probably have let someone down in the process. Whether that is a peer, a boss, or worse yet, a customer, it doesn't really matter at the end of the day. We are usually much rougher on ourselves than others are, so if we make this a measurement then we are much more likely to succeed.

Sum it up

Don't look at your priorities in the first person; rather look at them in the third person perspective. 'Can I reasonably expect someone else to do this, and would I be satisfied with the outcome?'

Look at your constraints in your daily vehicle. Look at your tasks in your weekly vehicle.

Make your productivity a personal measurement. Don't be satisfied with excuses from others, and certainly don't be satisfied with excuses from yourself.