How to properly prioritize in life. How to set life priorities

One monk kept all his belongings in one small suitcase. With a beaming smile on his face, he said: “If every three months I don’t go through my things and get rid of those that I don’t need, my suitcase will fall apart, or I will have to buy myself a second one. We need to do the same with our lives.We need to carry out such cleanings regularly. Otherwise, if we... otherwise, we will either destroy our life or live it uselessly and then get a new body with even stronger attachments.”

What this monk wanted to say was: prioritize your life, focus on what is most important to you and gives you strength, and know that if you don't do this, problems and difficulties await you.

The lack of ability to prioritize puts us in a state of paralysis. When we lose our natural ability to differentiate between what is more important to us and what is less important, we lose the main foundation of life and become confused in life. The first thing we forget and therefore become unable to act in the right way is that we are all eternal particles of God, the Absolute, filled with happiness. From the perspective of eternity, nothing in this world, good or bad, is worth falling into slavery.

There are two simple techniques, which I use to prioritize: I stop again and again and ask: what am I not doing right now that I should be doing that will change my life for the better?

When I find an answer in, say, a certain area, I begin to look at others - such as health, relationships, spiritual practice - and ask the question again. The results of this technique are amazing and very inspiring to me. In my mind I imagine the end of my life and from this position I consider the present. When we are surrounded by a thousand small things, we tend to see only what is right in front of us. We are like a man who walks in a beautiful forest, but looks only at his feet until he hits his head on a large low-hanging branch. When I view my life from the perspective of death, I begin to care only about the most important things: relationships, moments that allow me to forgive, feel spiritually uplifted and show compassion."

Life gradually shortens, shortens, and, in the end, only moments remain. And everyone chooses what he will do in these moments. And what's amazing is that everyone focuses only on relationships. And everyone remembers that this, this is the most important thing. This is a very interesting one. Everyone remembers relationships. That is, everything narrows down so much, and in the end we understand where, what is important.

“This is what we must concentrate on while we still have strength, intelligence and an open heart. Of the millions of opportunities that life sends us, we need to highlight similar, more important things. The benefits we get from prioritizing. Prioritization creates two kinds of power within us: the first is the power to say “no” to everything that is unimportant and to discard it like the unnecessary trash that it is. This is the first strength - to say “no” to everything that doesn’t matter.

In the lives of each of us, a lot of things constantly arise, varying in degree of importance. What to do first, what to leave for later and how to save precious time is a task that is akin to art. And to solve it, it is not necessary to study multi-volume manuals on time management. It is enough to correctly set your priorities.

How is this done and what does it mean to “prioritize”? The literal translation of the word priority means “first”. In other words, it is a priority task or action. Often there are several such tasks throughout the entire period, and many are lost in how to complete all the important tasks and not lose sight of anything. In addition, there are more global goals from a number of life goals. Therefore, the second important question for many is how to set life priorities? Only a proven scheme or technique can help in both of these cases. And, fortunately, there are some.

Prioritization Methods

First of all, the ability to prioritize lies in the competent distribution of tasks in order of importance. And at this stage many people begin to have problems. At first glance, many tasks do not seem as important as they actually are. Numerous ways of prioritizing are designed to determine this degree. Let's look at the most effective of them.

1. Eisenhower principle. One of the most often used in determining primary and secondary tasks. To understand how to prioritize, create a questionnaire for yourself to learn how to separate the concepts of importance and urgency. For example:

• you want to resume working on a goal you set for the year. However, you just can’t do this business. Is it important or urgent?
• Several letters arrived in the mailbox. Is it important or urgent to read them right now?
• You have decided that you will visit a doctor once every six months. Exactly six months passed, but you still didn’t go to see him. Is it important or urgent at the moment?

Correct answers:

1. Important
2. Urgently
3. Important

This principle is based on a combination of only two possible options, which allows you to analyze and classify all upcoming tasks. This way, you will get a hierarchy of tasks that will allow you to understand what needs to be done and when.

2. S. Covey's quadrants. A method to help you understand how to prioritize your work. According to the author of the book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” all human tasks can be roughly divided into 4 parts:

1. Important and urgent
2. Important but not urgent
3. Not important, but urgent
4. Not important or urgent

According to S. Covey, successful people focus their attention on Quadrant 2 first, and this saves time on other tasks. However, everyone decides for themselves which tasks are more important - from quadrant 1 or 2.

3. A similar principle of how to set priorities correctly is in ABC method. But the tasks in it are divided into 3 categories.

Hello friends. Yuri Okunev is with you.

Today we’ll talk about how to prioritize. I have already written a number of articles about this. Today I will summarize everything that was said earlier and add a few more interesting tools.

ABS method

This is a slightly softened version of the Pareto Rule. The tasks are divided into three groups:
A - the most important
B – medium importance
C – not particularly important

If sorting within the resulting groups is required, the usual numbering is used: A1, A2, A3, etc.

ABS analysis is often used in business to identify more and less profitable product groups.

Eisenhower Matrix

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890–1969) Army general and 34th President of the United States proposed new level work with priorities, in which, in addition to the importance of tasks, their urgency is also taken into account.

The matrix looks like this:

We take our list of tasks and distribute them into the resulting categories.

Important and urgent(square of disasters).
Important and not urgent(square of creation).
Not important and urgent(vanity square).
Not important and not urgent(destruction square).

The main result of this distribution is a deeper understanding of the relative weight of each task. Obviously, the main square of a productive person important and non-urgent affairs. You need to strive to devote as much time as possible to them.

Important and urgent We sort things out and draw conclusions so that emergency situations don’t arise in the future.

Unimportant and urgent— we delegate whenever possible, or ignore it if we can afford it.

Unimportant and not urgent brave time managers boldly throw things into the trash bin. It’s just a shame that our little joys in life often fall into this section: reading a fiction book, watching a movie, chatting with friends, etc.

Less popular methods

Olympic system

Let's turn to the experience of athletes. You can arrange a knockout game for the problems. I think no special explanation is required. We divide the cases into twos, compare them with each other, and repeat the cycle until the absolute winner is identified.

Pairwise comparison

Let's continue the sports parallels. A more accurate, but also more labor-intensive method is pairwise comparison.
When all tasks seem equally important, you can compare each task in turn with all the others. The one that gets the most “victories” based on the results of the “meetings” will be the most important.

Mutual influence assessment

This method allows you to assess the importance of a task by the degree of its influence on the overall situation. The most important tasks will be those with more arrows coming from them. Less significant connections can be indicated by a dotted line.

Contribution to values ​​(supra-goals)

One task can work simultaneously on several values. Accordingly, the task that positively affects the maximum number of them will be more important.

Multivariate analysis

To compare our tasks or goals according to several indicators, we can create a two-dimensional table. In the left column we write down objects for comparison. In the top line we define the criteria. We put pros and cons in the task line, or a score for each criterion and look at the final result.

This method is also good for choosing significant life decisions: purchasing real estate, a car, identifying a contractor for important work. In those cases when we have time to leisurely weigh everything.

Weighted average

In cases where the importance of the factors by which we evaluate tasks is initially not equal, we can use the calculation of the weighted average. An interesting method that I described in detail.

"Folk" methods

There are also a number of common, but not particularly practical, methods for setting priorities.

• Target- I do whatever catches my eye.
• squeaky wheel– whoever whines more, that’s why I do it.
• Easy first- I do what doesn’t bother me.
• Roasted rooster– I do what is already burning.

I think it’s clear that these options go under the heading “What not to do.”

Priorities of men and women

And finally, you can think about how the priorities of men and women differ. I wrote two separate articles on this subject.

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Let's sum it up

We remembered what is the basis for prioritization and went over the main approaches to this process.
Let me emphasize once again that priorities are not an end in themselves. Choose one, or at most two of the simplest methods for yourself, implement them in your daily practice and use them.

Share information with friends, subscribe to blog news, join the practitioners on the course. And I say goodbye to you for today.

And if you still have questions, I invite you to an individual consultation. Details.

See you soon.
Yours, Yuri Okunev.

Have you often had the question in your head: “What do I want?” Sooner or later, every person asks this question. Trying to realize our dreams and satisfy our desires, we choose our path in life.

How to realize your goals at a certain period of life

There can be an endless number of desires. And how, in this case, to determine the tasks of paramount importance and place other aspirations in the right order? After all, everyone wants to be rich, healthy, drive an expensive car, learn several languages ​​and gain immortality. Ambitiousness is very good, but it should not exceed the framework of reality.

The main thing you need to learn to do is set priorities. To begin, take a pen and Blank sheet paper. Write down all your desires in a column. Write the list in the present tense. For example: ""I'm looking at my bank account. The balance is 500 thousand rubles. I feel happiness and satisfaction from the reward for my work." The main condition is that what you write looks believable. That is, if you write that you are having lunch with the president, but subconsciously understand that this is impossible, or possible, but not in the near future, then you should not write it.

Working with a wish list

After your wishes have taken written form, begin to read them out loud one by one, pausing before each subsequent entry. After reading one wish, close your eyes and concentrate on your feelings. What do you feel? This could be satisfaction, a feeling of superiority over others, indifference, pleasant awe, or a feeling of real happiness and flight.

It is the feeling of happiness that is the true desire of every person. Perhaps he is not even aware of it, but subconsciously each of us strives for happiness. Guided only by your inner feelings, you will understand what you really want from life and learn to prioritize.

Analysis of three main points

Cross out anything that doesn't align with your priorities and keep three items. Why only three? It's simple, practice and research show that a person cannot effectively work on more than three tasks.

Think about what you are doing now, what activity takes up most of your time. The main question to ask yourself is: am I getting closer? this type activities towards my goal. If the answer is no, then it’s time to change something.

The road to happiness is difficult, but correctly set priorities will greatly simplify and speed up this process.

Interests of other people

Self-sacrifice and life for the sake of others, close people, makes sense only if it is a conscious choice of a person, the implementation of which brings him joy and happiness. Of course, caring for loved ones is a normal behavioral reaction, but when a sense of duty crosses out one’s own aspirations and dreams, driving a person into depression, this is no longer the norm. There are many examples when he played into the hands of not only a person, but also members of his family.

A striking example is when young people, striving for a bright future, leave their father’s home and go to other cities or countries, where, in their opinion, many opportunities and great success await young people. often helps people and leads them in the right direction. While parents, wise with experience, prefer to keep their child with them, having the opportunity to help him if necessary.

Each person has his own goals, and no one, including close relatives, should prevent him from achieving his goals. You should not allow yourself to be manipulated; indulging others will not make you happy - rather, quite the opposite.

Changing priorities

The above lists will develop your ability to prioritize. And after achieving all the points, it makes sense to get a new list.

It's completely normal for priorities to change as you get older. The stages of growing up involve a change in thinking. Changing priorities should be evolutionary in nature, but not vice versa.

Not the best the best option when a person rushes through life and cannot find his place. In this case, it is important to analyze your actions and understand where everything went wrong as planned. If you have problems analyzing your actions, or need help, it would be a good idea to visit a psychologist who can help you set your priorities correctly.

Etymology of the word "priority"

An interesting fact is that the word “priority” was not used in the plural until the beginning of the 20th century. Before this concept was used only in the singular.

The word "priority" has the Latin prefix "prio", which means "before". Prioritizing means identifying tasks that advance the achievement of your goals.

Exists effective principle on working with priorities, namely, He helps to arrange all tasks using only two criteria - important and urgent.

Differences between important and urgent matters

Famous tells us that 20 percent of all our tasks will be classified as important. Interesting, but some of them will also be considered urgent. What is the difference?

Implementing important things brings you closer to your goal. At the same time, performing urgent tasks distracts your attention, but does not have a significant impact on achieving the chosen goal.

It's no secret that most people start with minor tasks. The thing is that they are lighter and do not require serious expenses. And the brain, like the body, does not like to overexert itself if they are not accustomed to it. And the implementation of unimportant tasks creates the appearance of work, but the truth is that you should pay attention to those tasks, the solution of which will contribute to your success. Knowing how to prioritize in life will help you with this.

Priority categories on the Eisenhower list

Priority A - these are things that need to be done today because they are both urgent and important.

Priority B - These are tasks that are not required to be completed on a specific day, but for which you need to carve out a small amount of time every day. Their stable implementation will bring the achievement of the goal closer.

A very common mistake is postponing tasks from the second group until later. There is no need to do this, because the developed habit of solving problems constantly in small quantities will have a qualitative impact on your future achievements.

Examples of tasks from priority B:

How to work with third and fourth order priorities

Priority C. These include skills that you feel are urgent to learn, but are not important. For example, learn to say “no” when the need arises. These tasks will give you the time you need to solve priority problems.

Priority D. These are tasks that are not important and urgent. You can safely put them off for later, or delegate them to other people. It is strongly recommended to periodically refuse to perform tasks on list D. This will allow you to get proper rest on the most stressful days.

How to prioritize according to the Eisenhower method

Knowing how to prioritize is not a difficult task; the only thing that is required is to allocate a little time for written work. But later, following your own instructions, it will be much easier to act.

However you want to reach maximum amount there is not enough time to do everything. And this must be understood. The most important thing is to set your priorities correctly, and then success will not be long in coming.

Distribute your time wisely, spending it on truly important things that will help you achieve your goals and realize your most significant desires. The ability to highlight important aspects your activities and avoiding unimportant ones is an important and useful skill. The Eisenhower Method helps you understand how to prioritize in life.

Sometimes it starts to feel like the whole world is collapsing. Work and school assignments start piling up, household chores and responsibilities, commitments to friends and family—sometimes there aren't enough hours in one day. By learning to prioritize effectively, you will become a more productive worker, saving time, energy and stress. Learn to organize your tasks into categories and difficulty levels, and start practicing a professional approach to completing them. Go to part one for more information.

Steps

Part 1

Set a time frame for your list. Are you facing a particularly busy week? Crazy day? Perhaps the thought of what you need to accomplish before the end of the year is driving you crazy. Regardless of the nature of your commitments, choose a period of the priority list you hope to create and begin managing those priorities and translating that stress into concrete action.

• TO short term goals often include items from various categories. You probably have a few things you need to get done at work by the end of the day, some errands you need to run before heading home, and a lot of errands around the house when you finally get there. You could make a list of stress culprits, all the things that need to be done in the next few hours.
• Long term goals may include larger goals that will need to be broken down into several steps and which will also need to be prioritized. You could put the goal of “going to college” on your long-term to-do list, which would include various small things. This simple breakdown step will make the process easier and clearer.

1. Write down everything you need to do. Start breaking down your list and writing down exactly what you need to do in no particular order. Within the deadlines that make you nervous, select all the tasks—big or small—that need to be completed and list them. List projects that need to be completed, decisions that need to be made, and errands that need to be run.

   Categorize everything you need to do. It might be helpful to break things down into separate categories, that is, creating different to-do lists for different areas of life. Household chores may be in one category and work projects in another. If you are actively involved social activities, then there may be a lot going on during the weekend that you also need to prepare for and prioritize. Make a separate list for each category.

   Get your list in order. Identify the most important or urgent items on your list and rewrite the list with those items at the top. It's all up to you and the topics on your list, so you may decide that school events take precedence over work projects, or vice versa.

   • Also, if everything is equally important and necessary, leave the list unordered and organize it alphabetically or randomly. As you actively check the boxes on the list, all that matters is that you complete the items on the list.

2. Keep the list in a visible place. Keep your list somewhere visible, especially for long-term tasks, where you can use it as a reminder of what needs to be completed, actively crossing off or checking off items as you complete them.

   • If you made a paper version of the list, hang it in a place you often look at, such as the refrigerator door, the bulletin board near the front door, or on the wall of your office.
   • Alternatively, you can keep the list open on your desktop while you're doing other things, so they're fresh in your mind, and delete the items when you're done.
   • Self-adhesive note paper makes a great reminder around the house. If you stick one of these reminders to work on your documents on your TV screen, you will remember to do important things instead of wasting time on less productive activities.

   Part 2

   Organizing your list items

   1. Rank your tasks in order of importance. What is the most important matter on your list? In general, you may decide that work/school tasks outweigh social and home obligations, although there may be some variation. You have to eat and bathe, for example, although laundry can wait another day until you finish an important work project.

      • Define three different levels that will be enough to classify the different tasks and criteria on the list. High, medium and low importance of tasks - the best and the simplest way to begin classifying your list items by importance. Be reasonable in your definition.

   2. Determine the urgency of each task. Consider upcoming deadlines and your ability to work within those deadlines. What needs to be done in the near future? What needs to be done by the end of the day? What could you do to gain a little more time?

      • It's important to consider the length of time it will take you to complete each task, perhaps even assigning a set time to certain tasks. If you make it a priority to exercise every day, but you have a crazy amount of work to get done, give yourself a 30-minute block to do it and try to fit it in somehow.

   3. Classify each task by degree of difficulty. It may be important that you take something to the post office by the end of the day, but it's not terrible challenging task. Categorize all the items on your list by difficulty so you know how to rank them in relation to other tasks.

      • It is effective to use levels such as difficult, moderate and easy for classification rather than trying to rank them against each other. Don't worry about ordering them before assigning a degree of difficulty to each item if that would be helpful.

   4. Compare all the tasks and organize the list. Put the most important and urgent tasks that require minimal effort at the top of the list, so that you can try to complete the maximum amount of work in the allotted time.

   Part 3

   Start completing the list items

   Take it one step at a time and see it through to completion. It's difficult to move through the list by being selective and doing a little of everything. In a few hours, your list will look exactly the same as it looks now: unfinished. Instead of doing a little at a time, complete one task and then, after a short break, move on to the next thing on the list. Don't start working on anything else on your list until you've finished the first most important things.

   Decide what to delegate to others and what will go your way. If the Internet does not work at home, then it may be tempting to go to the library, start studying on wi-fi so that you can re-diagnose the problem, but not if you have to finish cooking dinner, check twenty written papers until the morning and do more fifty cases. Wouldn't it be better to contact the ISP company instead?

   • It is acceptable to decide in favor of something that is not worth the time, or when delegating a task's cost outweighs the time you will spend on it. You could buy expensive new wire fencing, or collect it yourself from waste, diligently combing landfills, carefully sorting through scrap metal for several hours in the hot sun, but if it only adds up to a few rubles in savings, then it may be better to buy new wires.

   1. Alternate between different tasks on your list. Separating the types of activities you perform will help you stay interested and move through the items on your list faster. Alternate your school homework list with your chores list to work most efficiently. Take short breaks in between and do different things. This will maintain enthusiasm and increase productivity.

      Start with the least attractive or most difficult tasks. Depending on your character, it will be better for your mood if you finish the thing you least want to do first. It may not necessarily be the hardest or most important task, but for many people it will be effective to get rid of it in order to save less unpleasant activities for later.

      • Your English essay may be more important homework in math, but if you really hate math, get rid of it first so you can free up all the time you need to devote it solely to writing, giving it your full, undivided attention.

   2. Let importance in some cases exceed relevance. You may have a situation where you only have 10 minutes to drive across town to the library to pick up that new Game of Thrones CD you ordered, making it the most important thing on the list, but that time could be better spent on doing more important task, working on an essay in English. You will save yourself more time if you wait until the next day to pick up your DVD, when you have more time to do so.

      As you complete tasks, cross them off the list. Congratulations! As you move down the list, take a joyful moment to cross an item off, delete it from the file, or aggressively cut out what is written on the paper with a rusty pocketknife and ceremoniously burn the pieces in the fire. Take a minute to reward yourself for every small achievement. You do it!

   What you will need

   • Pencil
   • Paper
   • Marker
   • Consider breaking a large task into several smaller ones. Small tasks are less scary to take on and easier to complete.
   • Give yourself time to rest, relax and recover.
   • Be realistic about the volume completed over a period of time.
   • Ask for help. Assign some of your list to family members or friends to complete.
   • In the case of school assignments, the ones at the top of the list should be those that will give you the most points and that are due soon.
   • Leave some time for the unexpected.
   • If two tasks have the same degree of importance or urgency, consider the one that requires less effort.
   • Half an hour to one hour will be enough time to stay focused before needing a break.
   • Tasks that require a longer effort may require special consideration to be allocated separate time for completion.
   • Use a text editor or spreadsheet editor on your computer. Then you won't have to copy the list again.
   • Help and teach this to others. If you finish things early, offer help and teach your family and friends how to prioritize. Your parents may reward you with extra pocket money.
   • Skip or put off things that are not that important and require a lot of effort.
   • You must master your time and plan ahead, as well as maintain a positive attitude and not procrastinate.
   • Manage your time, plan ahead and don't procrastinate.
   • Remember the mantra “I can, I must and I will do it!” and don't complain about being busy.
   • Patience and hard work will definitely be rewarded.