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| Photo by John.Schultz via Flickr |
The observant/chronically unoccupied among you may have
realised that I didn't update the blog last week as per schedule. Being the
clever clogs that I am however, rather
than pretending it didn't happen I am instead going to use it as the jumping
off point for this week's topic: prioritising.
There comes a time in every job (or life) when you have too
many things to do and not enough time to do them in (I realise that for many
people this may be the rule rather than the exception but bear with me). Maybe
you have a big one-off project on top of your normal work or you’re trying to
apply for new jobs whilst continuing to work at your old one. Maybe you’ve been
given a lot of different tasks by different people who all want them done
yesterday. Or maybe (to take an example not completely at random) you’re trying
to write a blog alongside working two jobs and visiting your sister at
university. Whatever the situation, there comes a time when you have to make a
decision about what to do and when to do it – the alternative is to sit and
panic whilst not doing any of it, which I can tell you from personal experience
doesn’t work!
Here then, are my three immutable rules for prioritising
your obligations:
- Do the most important things first and the things you least want to do second. This might sound like a no-brainer but – as anybody who’s ever cleaned their house from top to bottom when they were supposed to be revising will tell you – often when you have a lot of things to do its easier to justify not doing the things you don’t want to. After all, the tasks you are doing are useful and worthwhile so it’s not like you’re wasting your time… Sadly if you’re going to get everything done you need to prioritise ruthlessly: do the important stuff and then do the stuff you hate (these may be the same things). Once all the difficult and boring stuff is accomplished move on to the rest, secure in the knowledge that there’s no horrible tasks lying in wait for you to do at the last minute.
- Make a to do list you can edit. Again I’m not re-inventing the wheel here, but you cannot overestimate the importance of list-making when it comes to getting your priorities straight; write each task down on a post-it note and then arrange them in the order you think they should be done. When each one is completed you can rip it up and feel the true sense of accomplishment that comes with reaching a goal. The post-it note method is great because it allows you to re-shift your priorities as the situation changes.
- Know your limitations. Sometimes even a superbly prioritised list of tasks is just too long; if there aren’t enough hours in the day to do your work, then you need to be honest with people. Explain your priorities to them and work together on rescheduling the tasks that are less urgent. Often people simply want to know when something will be done without necessarily minding when exactly it is. The most important thing is to show that you have a plan and a schedule and that you’re not just being lazy and not bothering to write your blog post this week (ahem).
At the end of the day, it’s important to take a balanced
attitude to your work – unless your job is vital to saving human lives it
shouldn’t consume your every waking moment and prioritising effectively is the
key to getting your work done within work hours, leaving you free to pursue
your own desires the rest of the time.
Having problems with your priorities or got some more advice
to share? Let me know in the comments.
