The Antidote to Busy Work
Imagine this scene. You’re at the airport headed to a much anticipated and deserved holiday to your dream destination – Tahiti. (Also, imagine it’s not the middle of a global pandemic.)
Much to your delight, you’ve received priority boarding! And, good thing too as it’s packed at the airport.
Over the speakers, you hear the announcement calling for priority boarding.
Suddenly, everyone around you gets up and crowds around the gate. It turns out EVERYONE has received priority boarding… so much for feeling special, right?
The good news is, this would never happen in real life. Airlines know when it comes to boarding if everyone’s a priority, nobody is.
It’s exactly why airlines board in a particular order, starting with pre-boarding, then first-class, then their high-mileage flyers, and so on. Even after priority boarding, they continue in sections or rows.
Prioritizing the boarding process keeps order and efficiency.
So, here’s my question for you: Are you trying to board all your goals, projects, and tasks onto your productivity plane at once?
Hint: This will cause chaos and plane rage…
Prioritizing is the Antidote to Busy Work
Taking the time to prioritize can feel like slowing down at first, but it’s the golden ticket to get the right things done efficiently. There are so many benefits to having clear priorities.
- It’s the antidote to busy work.
- It reduces decision fatigue.
- It creates momentum.
When you have clear priorities, you can stop wasting time trying to figure out what you should be working on next. You also get things done more quickly by giving it the attention it deserves.
Set your priorities by simply choosing what’s most important to make the most progress towards your goal. Yes, you can have more than one – just be sure to rank them in order of importance.
For example, every day I write out my top 3 most important work of the day in the order of priority. This means #1 gets priority until it’s done. Then #2 becomes #1 and so on.
Thus, the infamous quote by Shirley Conran – First things first, second things never.
So, with all that said, what are your top 3 priorities today?