Even if you follow a time management system, you won’t be successful at achieving your goals if interruptions, distractions, and non-priority tasks derail you. Spending time on things that aren’t a priority is one of the biggest obstacles to successful time management. If you always feel busy but aren’t getting a sense of achievement, you’re not focusing on your priorities.
Deciding What’s Important
“If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got,” according to visionary automaker Lee Iacocca.
Whether you’re talking about your career or life, having goals correspond to meaningful achievements is important. We have limited time, so everything can’t be equally important or equally urgent. To successfully meet your goals, you must identify your highest priorities so you can focus on them.
We all have professional and personal responsibilities that influence our priorities. Other people’s priorities can also influence us. It’s easy to lose track of what matters for your success when other people’s requests assail you, but someone else’s emergency does not have to become your priority. Use your values and aspirations to help you understand your priorities.
Where Are You Really Spending your Time?
Have you ever come to the end of the day and wondered where the time went? There are all kinds of time wasters that can steal our time.
While computers and smartphones are great tools for productivity, they’re also a source of distraction. Many people spend excessive amounts of time texting, checking social media, streaming content, playing games, and shopping. According to Statista, the average American adult spends almost 8 hours per day with digital media.
Shopping online and playing video games are obvious time wasters. Worthwhile tasks can also be time wasters if they keep us from completing higher priorities. Helping other people with their work can be another waste of time if it affects your productivity. So, an essential part of time management is prioritizing outside requests against your own priorities.
Benefits of Prioritization
Prioritization helps increase productivity. By focusing on your highest-priority tasks first, you can complete them quickly and efficiently. This can leave you more time to focus on other tasks. This not only increases your productivity but also helps build momentum, making it easier to tackle the remaining tasks.
Another benefit of prioritization is that it helps to reduce stress and anxiety. When you have a lengthy list of tasks to complete, it is natural to feel overwhelmed and stressed. However, by prioritizing tasks, you can break them down into smaller, manageable chunks, making it easier to focus on one task at a time without feeling overwhelmed.
Important vs. Urgent
It’s easy to lose sight of what’s important when faced with urgent tasks, whether your own or someone else’s. Frequently, the emotion surrounding an urgent task will elevate it more than its priority deserves. However, life is all about choices. Choosing to work on one thing means you’ll have less time to spend on something else. If you find yourself short of time and missing deadlines, it’s time to work on your priorities. Remember, not all activities are equally important, even if they may seem urgent.
Prioritization isn’t a one-time task. It’s a dynamic, ongoing process. Tasks and priorities can change quickly, and it is essential to re-evaluate and re-prioritize tasks regularly.
Let coAmplifi Help You Prioritize
If you want to meet your goals, prioritization is an essential time management skill. The coAmplifi calendar helps you organize your work, track your schedule, and prioritize your tasks. By scheduling and prioritizing your tasks in a calendar, you can easily see what you need to focus on, complete your work based on importance rather than urgency, and avoid over-committing your time. If you’re ready to stop being busy and start being productive, contact us today.
