What to do first?

Summary:  Important tasks and projects compete for our time. So how to get it all done? Focus and Prioritize.

There is always so much we want to accomplish each day, week and month. We look at our goals for the year, decide the steps we need to take, and even give ourselves a deadline.

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It never fails, we feel we have many important items to complete and they are competing with each other for time. We try as we might to do it all only to find out at the end of day we have not completed much.

How an we do it? How can get done what needs to be done in order to move forward?

We need to focus and prioritize.

Focus.  We need to return to doing one thing at a time and release the desire to multi-task. Pick one thing to do and keep at it until it’s done. Then move on. You will find not only do you get more done, it is done better.

Prioritize. This can be a tricky one since we can feel that by focusing on the wrong task/project first can derail another one. Don’t over-think this, it can be easy to get into analysis paralysis where nothing is accomplished. Here are a couple of ways to determine your priorities.

Determine your high productivity time. We have all heard the term “morning person” or “night owl”. Start to notice when you feel most productive and use that time to do your most difficult tasks.

Eat your frog first. This is a term coined by Brian Tracy in which he says – do what you dislike most first and get it over with.

Most impact. Which project has the most  impact on your business – it could be based on revenue generation, client satisfaction, or another criteria. That is what you do first.

Holding things up. Do you have a task/project which until you do your part, others are at stand still. Help them out and do your part so it continue with the other.

How do you determine what to do first? Has one of these helped you more than other? What are your tricks for getting it done?