How to Determine Priorities in Your Life and Business
We all have things that pop up throughout the day that we feel we need to work on immediately. Heck, anytime I step away from my desk to grab more coffee I have a million ideas. So how do we handle these ideas and to-dos? Prioritize!!
If you’ve grabbed my Daily Business Hour checklist, you know I’m big on knowing what you need to be working on each and every day. Having a basic content for my business has been huge in keeping me moving forward and on task each day. But what about everything else - client work, client fires, your business fires, your new courses / launches, any new idea you have? How do you know when to do these things? I’ve two different priority tests for you today. One is going to be for those smaller tasks that pop up throughout the day/week and the other is going to be for any new ideas you have.
Priority Test: Tasks
When does this need to be done? Not all things are truly immediate needs. You may be able to put this pop-up off for an hour or so while you finish what you’re working on.
What steps need to be taken for this to get done (create graphic, draft post, create sign-up form, etc…)? Make a smaller list of things that need to get done and schedule them throughout the day.
Do I need to move something to work on this now? If you must work on it now (or before your next available time slot) bring your current work to a good stopping point and make a note in your planner or on your to-do list to come back to that item today.
Find the next available slot for this item or one of the items from step 2. Make it a priority for that one time slot and get back to your task at hand.
Priority Test: Ideas
I need to exercise this one a bit more myself, but I carry around a little notebook (along with my powersheets, planner, and content guide) with me everywhere. When a new idea pops up, I try to remember to write it in my notebook or whichever planning tool I have in front of me. Because Thursday & Friday are typically days I only work on my business, I can look at my ideas from the week and run it through this test to see what needs to be planned for the following week.
How will this idea value my business?
Do I have time to pull this all off within the next 30/60/90 days? (What other ideas/goals am I already working on right now? And is this better than those)
Can I break this down into smaller pieces to do in the next few days/weeks?
What tools or people do I need to accomplish this (sign-up forms, launch ambassadors, graphics, extra blogs, extra emails, etc)?
If after running my ideas through a quick 1-3, I feel confident I can work on it soon, I’ll do number 4 and then start mapping it all out in my planner for the coming weeks.
I hope this helps you stay focused throughout the day on your true priorities! Let me know your thoughts on this and how you prioritize your tasks/ideas below!