The Paradox of Prioritization
We’re living in a division of interests between what we want to experience today and what we need to plan for tomorrow.
Our internet experience leaves us deeply present-focused.
Turn on the TV and you hear “breaking news” providing instantaneous feedback about everything going on right now.
Open your phone to scroll through social media, everything that is prioritized has been posted within the last 24 hours.
This is the never-ending now.
The world is overflowing with information and opportunity.
The temptation to keep up has never been greater.
It feels good to be connected. Like a well-organized room, everything is in its place and can easily be retrieved on call.
But this desire to keep tabs comes at a cost.
To be everywhere is to be nowhere.
By doing less, we get more.
This is the paradox of prioritization.
Deep down, we recognize, if we want to improve our outcome, we must work hard for it.
And if we don’t work hard, our outcome won’t be worth much.
We get what we give.
A plant that is frequently moved, never grows strong.
To prioritize is less about getting more done and more about reducing what you manage so you can have more time, energy, and attention to do the things that matter to you most.
“Who can define for us with accuracy the difference between the long and short term! Especially when our affairs seem to be in criss, we are almost compelled to give our first attention to the urgent present rather than to the important future.”
As the 34th President of the United States with 37 years of service ending his Military career as a 5-star rank General in the United States Army, Dwight Eisenhower knew how to get things done.
As a highly effective leader, Eisenhower knew how to separate tasks that moved the needle and tasks that distracted him away from his objectives.
His secret?
“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.”
Eisenhower used a simple tool to help make decisions:
Urgent tasks require your immediate attention and are time sensitive.
These tasks are stressful because you’re under the gun.
Being rushed through a decision is the quickest way to make a mistake.
Important tasks contribute to your long-term goals.
These tasks are intentional and require your focus.
To get the most out of your time, you’ve likely noticed there are certain times of the day that make work feel effortless.
You think and perform your best, time dilates, and your sense of self becomes one with the task at hand.
These moments feel great but they’re fleeting.
Your daily productivity isn’t a straight line of optimal output, it’s more short bursts of inspiration followed by bouts of distraction.
Your days productivity likely looks something like this:
You wake up and your brain is fresh, the internal chatter is a minimum and the hustle of the day hasn’t reared its head.
This presents a great opportunity for productivity.
Like taking time off from exercising only to come back rejuvenated and everything feels good.
The key is:
Align the best hours of your day with your biggest opportunities, not what’s most urgent.
In practice if you can focus uninterrupted on the 20% of tasks that drive 80% of the result consistently during the best parts of your day, you’re going to get ahead.
Much of the anxiety we feel is from unaligned inaction towards the tasks we know we need to do.
We put off scary tasks because, well, they’re scary!
This could be:
The call you don’t want to make.
The project you’ve been thinking about taking on
The business you want to start
What stands in the way, becomes the way.
How long are you doing to wait to demand the best from yourself?