A Practical Guide to Prioritizing

Setting priorities can have a deep, philosophical bent. Our values determine our priorities. And while that thought may be essential to developing an over-arching life plan, it might be only a subtext of our daily activities. Without a doubt, our daily activities can reflect our values--but are we truly aware of that as we make our day-to-day plans? How do our activities reflect our values? Do multiple values compete for our time and attention? I would bet that they do for most of us. These questions lead to yet another question--How do we balance them?

That practical aspect--balancing our multiple values with our daily routines is what I would like to address here.

‍

Tried and True Advice

Everyone from bloggers to podcasters to self-help gurus will offer very similar advice for determining your values, or as the picture on the right calls them, your core values. Those things that you hold dear, that root and ground you, that you believe in your heart, soul, and gut. Let me reiterate the ways to determine those core values:

• Make a list of what holds meaning for you. Is it personal relationships? Write it down. Spirituality? Put it on the list. Maybe it is physical well-being, financial security, mental health, creativity, or intellectual growth. Kindness, justice, or peace. Go both broad and deep.
• Consider times in your life when:

                    you were happiest

                     you were most proud of yourself or your accomplishments

                     you were most content or fulfilled

         Write down the features of these times. How do they correspond to the concepts that hold meaning for you? Were your activities in alignment with those concepts? What are you doing and how are you feeling now?

• At this point, your core values may start to emerge. Limit your list to two-four values.
• Rank them. Realize, though, that your two to four core values may form a picture. Imagine that it is like a photograph; some things will emerge into the foreground, while others recede into the background. Be mindful of this as you make decisions regarding your day-to-day life. Affirming one value doesn't necessarily mean you are negating the others. For example, let's say your two core values are spirituality and personal relationships. Those times that you need to be alone to pray or meditate do not negate the regard you have for your relationships. Likewise, engaging with others in a more superficial or transactional way does not mean you're being less spiritual. There are a whole host of other factors that could affirm or deny your value of spirituality when dealing with others.
• Be mindful of your routines. Are your present day-to-day routines in alignment with what is meaningful to you? If not, what are some steps that you can take to get them back into alignment? Pick one. Start there and see if that impacts how you feel about your daily life.

‍

Implementing a Values-Driven Daily Routine

The picture at the right shows the guiding principles of the Eisenhower Matrix. The Eisenhower Matrix is based on a quote that Dwight D. Eisenhower used in a 1954 speech: "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." Here is how it works:

Top Left: Urgent and Important. These are things to DO. These are tasks with deadlines and/or consequences.

Bottom Left: Urgent, but not Important. These are things to DELEGATE. They need to get done, not necessarily by you.

Top Right: Important, but not Urgent. These are items to SCHEDULE or DECIDE WHEN to do them. They contribute to long-term happiness or success.

Bottom Right: Neither Important nor Urgent. These are items to DELETE. They are a distraction and unnecessary.

‍

Although there are other ways to prioritize, I like this one because it is very concrete and easy to plug in, especially in light of core values and how they might recede or emerge. Depending on the context, your mental or physical health may end up being on either the top left or right. Practicing kindness might be in the top left.

‍

Even if you are applying this to the workplace, specific tasks can still be done in accord with your values. Completion of a report or project can be done with kindness and respect. An important but non-urgent meeting can be scheduled for a time that benefits all parties. An urgent but not especially important task can be delegated to another staff member. Remember, too, that a task that gets deleted doesn't mean not ever--it just means not now. Moving a task off the board or out of the picture can ease your mind, as well as your colleague's or family member's.

‍

‍

‍

Another method of analysis that is similar, but frequently applied to project management is the MoSCoW method. MoSCoW is an acronym for:

• Must-have
• Should-have
• Could-have
• Won't-have

It is not much of a stretch to see how this could be applied to prioritizing day-to-day tasks. When using this method, I feel like I am able to examine my values in light of my activities; with the Eisenhower matrix, I feel as if I am scrutinizing my activities in light of my values. A very subtle distinction! You may want to use either or both when examining your routines. If you decide to do both, do you come up with consistent answers?

‍

One thing that I think all of us need to remember is that life is messy and confounding, and we're perfectly imperfect! A core value for me is grace--extending it to others, and remembering to extend it to myself. If you're in that messy and confounding spot right now, ChoreVoyant is here to help. We are masters of the things that fall into the bottom left quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix--those tasks you can delegate. Let's talk! Schedule a chat by clicking here.