When you are looking at jumpstarting your vision the list of todos may seem a little daunting and it can be hard to know where to start. A big list can cause a lot of indecision. Indecision creates procrastination. Procrastination creates confusion and frustration because our dreams aren’t turning into reality. Our dreams aren’t turning into realities because we are not taking action. We are not taking action because we can’t decide where to start. But nobody panic. These are all signs that it’s time to prioritize.
Prioritizing is all about determining what is most important. What things are primary to achieving your goal and what things are secondary. Let’s say we have a service that we want to start offering. On our list of things to do we have: Make business cards, get a sign for the car, order uniforms, call the two prospects we have who might use our service. All the items on our list are good things, but we can’t do them all at the same time. Looking at this list what is the one item that has the highest potential for getting our business off and running? Calling the two prospects. Business cards are not as important as the leads you already have.
Bryan Tracy talks about this concept of prioritizing. He says that a lot of people like to start their day off with secondary tasks because they are typically easier and quicker to accomplish. But as the morning goes on they get side tracked from their list because of other necessary activities. If this becomes a routine, the primary items continually get overlooked. The primary items are things that can be more complicated, more difficult and even the most uncomfortable things to do, but they yield the greatest return. The highly successful are not successful just because they can get a todo list done. They are successful because they pick and choose the things that have the highest potential yield of return.
Let’s look at another example where determining primary and secondary tasks can be very beneficial. Let’s say the kids are going crazy from being home all day, which also means the house is a mess, there is nothing to make for dinner, and there is laundry that needs to get done. In this kind of environment it can get a little stressful, feel overwhelming and impossible to get anything done. But here is where determining priorities will change your life. What is the most important thing on this list? It is the sanity of your family. There is no sense in having clean close when your family is going crazy. All of these items need to get sorted out but there is an order that will work a lot better than another. It can be hard for some to leave a mess, but the mess is a byproduct of the unused energy of the people in the house. Fix the source of the problem, then everyone can better help sort the rest of the list out latter. Priorities can change your life.
What are the things you keep thinking about that have the highest potential of return? Those are the things you want to get into.