“If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.” –Lou Holtz
It can be confusing when you’re trying to figure out time management. It doesn’t need to be if you stick with a simple rule of thumb:
Organize your goals by priority and value.
When you have clarity of your goals, priorities and value, you evaluate how you spend your time.
You can also use this information to help you identify your higher value activities and your most valuable tasks.
And to avoid analysis paralysis and getting stuck, simply zero in on your highest priority at the moment.
Where most people lose in time management is they don’t have a simple set of goals and priorities, or they take on too much at once, or they haven’t really thought through the value of achieving their outcome.
Not you.
In the book, Goals!: How to Get Everything You Want — Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible, Brian Tracy shares proven practices for getting started with time management.
Work on Your Most Valuable Tasks
If you keep working your most valuable tasks, then you have a simple recipe for generating continuous value.
Tracy writes:
“If the front side of the coin of success is the ability to set clear goals for yourself, then the flip side of the same coin is the ability to get yourself organized and work on the most valuable tasks, every minute of every day. Your choices and decisions have combined to create your entire life to this moment. To change or improve your life in any way, you have to make new choices and new decisions that are more in alignment with who you really are what you really want.”
Organize Your Goals by Priority and Value
If you organize your goals by priority and value, then you’re ahead of the game.
Tracy writes:
“The starting point of time management is for you to determine your goals and then to organize your goals by priority and value. You need to be absolutely clear, at any given moment, exactly what is most important to you at that time.”
Zero In On Your Highest Priority at the Moment
Focus is your ultimate friend when it comes to taking action and getting results.
Tracy writes:
“At one moment, it could be a business financial, or career goal. Later it could be a family or relationship goal. On still another occasion it could be a health or fitness goal. In each case, you must be like a sniper, zeroing in on your highest priority at the moment, rather than a machine gunner, shooting randomly by attempting to do too many things at the same time.”
Here’s a quick way to make the most of this approach. Have a short list of your top 3-5 goals. Rate and rank them so you know your priorities.
Assign a simple value of 1-10, where 10 is high impact. It can help to know whether you think one goal is a 7 out of 10, and another is a 5 out of 10.
Numbers helps us differentiate where differentiation can be tough.
You Might Also Like
The Goals Guide
10 Big Ideas from Agile Results
10 Reasons That Stop You From Reaching Your Goals
How Tony Robbins Transformed His Life with Goals
How Tony Robbins Sets Goals
How John Maxwell Sets Goals
How Dreams, Goals, and Habits Fit Together
Create If-Then Plans to Stick With Your Goals
The Three Wins Approach – Chunk Your Tasks into Meaningful Results
The Life Hot Spots Framework: 7 Categories for Balancing Your Life
How To Set Goals and Achieve Them
How I Create Better To-Do Lists the Agile Way
How To Use 3 Wins to Have Your Best Year Ever
How To Use Three Wins for Change and Transformation
How Tony Robbins Transformed His Life with Goals