Prioritize – Is It Important or Urgent?
The ability to prioritize is a valuable skill. If you don’t know what is important and how that differs from what is urgent, your workday will be less productive and probably frustrating. And, if you were to journal your workdays, you would probably find that you are much more tired on days that you are focused on the wrong tasks.
“If it’s a priority, you’ll find a way. If it isn’t, you’ll find an excuse.” Jim Rohn
Some of the things that are challenging when you need to prioritize:
- Are you easily distracted and start working on whatever is in front of you at that moment?
- Do you have too few resources?
- Is it easy for you to get hung up on perfection?
- Are you frequently overwhelmed?
- Do you have many inflexible or unrealistic goals?
Do you know the big difference between those that are successful and those who aren’t?
The ability to prioritize and focus on the right things. Do you spend most of your time doing tasks that help grow your business or your career? Have you improved your skills and increased your passion for your work? If the answer is no, it is time to learn how to prioritize.
Start a list right now
Put everything on the list you do daily, weekly, monthly and annually.
- Each item on your list should fit into one of 4 categories:
- Urgent and important
- Important, but not urgent
- Urgent, not important
- Not important and not urgent
You will quickly see that your main focus should be on Urgent and Important and Important, but not urgent. Most items that fall into the other 2 categories may be outdated processes that don’t need to be done anymore, chaotic items that occur from poor planning, lack of flexibility or old technology. When you prioritize, do whatever you can to put those 2 categories at the bottom of your list, way, way behind the more important tasks that help you be more productive.
Need help to prioritize?
If you have way too much on your plate, it would be great to decide which tasks and projects are important to push the company forward and then say no to the non-essentials. But not everyone has the option to say no to their boss or make those decisions. One way that may help is to take the organized list of your tasks both short term and long term and ask your boss to help you prioritize. This not only helps you prioritize what the company considers important, but it reminds the boss of what you have on your desk. Sometimes they tend to forget who is doing what. Hang on to those lists, they may help you next time you are negotiating for a raise!
Prioritize with your team
When you are part of a team, the ability to prioritize often affects everyone on the project. Each team member’s work can affect the timeliness and quality of the rest of team. We’ve all been on a team at some point in our school or work life where we had to do more than our share of the work or had to wait for someone else’s work before we could finish our own tasks. A good plan and regular communication throughout the project will help everyone prioritize and stay on the right track:
- Accurate and detailed description of the project
- Due date of the finished project
- A task list and realistic deadlines for those tasks throughout the project
- Accountability for each deadline
- Clear task assignments
- Follow up on any delegated tasks
- Document successful strategies and any negative outcomes
Take the time to hire people that know how to prioritize
When you are interviewing candidates to hire, ask questions about how they prioritize. Give them some examples of real situations and find out how they would handle it. Employees who know how to prioritize can make an immense difference by using time and resources to help your company reach its goals.
Partnering with a CRA (Consumer Reporting Agency) with the services you need to fill in your HR gaps can be an economical solution that also helps you stay in compliance. The right CRA partner can help you recruit, integrate your system, perform background checks, provide education and license verification, drug testing at convenient locations, and support throughout the process.
Perform due diligence both legally and ethically for your employees and customers. A professional CRA partner pays for itself by avoiding costly hiring mistakes. For a free consultation or more information, contact Genesis Background Screening Services at 866 944-0041 ext 101. Online, email or visit www.genesisbackgroundscreening.com. You can sign up to be emailed whenever we post a new blog at https://genesisbackgroundscreening.com/subscribe-to-the-blog/
Genesis Background Screening is not a law firm and provides our blogs for informational purposes only. Blog is not a substitute for experienced legal advice. Research laws or regulations mentioned in our blogs and ask your legal counsel any questions you have to be sure your organization is within the law and compliant with regulations.
Jacqueline McClure
Genesis Background Screening Services
