5 Principles of Priority Setting

For Personal Effectiveness

To make progress in business and life, you need to get your priorities right. It is very important for you to be working on the right goals and tasks at the right time. Here are five principles to help you get the correct perspective:

1.      All goals do not have the same value.

Your priority setting begins with choosing the goals to pursue within any given time frame. Goals come in sizes. Some goals are so big that they appear impossible. The truth is that if you can imagine it, you can achieve it. However, the bigger the goal, the bigger the resources and time that you will have to commit to it. The temptation will be for you to always pursue small goals because the effort to accomplish them is less and results are visible in a shorter time frame. This is called trivial pursuit and leaves you achieving much less than your potential, over a long period.

2.      Some tasks are dependent on others.

In his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey identified doing first things first as one of the significant contributors to effectiveness. You need to identify the right sequence of the activities and tasks that will lead to the achievement of your set goals, so that you don’t put the cart before the horse. It will also help you to eliminate or reduce unnecessary waste. If, for example, you don’t peel cassava first before putting them in a grinding machine, what you will end up with may not be what your customers will pay for. In the science of achievement, process is far more important than content.

3.      Every idea has its own timing.

The fact that something needs to be done does not mean that it has to be done right now. There is an appropriate time and season for everything. One of the important components of success is knowing WHAT to do as well as WHEN to do it. A great idea can easily be defeated if the timing or atmosphere is not yet ripe for it. A fantastic effort may be wasted if carried out after the appropriate time for it. If, for example, you spend money on a very strong political campaign the day after an election has been conducted, it is not likely to achieve much.   

4.      Oftentimes, less is actually more.

When you concentrate your efforts on few activities at a time, you are more effective. Doing a lot of things at the same time can stretch out your mental, physical and financial resources in a manner that ensures none of the goals you are seeking is actually attained.

5.      Some people are better at certain things than you.

Delegating is a must if you want to achieve more per time frame. You need to identify the competencies of your team members and ensure that everyone is working on what he or she can do best. You also need to identify other individuals and businesses that can handle certain tasks better than anyone in your team and outsource those tasks to them.