Easy As 1-2-3: Choose Your Priorities

Choose 3 Priorities

If you’re anything like me, you must have an enormous to-do list.

We have so much to get done—not just for our jobs but also for our homes, relationships, and ourselves.

It may seem counterintuitive, but I want to show you how focusing on getting less done can actually make you more productive. Less is more, you know.

All you need to do is choose 3 daily priorities.

Look at your to-do list in the morning and determine which items are your highest priorities. They should be things that must get done or else something bad will happen later. They should also be urgent and important.

Some examples of high-priority tasks include paying your bills, picking up your husband from the airport, sending a report to your client, or setting up a doctor’s appointment to get a scary mole checked out.

Now, out of all your high-priority tasks, choose 3 that are the most critical to complete today. Be ruthless!

By focusing on just 3 tasks, you can target in to what’s really most important without getting distracted by less important tasks (like checking Facebook, vacuuming the house, or watching TV).

You’ll also get to experience the energy of completion; that amazing feeling of finishing a project and crossing it off your list. If you concentrate on all of your tasks at once, you’ll never feel that completion energy.

By getting a few (super important) things done, you’ll be motivated to continue on to the next items without getting overwhelmed.

After you finish your top 3 tasks for the day, you may decide to review your master to-do list again and pick 3 new priorities.

But be careful about starting another task the same day. If you burn yourself out, you’ll have no energy to focus on tomorrow’s priorities!

“It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.” Bruce Lee

How do you focus on what’s most important?

Have you ever purposefully decided to do less?

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2 Comments

  1. Emily_Joyce on January 23, 2013 at 4:06 pm

    I learned to do this last year, and it’s so helpful! I used to make gigantic to-do lists for each day, and now I try really hard to keep my daily lists to three, just the three that are most urgent and important. Once I get those done, I can tackle other things from my “soon” list. It’s so much more satisfying to cross off everything on my list every day. The energy of completion that you mentioned helps me tackle the other things, without getting discouraged about how much left there is to do. This is such a helpful habit, I’m glad you’re writing about it!



    • Sage Grayson on January 23, 2013 at 7:19 pm

      My master to-do list is enormous! 3 important things a day is all I can handle, and I’m OK with that. Thanks for the nice comment. 🙂