Let’s say you just cleaned your desk at home, made a coffee, and are finally ready to finish that item on your to-do list that you have been painfully working away at all week. Not even 5 minutes in, you get a text from your friend asking if you could help out with an assignment. Apparently, it’s urgent and you seem to be the only person that is capable of helping out. What do you do?
It sucks to admit it, but we are the most overstimulated humans in history. This means our attention spans are at an all-time low, stress levels at an all-time high, and screen times through the roof, so it’s not a surprise most of us struggle with prioritizing. I mean, it’s hard for anyone to pick which ball to catch when there are thousands of baseballs being pitched to you at the same time.
You’re probably wondering what the big deal is; after all we suck at prioritizing, so what’s the point of trying to get good at it? Let me tell you one thing: the most successful people in the world are experts at this. Being an excellent prioritizer gives you the ability to execute as fast as possible, wasting no time being stuck in a state of uncertainty and get whatever you need to get done, done.
One of my goals a couple years ago was to be the most time efficient as possible. I searched articles online, used a bunch of productivity apps, tried countless methods, but I ended up even more overwhelmed trying to micromanage my life. What worked? The exact opposite of what you would expect; disconnecting from everything and thinking about what the biggest problem that needed to be solved was.
While I do recommend trying out as many methods as you can on how to figure out an order of completing tasks, I guarantee that you will have the most mental clarity when not looking at a screen or a schedule. It really is that simple.