I’m now two months in with my new role as Chief Market Strategist at StockCharts.com and, as expected, my to-do list has seemed to grow exponentially. Besides getting my family all settled in a new region of the country, I’m trying to absorb as much as I can as I meet coworkers and scope out new projects and initiatives.
Needless to say, I very quickly realized I had an insurmountable pile of tasks and items in tons of different places. I would scratch out things to remember on the top of other meeting notes, I’d shout items to Siri to help me remember them later, and I’d even resort to the tried and true post-it notes on my monitor. You know, for the *really* important stuff.
A couple of weeks ago, I realized it was getting completely out of control and I made a point of going back and reading my own blog posts on how I allegedly manage my calendars, ideas, and priorities.
My world has become a bit more complex since I wrote those articles, as I’m still working to evolve my own business as I focus my attention on my new role in Seattle. But I used the articles as inspiration to reflect on how I could get on top of all my various roles and responsibilities.
At some point, I’ll revisit each of the articles and update them with my latest thinking, but for now, I wanted to share some thoughts on how to prioritize. Because even if you’re not 100% organized, your first step should be to focus on the most important things. Otherwise, you’ll end up using your limited time on less important items and that’s the way the really meaningful stuff never gets addressed!
So here are the five steps you can use to prioritize your priorities.
1) Get things all in one place.
The first step is to get everything out of your head. Get them down on paper, on an Excel spreadsheet, somewhere. I used to use my daily planner for this, then I started using a separate “rainy day projects” notebook to capture all the stuff that didn’t fit into my planner.
Now I rely on Workflowy to capture tasks and arrange them according to the major projects happening in my life. That way I can always look for a specific section (for example, Market Misbehavior YouTube channel) and immediately see all the things I’ve identified as the next steps for that project.
2) Elevate the most important items.
Once a week, during my Weekly Planning Session, I go through all of the items in Workflowy and make sure they are prioritized effectively. What is the most important item in each bucket that will help me move things forward in a meaningful way? Those move to the top of the list.
Once I get past the top 2-3 items, the order becomes a little less important. I just want to make sure that when I consider each project, I’m immediately thinking of the most valuable step I can take this week.
3) Start at the top.
Here’s the real key to the system. Start at the top of the list! We love to mess around with items down the list- the “low hanging fruit” that are easy to cross off but unfortunately really don’t add as much value.
In my Weekly Planning Session, I try to make the top item in each bucket become a “One Big Thing” for each day. Each day now brings an opportunity to move the ball forward in a key area.
4) Focus on what’s important.
Now we get to the “execution” part, a.k.a. the tricky part. I have a paper planner and its main purpose at this point in my life is to make sure I focus on the most important tasks for each day. I use Asana for more routine tasks like reviewing ideas for this week’s blog posts or my weekly review of the charts that are key to my investment process.
But the things I write in my paper planner are the things that will truly help me make a difference for my employer, help me grow my business, and help me create new opportunities. That’s the really good stuff.
5) Minimize distractions.
The best way to stay focused on what’s important is to minimize the chance of your thinking becoming derailed but things are not important. Turn off notifications. Find a quiet place and do deep thinking and take action that will really make a difference.
What do you do to manage your own priorities? Tell me on Twitter.
RR#6,
Dave
Disclaimer: This blog is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. Please see the Disclaimer page for full details.