PRIORITY MEANS FIRST

“You gotta make it a priority to make your priorities a priority.” Richie Norton, bestselling author

In his book "The ONE Thing," Gary Keller provides obvious but fascinating insight about the word 'priority'. He says, “To be precise, the word is PRIORITY, not PRIORITIES, and it originated in the 14th century from the Latin prior meaning FIRST.” So, if the word means the First, you can't use it in the plural, right? How many ‘firsts’ you may have after all?!

The problem is that when we turn priority into plural, we get overwhelmed by many things we want to achieve in a day, week, or month. When we prioritize too many things, all we get is a lack of focus on our work and relationships.

If my priority for this morning was family breakfast and writing the newsletter, and I couldn’t write and prepare/have breakfast simultaneously, I needed to prioritize one thing. So, breakfast was my one priority for the morning. And newsletter for the afternoon. I know it's easier to talk about a Saturday morning breakfast followed by writing the newsletter, and it gets more complicated when it comes to workday and workweek. But if you try to start your day with a PRIORITY and prioritize things one after another rather than ten things at once, you will go through the day less stressed and more satisfied with what you accomplished.

If we keep reminding ourselves that we can only have one priority at any given time of the day, we will feel less stressed and stop trying to squeeze too many things into our day. And indeed, the random stuff, phone calls, and unexpected circumstances will happen. So, how can you still ‘keep priority singular’? These are three simple tips I would like to share:

1.????Allow more time for your priority than you know you need. For example, if it takes me 1 hour to write the newsletter, I will ‘budget’ 1,5 hours. This extra scheduled time will fit in the unforeseen and allow the interruptions.

2.????Give your priority your full attention. In my example above, if I keep thinking about writing my newsletter, I will rush my time with family and enjoy it less.

3. Schedule an appointment with your priority in your calendar ?? I know this may sound crazy but having a 'meeting' with the newsletter in my calendar helped me keep it a priority despite interruptions and temptations!

When you have PRIORITIES, you effectively have no PRIORITY. And it’s only when you have a PRIORITY you get the things done, as you always have time for the things you put first.?