What Comes First, Prioritization or Planning?

If you have a long list of to-dos and at times you feel like 24 hours is not enough, then setting priorities for your life is crucial if you want to get things done. Prioritization means to arrange (items to be attended to) in order of their relative importance. The more projects you are involved in and the more you do for your business and personal life, the more you need to prioritize your activities. Creating priorities is a bit different from planning your day.  What comes first, that wagon or the horse? In this case, what should you do first, plan, or prioritize?

You need to be clear on what is most important to you before you begin to plan your day. If you plan your day based on everything that needs to get done vs. planning your day according to importance, you may end up “doing” things but not accomplishing much. Here are three super simple things you can do prioritize your day before you plan:

1. What is most important for you today? Priorities can shift based on previous days, mood, etc. Before you begin your day, be clear on your intention and what you want to accomplish. If nothing else happens today, what must take place? Identify what you want to achieve and set your priority and intention for today based on that only. If you manage to accomplish others things, great! If not, you have accomplished what you set out to do, which is very powerful!
2. Limit your priorities. If everything that needs to get done seems to be of high importance to you, you must then use the ABCs of prioritization. After making your list, place an A next to things of super duper high importance that must get done today. Place a B next to things that should get done today but won’t stop you from moving forward if it doesn’t get done. Place a C next to the things that will only get done after everything else and won’t cause panic if they are not done.
3. Evaluate your progress. At the end of your day, look at what you accomplished and evaluate your efforts. If there is area for improvement, then note what went wrong and try again tomorrow. By taking a closer look at the way you handle your priorities will help you create a better success for each day that follows.

Prioritization is a learned skill and it gets better and better with time. Take time before beginning your day to get organized, prioritize, and then plan for your success! I’d love to hear how you organize your day and what has worked! Share your comments below!