How Your Top Priorities End Up at the Bottom of the List (and what to do about it)
Several years ago I analyzed recommendations from 250 experts about how to manage Overwhelm. Prioritization topped the list by a landslide.
Prioritization helps us focus, reduce cognitive overload and get things done. So how is it that we so often get to the end of the week and feel like we haven’t made any progress towards the things that are REALLY REALLY important?
- We have too many priorities at a given time
- Shiny objects keep distracting us
- We doubt our decision making capabilities
- We think we have more time than we actually do
- Life happens
We have way too many priorities
We are a society of multi-taskers. And especially for women, multi-tasking is often inevitable and necessary. However, having 10 priority projects going on at once in your business isn’t going to deliver results any faster. In fact, there is a growing body of evidence that multitasking does more harm than good. Both cognitive and business studies suggest that it’s best to focus on finishing a fewer number of projects rather than trying to make progress on everything all at once.
Shiny objects keep distracting us
When you are using social media as a tool to market your business, it’s impossible to avoid also receiving marketing messages. And once the algorithm discovers your interest area, you will be served every product and service that has even a fraction of overlap. And if you’re still looking to find your footing in your business, it’s pretty easy to start chasing all the rabbits wondering if wherever they’re going is a better path than the one you are traveling now. Which brings me to the next reason our priorities often fall away….
We doubt our decision making capabilities
The thing about business is that there’s no one way to get from point A to point B. The options are limitless and many possibilities will eventually work. And because there is no precise, predictable answer, there is always uncertainty. And uncertainty makes us uncomfortable. So when we see someone who already has the success we want, there is a reasonable tendency to wonder if their choices are better than ours. But in reality, the entrepreneurs who ultimately become successful are the ones that take consistent action rather than the ones that are constantly hopping from plan to plan.
We think we have more time than we actually do
When I teach my Find Your Ideal Price Point Workshop, part of the formula involves figuring out how much time you actually have to do the work that pays the bills. Most pricing models have you assume you have 40 hours in a week. But if you’re carpooling, grocery shopping, working out, caregiving and doing laundry, it’s entirely possible you have far fewer than 40 hours a week to actually work in your business. So even if you are good at setting a clear, concise set of business priorities, they may not take precedence over your life priorities.
Life Happens
And then there are all the things you didn’t expect to happen today or this week or this year. The flat tire. The leak in the washing machine. The speeding ticket that requires a trip to the DMV. Someone you care for gets sick. You get sick. That mistake on your credit card takes you five phone calls to correct. These are the parts of life, some bigger than others, that require your immediate attention and that’s how those priorities end up rolling over to next week.
So what can we do to prioritize the important stuff and make it stick?
- Begin by slashing the number of things you’ve got at the top of the list. No more than one or two strategic initiatives per year. Two or three projects per quarter. No more than two or three MUST DO tasks a day.
- Once you decide on a priority project, push through, with even one small action a day until it’s done. Then start on the next one. It doesn’t mean you can’t stop working on something if you get some data or some evidence that it’s no longer a good path. But if you head off in a new direction every time you see a convincing marketing video you’re going to make a lot of other businesses successful, but not yours.
- Get really realistic about how much time you have a day and a week to work on your business and in your business. If you’re not sure, try tracking your time for a week or two. I promise it will give you a ton of insight into how you run your business.
If launching a new offer (or reviving a current one) is on your list of priorities, check out my FREE Offer Creation Guide. It’s a step by step walkthrough of every decision you need to make to create ANY offer in ANY niche. No shiny objects whatsoever.
