Feb 25, 2022 3 min read Productivity

Choosing your priorities

There is a million things you could work on every day. How do you choose your priorities? How do you determine what is the right thing to make progress on?

There is a million things you could work on every day.

How do you choose your priorities? How do you determine what is the right thing to make progress on?

Over the years, I have compiled a couple of questions that have helped me to get clarity on what I should tackle next. So I thought I’d share them with you today:

What projects can I start / finish where I already have 70-90% done?

A project only matters if you bring it over the finish line. So the first step for me is always to scan my list for projects and look for things where I have already made considerable progress on and only require the last 20-30% of effort get it done.

This might seem obvious, but at this very moment check how many pending projects you have in your head that you procrastinated on for a couple weeks and only need that last push. Oftentimes we are more excited about starting the new and shiny project than finishing and polishing the ones we are working on for a while already.

Another note, for a surprising amount of projects we have way more material we created in the past and that can be re-used than we think.

→ Skim your Google Drive folders, your emails and your note taking tool for past deliverables that you can recycle for a current project you are working on.

What projects could I remove from my list?

The next question is about removing projects from your plate that you are not excited about anymore or for whatever reason became less important than you thought they would be initially.

You can ask questions like:

If I did not have this opportunity or project already in front of me, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?
If I wasn't involved in this project, how hard would I work to get on it?
Does this project excite me? Does it feel like too much of a drain on your time and energy?
What is the desired outcome of this project? Does it create permanent value? Why and how?

Which projects are my own and which ones are (perceived) obligations to others?

Without knowing it, we start projects (or even companies) because we feel like we should. A friend told us to try it or we read an article on the internet about how everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and we could miss out if we are not acting fast. So ask yourself:

Was this project initiated by you or did family, friends, colleagues, the internet or society encourage you to work on it?
Which projects are on the list because you feel like they should be, but you’re not truly committed to them?
Which ones are there because you’d feel guilty removing them?

Which projects are dear to your heart?

Is there something you have to work hard at to get right, something that you want to get right because you care enough about it, no matter how much time and practice it takes? Is there something that gets you up a little early, or keeps you working late, after others have gone to sleep? Not because the project is due the next day, but because it’s important to you to make a little more progress? Not every day and night, but reliably.

What larger goals and projects force me to change my life in an interesting way?
What activities do I return to over and over even though they are hard?

Before you try one of the traditional prioritization frameworks below, I gently encourage you to ponder the questions above first. Because these questions clarify your commitment, your energy and the utility of the projects on your list, BEFORE you start prioritizing.