Priority Management
Click here to receive insights in our weekly newsletter.
The key is to switch from time management to priority management. Time management is living by your calendar. Priority management is getting the most important things you need to do every day done.
This starts with knowing the difference between “urgent” and “important” tasks. This allows you to set priorities and allocate your time and resources well.
Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are usually associated with achieving someone else's goals. They are often the ones we concentrate on and they demand attention because the consequences of not dealing with them are immediate (such as responding to emails or attending a meeting).
Important activities have an outcome that leads to us achieving our goals, whether these are professional or personal.
Priority management starts with identifying the most important things we need to do in our lives, be they personal, professional, health-related, or work-related, and schedule them during the times of the day when we have the most energy. Of course we all have to do “urgent” tasks throughout the day - that’s just part of our lives. But you need to carve out time for your important tasks as well.
So instead of just scheduling meetings, schedule everything important to you. Schedule workouts, a monthly dinner out with your spouse, or playtime with your kids. If you are scheduling the urgent things and never getting to the important things, that’s a recipe for short-term frustration and long-term unhappiness.
Remember, more isn’t better - better is better.
We suggest using the Do Less to Achieve More builder to help you with this task. This will help you determine what your most important tasks are, and how to allocate time and energy each day and week to those tasks.
If you’re using the VIIVIO app, you can rate your concentration levels each day. To do this, click on the Plus icon at the bottom of the app, then click on Measure Think, and then Mindfulness. Then simply use the sliders to rate how focused you were on your important tasks that day. Try doing this every day this week and make it a goal to increase your score by the end of the week!
What are we finding in the research?
Since March, Morneau Shepell has released a monthly Mental Health Index, to shed light on the mental health challenges and trends during the COVID-19 pandemic. The index measures people’s mental health compared to before the pandemic, as well as factors that influence mental health.
One of the main findings of the October Index was around productivity and work effort. Here are some of these findings:
41% of people reported putting in greater effort at work compared to before the pandemic.
People who put in greater effort at work compared to before the pandemic had the lowest mental health scores.
Despite this, productivity has decreased in general compared to before the pandemic.
In short, despite people putting in more effort at work, productivity has decreased overall, people are feeling burnt out, and their mental health is suffering.
Let’s make it clear that we’re not suggesting that you slack off. Maintaining productivity is important. But working harder does not always mean working better. Clocking long hours and working late into the evening is not the recipe for success. And it’s affecting our mental health. We need to learn how to work smarter, not harder, and be more productive in less time. It’s time to switch from time management to priority management.
