A comment from Mark Shead has really gotten me thinking about how priorities work in your day. Thanks alot Mark! I mean really, thanks!

Here’s what Mark said:

I find that I’m most productive when I’m concentrating on as few things as possible. So if I give myself 1 decent sized goal for the day, I’ll do better than a list of 75 items.

In general this is really good advice, but if you are going to follow it, there’s going to be a lot more work. A lot more work to do less work. How strange is that?

Ask yourself this question: If I can only do one thing today, what would it be?

Answering that question may shed more light on your real priorities than you expected. A further twist on the question is: If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, what would I do today? While that would probably eliminate working on your long term goals, it might help you define what is really important to you. Another question you might ask is: If I could only spend money on one thing today, what would it be? Inevitably, the thing that you are willing to spend money on is your real priority.

How to find the one thing.

What are we talking about now? Your one life purpose or the one thing you really have to do today. How about we stick to just the one thing you need to do today and we leave the really big question for another post or another blog?

In sorting through all the things I could be doing today here’s what I do:

1. I try to pick the hardest thing to do. If it also fits the other criteria, then I have found my highest priority for the day.
2. I consider any time restraints I may have. Is there something that has to be done today? Am I under a deadline? A deadline actually works in my favour because it gives me added motivation.
3. I try to decide what would seriously affect my life if I didn’t do it. That helps me decide how important it really is.
4. Is my wife making me do it? -just kidding-

Usually the first and most important item on my daily list is the item that meets the greatest number of these criteria.

Finding the most important priority for your day doesn’t mean that’s all you do. It’s just where you start. This is just one way to make sure that you get the most important things done. If you don’t do them first, they often don’t get done.

How do you decide what is the most important thing for your day? Let me know in the comments.

Incidently if you haven’t checked out Mark’s blog it’s productivity501.com and it’s worth looking at.