To Get Things Done...Prioritize!!

We all have so many activities going on it seems like sometimes we just spin our wheels. The things we want to do often conflict with the things we need to do. Often we choose the pleasant activities and then run out of time for what we really need to get done. Several years ago I heard a statement that “the good things are the enemies of the best things because of lack of time.”

There are all kinds of choices we can make, but we do have limits on our time. Each of us must decide what’s important and place those items at the front. In his classic book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” Stephen Covey talks at length about “Putting First Things First.” Covey calls some tasks important and others urgent. Often the urgent get in the way of the important. While in the short term we must deal with urgent issues, long term success demands consistently being effective at our important issues. An example of an urgent issue would be discovering I have a flat tire and also have an appointment in Wichita in two hours. The tire must be fixed! One hour has been lost to an urgent need.

Absent the crisis I might have taken care of an important activity, such as preparation for my 8:00 class. Now I must shuffle my schedule and prioritize my time in reaction to the events of the day. Each day and week has its own scheduling adventures. We make our plans, set our priorities, and then remain flexible. The importance of prioritizing is that when our schedule falls apart we know the important tasks still needing attention. One last important topic in prioritizing is knowing when to work and when to play. Our society seems to get the greatest joy out of watching overpaid athletes play their games. While they succeed (at least monetarily) we become couch potatoes, often putting off much more important activities, such as actually having a conversation with each other.

I have discovered that there is more to life than sports. Rather than spend six hours watching NFL football, I spend 10-15 minutes seeing all the highlights on ESPN. That choice on my part leaves over five hours in my Sunday to share with my wife. We can have both activities by deciding what is important and prioritizing. In recent years my sports watching activities have been mainly confined to Southwestern College athletic events, mainly basketball. This started when I had several student athletes in classes and my wife and I began attending. Soon the events became family events with from one to four of my grandchildren attending with us. These became double-duty events as I enjoy the games and get to share them with our grandchildren. One activity didn’t have to give way to another, they just became blended.