The Best Way To Prioritize Tasks
I learned this from the Eisenhower Decision Matrix and I've used it in many settings.
Is it important?Is it urgent?Will it take 2 minutes or less?Then do it now.
2 Minute Action:
Line up your tasks for today.
- If a task is important and urgent, give it a [1].
- If it's important but not urgent, give it a [2].
- If it's not important but it's urgent, give it a [3].
- If it's neither important nor urgent, give it a [4].
If it takes 2 minutes or less to do any of these tasks, put a * in front of it.Do all the *[1]s first.
The Only Thing That Will Get You Through Bad Situations
It's so bad, but you have to get through it.The only way out is psychological reframing.
The reality of how bad things are isn't going to change.
So if you can't change that, the only thing you can do is change your attitude.Military groups call it "embracing the suck."
It sucks. In fact, it sucks for all of us.
Once you can adjust to that, you can stop complaining and get going.
The faster you can adjust, the faster you can move forward.
So, it's not about avoiding the suck or alleviating the suck--that's often not feasible.The trick is to adjust quickly and make things happen anyway.
2 Minute Action
What's something that is going to suck no matter what you do?
- Working out.
- Dieting.
- Sales calls.
- Surgeries.
- Angry customers.
- Absent students.
- Car accidents.
- Being mugged.
- Having your business robbed.
These are just a few examples off the top of my head.I bet you can think of a few in your own life and take the next two minutes to mentally embrace the suck.Once you do, you will already be more resilient and ready for the next mission.
Don't Do More And Don't Do Less, Here's Why
If you're like me, you probably think a lot about doing more.
How can I increase my output?How can I check off more tasks?How can I reduce friction so I can get more done?
And here's the part where I'm about to start talking about doing less.
Right? This is where I go into a tirade about how we should be focusing on doing fewer things, better.
The truth is, that might be true for some of us.
For others, you might just really love the feeling of checking stuff off your list.And that might change depending on where you are in your career or life.
It might be true for a while and then not true later on.
And vice-versa.The most important thing here is just knowing what makes you happy.If you're like me, feeling like I'm making the world a better place is the feeling of happiness.So it's not really checking off boxes, for me--it's seeing real-world results that I impacted.
2 Minute Action
Write down a list of 5 times you felt most alive.Write down a list of 5 times you felt most dead.Boom.Now you know what kind of experiences to integrate into your life.