Getting Things Done - GTD
Factors That Define Priorities for Action
AUTHOR: Francisco Sáez
"The key is not prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities." ~ Stephen Covey.
Gaining Control Through Engaging:
1. Gaining Control Through the Engaging Step
2. The Usefulness of Clear Next Actions
3. Factors That Define Priorities for Action
Let’s assume you’ve come this far in your quest to gain control through the implementation of your own GTD system, ie:
- You have captured everything that is relevant in your world.
- You have clarified what each thing means by identifying the next action to take.
- You have put reminders about it all in the appropriate lists.
- And you have made sure your system is complete and up-to-date.
Now, you are probably wondering: how am I going to assign the right priority to each action, in relation to the rest of the actions I have to perform?
Well, I’m sorry to tell you that the variables that affect this decision are too numerous and complex to be able to assign a simple number or type of priority (e.g. high, medium, low) to each of your tasks. Moreover, the combination of these variables is unique and changes so often that a given priority assigned to an action will become obsolete and inappropriate after a while.
The variables that determine your priorities are the six levels of perspective, the three limiting factors for action and the three options for the type of work you can choose to do at any given moment.
The six levels of perspective
The choice of your next task should be aligned with the commitments you have made in the different perspective horizons. This strategic thinking is fundamental to planning, achieving goals, and not neglecting long-term issues.
When you choose to perform a certain action, it will help you advance a project or maintain certain standards. Projects will allow you to move toward greater goals and serve your areas of responsibility. The results achieved will lead you to achieve your vision for the future, which in turn is a manifestation of your life purpose.
So, what are the actions that right now would allow you to best move through all of these elements?
You don’t need to ask yourself these kinds of questions every time you are going to choose the next action to take, but it’s good to define and work on your purpose, vision, goals, areas of focus and projects so you can make instant but informed decisions about your priorities.
Limiting factors at the time of taking action
Assuming you have thought enough about all your commitments, at each of the above levels of perspective, to be able to decide which projects are priorities at this time, you will find that there are certain factors that limit your possibilities when it comes to choosing what to do.
Context
Of all your next actions, which ones can you do now? In each moment, depending on where you are, who you are with and what tools you have at your disposal, there will be a subset of your actions that simply cannot be done. At each moment of the day, you can only do what can be done within the context in which you find yourself.
Context is the first factor that limits your options, and that is why the Next Actions list should be organized by contexts, so that you can see at each moment only those actions that you can do. And so you don’t stress yourself out by seeing the multitude of things you can’t do now. If you have a list of 100 or 150 actions organized by contexts, the actual list of possible actions to perform at any given time, under a given context, will be much shorter and more accessible.
Time Available
Another factor that limits what you can do is the time you have available. Most of your most strategic actions will require a significant amount of time to be carried out properly. These types of activities usually need time without distractions to get into a rhythm. If you only have ten minutes available and you want to be efficient, it is better to choose an action that you can work on comfortably in that time.
You will probably need to create a planning of blocks of time in which you can carry out your most important actions. This type of planning is usually done when you are doing the Weekly Review, since this is the moment when you will decide which things will have, a priori, a higher priority during the next week.
Energy
The third limiting factor when choosing the next action to perform is how much energy you have. Taking into account your current mental, emotional and physical energy, are you capable of carrying out the action you have chosen, with all the guarantees?
You may be in the right context and have an hour to do an important task. But you may have just come out of an intense meeting and don’t have the necessary attention span at the moment. In that case, it’s better to look for other tasks that better fit your state of mind. Or perhaps taking a break to regain your energy is another option.
Having a complete inventory of your possible next actions will allows you to choose to do small tasks (which must be done anyway) when your energy is depleted. Often, doing anything simple will re-energize your mental state and you will be able to reach a sufficient level to take on more demanding tasks again.
Work options
Another factor that comes into play when deciding what to do is to choose whether you are going to execute actions that you already have on your lists, or you are going to execute some action that has come up at the moment, or you are going to process your pending captures to keep your inventory of possible tasks up to date.
Predefined work
The predefined work is that which you already have in your lists of actions, projects, goals, etc., but you can only do actions, i.e. choose a next action from your lists according to the limitations we have talked about above.
Work as it appears
Even when you have your inventory of actions fully up to date, at any time something may come up to do that is not on your lists. There are basically two types of unplanned work:
- The maintenance activities that need to be done every day and don’t need any planning: meeting a friend for lunch, walking the dog, taking a break, etc.
- Surprises. Suddenly, something happens or someone forces you to do something.
If you decide to do all the things that suddenly come up, your projects and objectives will not move forward, and you will lose control of your life.
The ideal way to deal with surprises is to have access to a complete inventory of pending actions against which you can check this new task. If, even if it is something unexpected, you decide to do it because it really is the most important thing you can do at that moment, your decision will be the product of efficient personal management.
When something new comes along, you need to be able to negotiate with yourself whether you should drop everything else and get on with it. But you can only do that if your lists are complete and your commitments perfectly clear.
Defining work
The third type of activity you can devote your time to is to clarify your work, that is, to process all the inboxes you have pending to update your inventory of options.
Defining your work involves thinking and that takes time. It’s a part of your job that you’ll have to do on a daily basis.
When should you choose this option? It depends on your activity and workload: how long can you comfortably go without checking your email?
Conclusion
As you can see, defining priorities is not that simple. Besides, you’ll never have enough information to make the best possible decision. In the end, you will have to rely on your intelligence and intuition.
However, your ability to prioritize is much better when you rely on a system that incorporates all the factors necessary for good prioritization.
To start, capture, clarify and organize your tasks as best you can, and spend some time thinking about your perspective horizons. From that base, work, correct the flaws you find and repeat. Motion is the key.
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