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Getting Things Done: How I Set Priorities

January 20th, 2010 · Comments · Business Process, How To, Productivity

Ross Kimbarovsky asks: “How do you decide what to do next? Should you write a blog post? Answer emails in your inbox? Make several sales calls? Spend time on Twitter? Or should you call a team meeting to discuss a customer problem?

Ross adds that successful people are successful in part “because they are good at setting priorities. And while there are many different ways to set priorities, I wanted to share how I set my own priorities.”

Getting Things Done – How I Set Priorities from Ross Kimbarovsky on Vimeo.

Getting Things Done: How I Set Priorities

For me, it’s all about planning. And planning, by extension, is decision-making.

  1. At the end of every business day, I review what I’ve done. Takes 5 min. What did I forget to do? This goes to the top of next day’s schedule.
  2. I get up around 6am to get a head start and beat the kids getting up.
  3. I ignore the emails for 1 hour. Nothing is that urgent.
  4. I plan my day – what is critical goes first, then what I need to do and the rest can wait
  5. When all of this is done, I check emails, watch cats doing ninja tricks and what not
  6. I have a super quick review at 11.45 before lunch
  7. I have a super quick review at 2.45 to make sure I’m still on track.

All this is done on my pad. Writing it down seems to make it more permanent. I like to cross things off when I’ve conquered a task!

Small rewards as we go along. Nothing fancy.

Closing my inbox during the work day was/is the biggest way to save time. And, of course, turn off the phone.

How do you organize your day?

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  • snowgoon
    This presumes you are in control of everything you do, that you decide what needs done and have no customer. Once I have a prioritised list, yes I do much the same as you, but you aren't covering HOW those things you choose to do that day, end up being the things you HAVE to do that day.

    If you see what I mean.

    In other words, you are working through a big list, but how do you decide which items on the list to do first? Are you working from a plan?
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