Prioritizing vs. Organizing
(+ one simple exercise for CLARITY)
Welcome to “All the Tasks Fit to Print,” my weekly newsletter on all issues productivity related for authors and other solopreneurs!
When you look at your to-do list, how do you know the difference between when a task is urgent versus when it is important?
Isn't that close to the same thing? What does it even mean to prioritize something when everything needs to be done right now?????????
It's not your fault that you feel overwhelmed! There is an inherent problem with prioritizing tasks, one that labels cannot fix.
I'm going back to basics for this issue of "All the Tasks Fit to Print" newsletter, which means we need to talk about the Eisenhower Matrix:
This is one of the older time management techniques, and yes, the name refers to a former president of the United States who, in fact, inspired it (Dwight D. Eisenhower). It has waxed and waned in popularity over the years, but remains useful because it is very useful! I mentioned it my newsletter post "Unscramble Your Brain" as a way to prioritize the items/tasks/goals from a productivity brain dump. And it is very good for that! But it's not as useful as it appears.
Its limitation is that it is only good for prioritizing, not organizing!
What do I mean by that?
A lot of people first found out about the Eisenhower Matrix in Stephen Covey's classic book, First Things First, which came out in 1994. I was already a Covey junky due to his 1989 hit, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People so I eagerly latched on to the simple idea of the four quadrant tool. (Yes I was a teenager but also, I had been using the classic Day-Timer personal organizer since I was about twelve years old, so I guess my drive to "be productive" was baked in! Or maybe I was just a nerd?)
As I was researching for the post about doing a productivity brain dump, I came across something Covey wrote in First Things First which is often glossed over:
It's important to realize that urgency itself is not the problem. The problem is that when urgency is the dominant factor in our lives, importance isn't.
He goes on to explain how the matrix helps solve that problem, but I think a bigger truth is revealed in that simple statement because it shows how easy it is to get carried away trying to prioritize all our tasks to the point of forgetting why we are doing those tasks.
After all, the determining factor on why something is important is the role it plays in our guideposts (my term for high-level goals or personal purpose). But if you are busy fighting through all the things that are urgent then not only does it become the dominant factor, it overshadows the very reasons you are working so hard in the first place.
There is a proper hierarchy here, which is not clearly seen in prioritization tools like the Eisenhower Matrix because it either assumes or disregards the necessary act of organization. This is the step BEFORE, the FIRST thing you need to do before trying to prioritize. The order should be as follows:
Organize
Assign importance
Determine urgency
You can sort things on the Eisenhower Matrix until the cows come home, but that will not solve the problem of organizing all your tasks. This is why I usually only recommend it as a tool for daily task management. Draw a new matrix every day first thing in the morning or once a week and it will be really helpful!
But you need to organize first.
How to Back Up and Organize
I am the first to tell you that organizing all the projects you have going on in life is not easy or simple. There is a reason "personal productivity" is several shelves of books in any (good, independent) bookstore. However if you have done something like the Eisenhower Matrix, or tagged everything in your productivity app with things like "do NOW!" and "Important!!!!" then it is time to take a deep breath. And another. Maybe a third really deep breath! Can't hurt!
If you are not in a position to immediately sit down and start implementing my Personal Projects Management™ method or Charlie Gilkey's Start Finishing system or even David Allen's Getting Things Done™ approach — and that's understandable, each of those takes time and energy and focus to gear up — then at least do the following easy (easier?) steps. Don't worry, I'm keeping it simple. In fact, the first step is to actually start with the Eisenhower Matrix!
Take your to-do list or task list(s) for the week (or month, if you are feeling adventurous!) and plug everything into the matrix. You might need to draw a grid on a large sheet of paper to hold everything. That's okay!
Look at all the things listed in the "Urgent & Important" square (the upper left square). Get out four highlighters or colored pens and mark everything in that square with a color:
Personal (doctor appointments, yoga class, meet up with friends for lunch)
Business (anything related to your business)
Family/Household (your kid's piano recital, your parent's doctor visit, the plumber coming by to fix the sink)
Side projects/side hustles/other stuff (pretty much anything that doesn't fit into the above)
That's it!
Honest! That's all you have to do to start!
The purpose of this exercise is to get you to start viewing your task list in terms of projects and goals instead of "urgent" or "important." Prioritizing your tasks is incredibly helpful, but only in the context of your larger goals and purpose. Looking at the matrix with your projects clearly, cleanly demarcated allows you to filter that long list in a way that gives it a built-in structure and allows you to really see what you are doing and where you are spending your time.
Is it OK if I toss housework into the "Delete" quadrant? That's my idea of organizing. (Big 7 Habits fan here.) Must not live in the Tyranny of the Urgent.