5 Ways to Focus On What Really Matters

1. Set 3 Most Important Tasks (MITs) for the day. Often the best way to find out what the most important tasks are is to narrow down your three most important items for the day. Ask yourself: “If I could only do three things today, what would I feel the most fulfilled in doing?”

2. Focus on providing value. One of the easiest ways for me to discover whether I’m working on important or urgent items is asking myself how much value it will provide myself or others. I know going to the gym, writing articles and spending quality time with my wife will have a more long term impact than sorting files, checking my site stats every 30 minutes and playing Tetris. Ask yourself: “How much value will this provide me, or someone else?”

3. Think long-term. Another great way to find out how important the work you’re doing is, is to focus on how long-term of an impact it will have. Clearing out my inbox will have a much shorter impact than writing an article that people will be able to read for years to come. Going to the gym and eating a healthy breakfast will have a much greater impact than the short term rush of drinking a grande soy latte. Ask yourself: “Will this make a difference a week, month or year from now? Five years?”

4. First things first. I find the best way for me to complete my MITs is to start on them right away in the morning. When I spend my time working on non-important but urgent items I end up getting caught up in trying to put out the next fire. Also, when I try to work on my important tasks later in the day, there’s usually more distractions and more interruptions. Finishing my most important tasks in the beginning of the day ensures that if the afternoon comes and I get bombarded with busy-work, I can still finish the day feeling that I accomplished what I wanted to.

5. Have a clear vision. This goes along with setting your most important tasks, but here we’re thinking about our long-term vision. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Creating a vision is about seeing objectively where you’d like to be in the next 5, 10 or 20 years. It also can include what accomplishing those objectives will feel like, what it will look like, sound, smell and taste like. When we have a clear vision of what we want the future to look like, it’s a lot easier to stay on task and not get caught up in answering the next email or voicemail. Think about whether or not the work you’re doing is moving you closer to your vision, or if it won’t make much of a difference tomorrow or next week.

Source: Important vs. Urgent: 5 Ways to Focus On What Really Matters