Sunday, May 13, 2007

Priority Is A Noun

How did your Priority 3 Challenge go? Have you completed it yet or do you have some tasks that cannot be accomplished in one day as Bes Zain over at The Reasoner did? Which, by the way is a more levelheaded way of facing tasks. Put a time limit on it and it will get done.

Priority is a noun. A noun is a person, place or thing. Priority is a Thang! That thang we must do in order to be successful, organized and at peace with ourselves. If you don’t give yourself enough time to complete a project then you set yourself up for failure.

What about substitutions? Are they justifiable? For instance, my top 3 priorities for Saturday were 1) go to gym, 2) file papers and 3) do book research. Those tasks vaporized the minute I wrote them on paper.

In place of going to the gym:

I took both dogs to the park.
Instead of filing papers in my office, I paid some bills.
As an alternative to doing research on my book, I worked on an assignment for a writing course I signed up for.


This is how I see it. I got some exercise, I worked in my office and I worked on a writing assignment. Can you see a paradox in this? I know I’m stretching it but hey, what’s a girl to do?

Even though the tasks that I did complete were not on my top 3 list for Saturday, they are on my master list. It’s ok to switch around isn’t it? I can answer that. The point about setting priorities is that they do change just as goals change. What should NOT change is our Plan. To help yourself become successful, set your plan in concrete and your goals in sand. One major part of your plan should be to talk to other bloggers for support and information.

The blogosphere is full of helpful friends who give advice on how to be successful. Here are just a few: Carolyn Manning, Liz Strauss, Lisa Gates, Anne Wayman, Leon Ho, Rick Cockrum, Phil Gerbyshak, Roger von Oech, Suzanne Lieurance, Lori Widner, Tom Chandler, and many more.

So do that THANG that you’re gonna do.
Write it down,

Carma

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for the link, Carma. You honor me with the company.

    I'm glad you were able to get some of your technical problems fixed enough to participate in Getting It Together.

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  2. Rick thank you for the kind words.

    Getting It Together was really great. The tech problem I had was the strangest thing to happen and it has only happened on Carolyn Manning's blog.

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  3. Thanks for explaining this in more detail Carma. I listed only 3 main goals, even though there were many more goals every hour of the day. The 3 main goals [buy clothes, work on and mail papers via FedEx Kinkos, and sell a lot of stuff via classified ads], however, got delayed. Here is an update and summary on the thing:

    Monday : I went to Fedex Kinkos first, spent about an hour or so making copies and then mailing some things. Some paperwork still remained due to various other things that came to light, so they will be taken care of online tomorrow.

    Then I went to buy some clothes. I could not find everything in one place, so I decided to go to another place the next day.

    I put the ad in the classifieds and some people said they would come later at night; they never did.

    Tuesday : Had a choice to either go to FedEx again, or go early to buy necessary clothes. So I decided to work really early morning and do all the paperwork online, and then went to buy clothes. By the end of this day, goals # 1 and goals # 1 had been accomplished.

    Goal # 3 had not been accomplished since the people that kept calling to come and buy the stuff via classifieds ads kept backing out or not showing up.

    Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: many other goals come to light, and the classifieds ads goal is still in progress. The other goals have taken priority, and the classifieds ads goal is on the back burner.

    From tonight or tomorrow I am going to try different classifieds ads and try stricter rules within the ads, such as a place and time to show up if someone wants the item, instead of depending on appointments which many people seem to be not taking seriously [because of the nature of classifieds ads].



    So in the end, I did accomplish my goal of buying clothes and sending the papers, though they had to be modified a little bit as time passed. I still achieved the exact thing I wanted. The process and the time frame was modified due to changing circumstances, though I still accomplished those goals within the time frame I wanted.

    As for goal # 3, I have a few people coming today to see the things for sale. If I do not post any update tonight, that means I managed to get my 3rd goal done also, though 2 days late. I am guessing personal, non-critical goals can be delayed and modified if I am selling something and looking for the right price? :)

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  4. Bess, you handled the priority 3 challenge perfectly.

    I realize most of us, if not all, have more than 3 tasks on our priority list at any given time.

    I used 3 Priority items as an exercise for those of us who have a difficult time keeping our objectives in perspective.

    There are occasions when tasks that have been prioritized take longer than expected. Sometimes they have to be shifted around.

    Thanks for reporting your participation with me. :)

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