How to Prioritize
Posted on January 28, 2013 by Beth Main, One of Thousands of ADD ADHD Coaches on Noomii.
How to make progress on the things that YOU think are important, rather than letting your ADHD decide.
You have 37 items on your To Do list, and those are just the things you have written down. Requests from your mother, your spouse, your child and your friends are rolling around loose in your mind. Then there are the things you want to do for yourself, which seem completely out of reach. How do you get it all done?
Start by putting everything down in one place. It’s hard enough to make choices without having to compare multiple lists in your head. Next comes prioritization. There are as many different ways to prioritize as there are things you have to do. Where do you start? Here are some questions to help you sort it all out:
• Which items can you delegate or eliminate? Anything you can offload is more time you can spend on something else.
• Which items can you simplify? Is it worth spending three hours on fresh fruit kabobs for the picnic, or can you stop by the bakery on the way? Remember that Martha Stewart has not only a personal assistant, but an entire personal staff.
• Which of the remaining items are time sensitive? Identify the things that Must Be Done Today and find a way to get them done first.
• Which items have serious adverse consequences if you don’t get them done soon? Ask me why my basement flooded last weekend and I’ll give you an example.
• Which items are easy? Schedule yourself for a List Reduction Session (an hour is good), and “just do it”.
• Which items further you towards a major life goal? Spend some time on one of these items every day. This will help you get out of “firefighting mode” and put you back in control.
• Which items need clarification? We tend to procrastinate on things that aren’t clear. Getting more information about something is actually another To Do list item. Add it.
• Where are there dependencies? For example, if you are going to a wedding on Sunday, and you need a gift, and you need to coordinate with your mother, “Call Mom” suddenly becomes a higher priority. But keep it short.
• Where do you have little pockets of time, and what can you fill them with? For example, can you clean out the car while you’re waiting for your son’s piano lesson to end?
• Which items are you itching to get to, but keep de-prioritizing because there are more important things to do? Spend some time on one of these things each day. This will keep you energized and you’ll feel better about the rest.
Along with knowing how to prioritize is giving yourself the time to do it. I recommend adding a daily planning session to your routine. Not only will it help you focus your efforts, but it will ramp you up into “work mode”. Don’t have time for that? Think of it as an investment. Before long your list will be shorter, not longer. And you’ll have made progress on the things that you think are important, rather than letting your ADHD decide.
