Focus - Prioritize Your To-Do List with 4 Questions
The Fulling team has begun a new video lesson! Each week in our staff meetings, we watch a culture & leadership video to aid in our professional and personal development. We are currently watching the Focus series from Jon Acuff. Follow along each week as we learn from Acufff the practical ways to reorient our attention from the things that don’t matter to the things that do.
Instead of giving us a list of things to do, Jon encouraged us to use questions as prompts for organizing our to-do list. The first question that Jon encouraged us to ask was, “Is there a promise?”
Money plays a significant role in prioritizing our tasks. Therefore, the second question Jon prompted us to ask was, “Is there money involved?”
Is there a promise?
Is money involved?
Is there an outside deadline?
Is this a domino?
Along with keeping promises and considering a task’s financial impact, Jon encouraged us to ask if there is an outside deadline to meet and if the task is a “domino,” or a task that makes other tasks possible. These prompts, he said, make life easier because they remind us to keep our promises, make smart money decisions, meet deadlines, and begin with our “dominos.”
Food for Thought
Think about your own list of to-dos. What examples can you share from your own experience of feeling overwhelmed by all the tasks on your to-do list?
Some of the things that have helped our team are to pre-plan on Friday afternoon for the next week, schedule out our to-dos in our calendar, and practice the ability to say “no”.
When has your imagination been bigger than your calendar?
Our team has found it helpful to leave small time gaps in between scheduling to allow for interruptions or helping others when they need it. This way we avoid some frustration when they do inevitably happen.