Some people resist determining priorities, but priorities define our lives. Everything we do determines who we are, who we will be, and what we accomplish, and so implicitly or explicitly involves a priority decision--so we might as well be conscious about our choices.
"The most interesting people to be around are those who are achieving things that are important to them. When you're focusing on your A objectives, it's impossible to have an apathetic, humdrum life." (p. 258, Manage Your Time, Manage Your Work, Manage Yourself by Merrill E. Douglass and Donna N. Douglass. New York: AMACOM, 1980)
"In each moment we have the opportunity to act on our highest values. Within our present situation and our current responsibilities, we can turn our energy toward goals that really matter to us; we can develop our awareness and cultivate knowledge that benefits everyone. We know from personal experience that using time in meaningful ways is deeply enjoyable; we know that productive work freely carried out satisfies and fulfills our heart and spirit. Acting on this knowledge, we can commit ourselves to making the best possible use of our time. Unless we make that commitment, it is difficult to see how we will ever be able to accomplish much of value." (p. 23, Tarthang Tulku, Mastering Successful Work. Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing, 1994)
If we don't have a practice of determining priorities, the
following common patterns (from the Douglasses, p. 27) might
take over:
- We do what we like to do before we do what we don't like to do.
- We do the things we know how to do faster than the things we do not know how to do.
- We do the things that are easiest before doing things that are difficult.
- We do things that require a little time before we do things that require a lot of time.
- We do things for which the resources are available.
This is the way a lot of us let our lives run. But these ways of proceeding won't allow us to do anything that's significant, where we are certain to run into difficulties at some point.
If you have not fairly clearly identified your major personal and professional objectives and identified some steps to achieve those objectives, you should do such these practices (see Reviewing Life and Lifetime Goals in Seven Areas).
In conjunction with those practices, the following exercises can be helpful in determining priorities:
- Question-Response Process, an inquiry process useful for determining goals and priorities
- Thoughts in Conflict can help resolve conflicts
At a certain point in life, priorities may be determined somewhat by various intellectual guidelines that have been imposed from without and internalized. These guidelines may be expressed as laws or principles of various kinds, such as "Do not kill," or "Handle each paper only once." Despite their usefulness at a certain point in life, these guidelines correspond to a dichotomous, linear way of thinking. Later in our development, many more options and directions are available, and clarity, or a feeling of certainty or importance provides the basis for making decisions and determining priorities. Differing degrees of certainty accompany different thoughts and feelings; the strongest sense of certainty (or the least sense of doubt) seems to provide the surest direction.
Note: If you have questions or comments about these exercises, please send email to or call Steve Randall at 510-303-1035.
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