Simple and Effective Ways to Prioritize Your Daily Goals

Every new day presents a new opportunity to achieve our daily goals, to be more, in life. What helps to keep track of our progress in life are the daily goals we set for ourselves. But because of the various demands from persons, including loved ones, in our lives and communities to which we belong, we cannot appropriate equal commitment levels towards them all. Instead, prioritizing goals along the values of the owner of the goal is key to achieving maximum accomplishment of set goals.

And this is particularly important when understanding priorities and the importance of priorities.

You see, priorities are simply goals whose outcomes will bear more impact, positive or negative, on the owner when they are accomplished in time or not. The keywords there are impact and time; there is a risk that the goal would not be achieved when the impact of the goal, the urgency for the goal to be achieved, or both is critical to the outcome. This is why prioritizing is important in life.

So, how do you prioritize tasks that help you to achieve your daily priority goals in life? What is the most important step in prioritizing daily goals? We have answered the above questions in the following simple and effective ways.

Make A List

We know you know all the daily goals you want to accomplish. But this is the most important step in prioritizing daily goals for one reason. You just may remember one goal that was not on the top of your mind but is important it be captured in the list. Another useful reason for listing one’s goals is that it gives one a clear sense of responsibility for the tasks ahead.

Evaluate The List Based On Defined Criteria

The defined criteria as already established in this article are the impact and urgency of the daily goals. One’s internal and external environment would determine which criteria should hold more weight, impact or urgency. For example, a student that commenced preparations for his semester exams late knows he does not have the luxury of getting the best possible grades.

If he knows he has to sit for three papers in 24 hours. Instead, his prioritization strategy may be to swiftly cover evenly the possible number of topics across the three papers. This is better than selectively studying hard for one of the courses to make the best possible grade (impact).

Focus

Because it is a daily goal, focus on the total value of the daily goals you have made priority instead of the rewards. This is because the outcomes of daily goals are not always manifest in the same period. For instance, increasing one’s daily intake of water daily may not show any clearly visible sign in 24hours. But if one stays focused on maintaining good health and wellbeing, a lifelong affair, it is very important. It would be easy to keep goals clear and stay focused. Staying focused, thus, means being intentional about your daily goals and following through.

Manage Commitments

How do you prioritize tasks to help others reach their daily goals without compromising on your own daily goals? The answer lies in managing commitment. Accepting commitments that are only in line with your tasks and politely declining requests that do not meet this condition.

Managing commitments is a key prioritization strategy because the alignment of like daily goals increases motivation to accomplish your daily goals. Likewise, saying no to requests that do not align with your daily goals, instead of accepting them, helps you to stay focused on your priorities.

Adopt An Agile Mindset

Your daily goals are not cast in stone that they cannot be written if events in the day require you to revisit them for a re-write. Things may not turn out as anticipated. So, in prioritizing your tasks and daily goals, you should always make provision for uncertainties and adapt quickly as they happen.

If you planned to study six hours in a day, for instance, but an emergency call from home comes in, top priority should be placed on the emergency. But try to recoup the lost time by re-aligning your priorities. If you can’t, don’t bother; just move on; that is life.

So the best strategy to prioritizing your what you want to achieve is knowing yourself. Then choosing what works for you. This would tremendously help in your quest to achieving what you set out to achieve daily.