Prioritising tasks is quite complex; you can make it a thought exercise or you can actually plan your priorities. Priorities heavily depend on what life goals are. In this post, I will break down different types of priorities, and use a cascading system to illustrate my priorities in an easier way. Now having priorities in order, will reduce the time you spend that is not in pursuit of your life goal. Most people, I assume enjoy working towards their ultimate goal, however, this cannot be all the time. First, your life goal will most likely have multiple dimensions. For example, maybe you want to be a teacher, but you will still want friends and family, and these other types of priorities are based on what you value in life.

Ideally ordering your list of priorities

Now since you have priorities competing with each other, you must list them out. In the order, you would want them to take place:

Studying/working at life goal

Spending time with family (soon to be child)/relationship partner

Work to support your self until you can work at your life goal

Having fun (playing board games)

Keeping fit

Necessities (cleaning/showering)

This is not a full list of priorities but it is good to remember that this list is dynamic. For example, if you have not showered in a while it starts becoming higher on the priority list. Generally, you should try to reduce time spent on tasks, that does not bring you happiness and also doesn’t support you towards your goal. That is not to say, that you must eliminate some priorities, but doing them faster is possible.

These priorities can be proportions of time, but not necessarily sometimes. You will spend more time on one priority than you should. This is because we don’t live in a perfect world where you can set the perfect amount of time. On the other hand, it is possible to manipulate that time so it is a bit closer to your list of priorities. This kind of list can help show where lots of time and energy is going, and where it shouldn’t be. This can happen because others insist you do certain activities, even if it is not in line with your priorities, and ultimately your life goals. Priorities are very linked to life goals, nonetheless, there will be moments where you must prioritize your social life, which may not push you towards your life goal, but will give you a bit of relief from life.

Cascading system of priorities

The other issue may be with what you want; for example, you want to play video games but you haven’t done any studying- so 3 lists would have to be made. A list of necessity, a list of priority in terms of long-term goals, and a list of wants. These lists will be constantly changing so a digital solution may be a good idea. One idea would be to create a schedule and allocate time-based on the priority of each activity. Then adjust every few weeks this schedule to accommodate your priorities.