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- [00:11]
A
Here we go. I'm going to turn it over to you, Paul. Let's hear about prioritizing.
- [00:17]
B
Yeah.
- [00:17]
A
Thank you.
- [00:18]
B
So I started sharing my screen. I hope it's visible to all of you now.
- [00:23]
A
All clear.
- [00:25]
B
Okay, so let's get going. Maybe first of all, look what ground I want to cover. So first of all, maybe this is where we are, what to expect, right? Maybe what to expect here is that maybe not really nothing groundbreaking. You know, the impetus for this presentation was of hearing that question often, how do I prioritize? And then kind of started thinking about it myself. And then in preparation as well, I watched practically all of the kind of the material on the GTD connect on prioritization and welcome. Came into pretty interesting conclusions, I think. So I hope you'll get some insights about prioritization, maybe a bit of education as well or learning something new. And well, if nothing that then at least it's some sort of entertainment for you. So let's see how we will do. Yeah, I'll talk about the evergreen question, privatization. Then what it is or what it could be. It's my speculation here and maybe the question, maybe it's about measuring and then maybe take a different kind of angle through the GTD five steps and see how they kind of line up with prioritization. And this is how we measure in gtd. Maybe this is maybe a little bit more new groundbreaking stuff.
- [01:50]
C
We'll see.
- [01:50]
B
And then I'll try to finish with bottom line or bottom lines and then let's see further discussion of your thoughts, etce. But maybe let's start from the end, strangely enough. And John, maybe if you can play the video that we prepared beforehand.
- [02:09]
C
How do I set priorities? You know, because I hear that so frequently, I assume most people think they could and should be doing it better. I have a radical point of view. Learn to listen to and trust your heart or your intuition or your gut or seat of the pants or whatever part of your anatomy is the source of that mysteriously wonderful still small voice that somehow knows you better than you do and knows what's better for you better than you do. There have been popular formulas for setting priorities over the years, such as applying ABC or high, medium or low or listing the top 10 things to get done in order. If someone actually applies one of those models, it probably creates some progress. But these nor any other simple methods I've seen really hit the mark. You'll have a different priority set at 8pm tonight than 10:30 this morning. And sometimes the most strategic thing for you to do will be to water your plants. Like, you know, when you've been in six meetings, felt beat up in five of them, and by 4:30 your brain is scrambled eggs and you barely had the attention span of a gnat. That's the time to water your plants and fill your stapler. Why? Well, because you couldn't do anything else very well and you're going to have to water your plants and fill your stapler sometime anyway on a day to day, you know, basis. Moment to moment. There's no algorithm or formula that will last very long or is really worth trying to nail down in some written or coded system that you'll adhere to consistently. Think about it. All the different things you're doing today are the top priority for you in that moment for whatever reason, or you wouldn't be doing it, you know, watching or listening to this right now, for instance. That said, I've recognized four criteria that we all will use to decide what to do, and these are in order of their precedent. Number one, context. What can I do where I am? Number two time. When do I have to do something else? Number three, energy. How wasted or fresh am I? Number four priority. What is the highest payoff for me if I do it? You know, the idea of payoff to yourself is the intuitive one, but let's not be frivolous. When was the last time you and your professional colleagues as a group took a sincere look into the future and, you know, made the hard decisions about what is still mission critical and what is not? When did you last decide what the real nature of your job really is or should be? When was the last time you personally sat down and thought through where you are in your life on all fronts and where you're going, what you really want to be different than the way it is right now? The best you shoot for is a regular enough revisit to the broader horizon. Looks like that and reviews of your work and life, letting it sink in at all the levels, conscious and otherwise, that it might affect. Then get organized and current with realities and commitments so that you have a clear enough deck from which to pay attention to your internal directions and hunches and to follow them without distractions. Do we need to work on this article that I need to write? Or call Ed Jennifer now? Or balance my checking account? Or plan the next year's marketing strategy? Or have a beer, hang out with my partner in the yard? Who knows, some part of you does be open to your own spirit and its directions. You might even consider asking it. Then take the risk to move on your best guess, pay attention to the results and course correct. You know, as you keep moving along, you know, I'm in my 70s now and I'm still working on how well I can do that. And I've never found another way to do it.
- [06:26]
B
So the reason why I shared this video or wanted to share this video with you was that while I was doing my research and what's the best way to prioritize, you know, I was looked all the materials that we have and I got coming back to this or find myself coming back to this video all the time. And I think in a short form of this kind of nails it, right.
- [06:47]
C
So it's.
- [06:48]
B
And maybe what I'll try to do is somewhat break it down into the parts that David mentioned there. So it's ever a growing question, how do I prioritize? Why is it ever a good question? It's hard, at least for some of us, if not most of us, to choose what to do. And I think it's the Holy Grail of decision making. It's kind of like, you know, if I would knew that what to do next, you know, then maybe actually people are actually seeking for that. That's why people seek for Holy Grail, right. As well as.
- [07:19]
A
Because they.
- [07:21]
B
It's kind of a cheat code almost, right. So once I have that, then maybe I don't need to burden myself with the whole of the five steps. I have the priorities, decision making, holy Grail, and I can do that. And that. People keep asking that maybe. Obviously some people ask it sincerely because they're struggling, but sometimes I feel, especially people new to GTD or people unfamiliar with gtd, we're going to maybe have a cursory understanding of that. They ask it from this Holy Grail cheat sheet point of view. So. But what I think maybe one of the kind of. I'll put this one takeaway early here is there's no way to cheat. However, you know, and the reason for that is, is that although it feels like the. But my claim is the prioritization doesn't happen in the flesh. It's an emergent phenomena.
- [08:09]
A
Right?
- [08:09]
B
So emergent is something that happens when you do several things, right? So it's, it's. And you can't really point that, hey, you know, this is what I achieved happened at this point only as a consequence of this one action. So it rather happens throughout the process. So what is prioritization? It's a hard word to pronounce that first of all. But the etymology Is and I think it doesn't come to any surprise to anybody, it comes from writing word prior which says it's meaning first. Basically prioritization is figuring out what to do first. But notice that we don't have a word for deciding what to do second. There's no further, at least I haven't accounted called secondarization, right? Second. That's the thing that we never do second things. You only do an endless row of first things. Pretty much actually even like if you say well I'm prioritizing, I'm working on my priority now, then I could say bank like well how old are you? And you say like, I don't know, I'm 40 years old. It's like, well it's not your priority, right? It's your 10,000 or 15 or 15,000 things that you are doing right in your life. Because there was something before that. So in that sense, by what we say, prioritization, priority mean what to do now, what to do in this moment and in every moment. Well, at least that's our claim in gdd. In every moment we can only do a first thing or one thing at a time. And the reason for that is, is you know, the world is dynamic. You know, it changes throughout the day, throughout the week, month, year, decades, etc. It rhymes, you know, but it never repeats exactly. So it's, it's kind of always changing. And you know, we can't like set like I'm gonna do this for a second, third, fourth, etc. And then you know, I'm going to set the plan, I'm going to start working on that, right? With every moment the world is kind of in some sense recreated or it's the river that you can step into twice, right? And you know, that's one reason, okay, so no worries. It's one reason that the world is dynamic, but other reason that we are dynamic as well. You know, once we do something, we are wiser and especially if things that we do didn't go as we expected, right? And we learned something from that and we were changed by that. We learn, we grow. We also get tired, we have mood and we get distracted by our thoughts, both new and old. So it's always like outside the world is dynamic and we are dynamic. So we really can set things we should touch first and then the thing that we should do second and all the way down to 150, I think or how many next actions you might have in your list. If only we can set up things that we can do. First in any given moment, and then at the next moment or whatever, we are free to do something else. We'll need to do another first thing. So prioritization doesn't happen in a vacuum, right? It happens in a dynamic world. It can't be done ahead of time, although it kind of feels like it can, or that's what people are asking for. Can I kind of prioritize for the, well, maybe not rest of my life, but at least for the rest of the week, you know, and well might be some positions that this is possible. Like if you're shepherding cheaps on a mountaintop and visit the village once a week, then maybe, you know, this could happen. But probably even then, you know, the natural world will bring you surprises. And the priorities really can't be set in stone. There's actually occurred to me that there's only one priority that can't be set in stone for you and especially for you, not by you, because it will be done by others and that will be literally in stone and said, rest in peace. That's the only priority once we are passed away from this world. And one other thing about prioritization is, and I think I noticed from David's video, and then maybe if only one thing asterisk I'll put to David's video is there at the end of. And then you take into account your priorities. I would rather would have used the word things that are important for you and things that are important from you are different from priority. You know, you can have several, many things that are important for you. Especially like you probably have important things in your personal life and in your work life and maybe work outside of home and work. So that can exist simultaneously, but you can only do one thing at a time. So in that sense it's different from priority. And maybe it's a little bit of a going into the details of the word, but if you want to be kind of clear what prioritization is, then maybe, hopefully that's helpful. So whenever we try to figure out the world, it's quite wise to look at the proverbs because that's kind of the ancient wisdom. And I really like David's books because they are filled with quotations and proverbs and you know, once you don't know who from the, from whom the quotation is, it probably becomes a proverb. So I think we have mostly I, you know, I know few people on the, on the list is, I think from some people I recognize from the GTD connect. I have never really Directly interacted, but most people seem to be us. But John recognized names from elsewhere. So actually I'm gonna go through some proverbs. And in case some of the proverbs rhyme with you, you can kind of put the similar ones into the chat. So basically there's this nice proverb in English called measure twice and cut once. So basically it's. Well, it's kind of come from carpentry or tailoring, right? So it's like, you know, make sure you. You have measured it right before you start cutting because, you know, you can like, you can, you can cut something smaller, but you can't cut something bigger.
- [14:33]
C
Right.
- [14:33]
B
So it's. It's wise to be kind of prudent and measure. Measure. Well, you know, kind of ahead once I started searching for that, this, and then I'm gonna come why I was searching for that. At the end of this slide, I came up with different versions. So there's measured twice and cut once. There was another one which apparently is from English. It's measured three times before you cut once. So it's kind of. Now it ends. The stakes is saying, hey, be even more careful than twice and you should do it three times. And I also encountered, when I searched, at least when I searched in English, I also counted this one, which was translated from Russian, is measured seven times and cut once. So it seems like different cultures have different sense of, you know, you know, kind of being careful and then being watching ahead. Well, you know, so far I haven't seen anybody else put anything into the. Into the chat. But then we have this saying in Estonia. I'll translate it because I don't see any Estonians in the chat at the moment is it's called uhaksagordemuda uxgardlekta. It's an Estonian proverb and that translates to measure nine times, cut once. So it's kind of really, really careful, I guess probably because Both the words 9 and 1 start with u in Estonian, which is uhaksa and dux. So another thing, I probably think we are very much up in the north, so we have relatively short summers and kind of this more harsher climate or six months of winter, almost harsher climate teaches you to be very careful. So you only have one harvest in the year, so you'll be really careful when you sow your seeds so as not they won't be taken by the cold and etc. So. So that might be the reason why we are that careful. But why I'm bringing this up is because I Think the measuring is actually asking questions. Basically, when you measure something, you ask how long this is, how long is this distance that I want to cut. So in that sense you can say that ask nine times and then act once or do once. And I think it kind of also, when it comes to priority, we need to really think it through well to actually be confident that this is the thing that we want to do first. So let's see how we need to measure nine times to find our priority for any given moment. So the first measure is what has your attention? I think this is where the GTD5 step starts. With the first step, you ask what has your attention? And this is already actually a prioritization question, right? Because what are we doing? We are. We are. We are separating from the wheat, from the chaff, right? So it's what has your attention versus what doesn't have your attention. So it's kind of don't pay attention to that. Well, you're not paying attention to things that don't have your attention. So. But you shouldn't even do it artificially. Well, and you know, when we do this exercise for, in the coaching or in training and especially in coaching where there's more time, then we have people who write for two hours and write down 300 things. And you know, there's extreme cases where people have written for six hours or even more, right? And then hundreds of things that caught their attention. So I'm like, wow, that's a lot of things. But this is actually very, very tiny things of. Of things that they're actually seeing in the world, right? So it's there because you're surrounded all the time by a million of things that's around you. So really this is kind of the first thing, like what could be priority for you, right? It's the things that has your attention. So the second measure is to kind of look really closely and decide what is it? So this is the first question of the clarify process. And then here we actually seeing what's its meaning? What does it actually mean? So it's kind of. Because it might not be apparent and especially if you go into kind of written stuff, right? So you get an email and it's like three paragraphs long. So you need to especially figure out what is it. And it also could be like, you know, with other things, right? So maybe Kit gives you a broken joy and then you need to figure out, do you need to repair this or they need to buy a new one or they need to just, you know, maybe. Maybe it's best thing to is to throw it away, but you need to kind of understand what is it. And knowing and understanding of things that get your attention makes the prioritization possible. So the third measure is, then the third question is, is it actionable? So the second question in the clarify process, and this is where we actually decide is it meaningful for you? So we decided what the meaning is in the first steps or you figured out what the meaning is then now you decide is it meaningful for you and should you do something about it? Right. So it could be meaningful for you, but you shouldn't do something about it as well. So in that sense, if it goes to no category, it might be totally meaningless for you, in which case you throw it away. Or it can be meaningful for you, but you want to keep, you don't want to do anything about it or maybe not to do anything about it right now. So then it will go into your Sunday maybe list. But if it is actionable, then it's actually now we have a little bit better candidates from before we started paying attention, what has our attention of things that we can prioritize. So the fifth measure is to actually say what's the next action? And that already feels like, hey, maybe we can do it right away. And actually this is now you can take first shortcut to achieve and go right into. If it takes only two minutes to do, then you can actually go and do it. So maybe there is a, you don't need to go through all of the nine measures to do something. But you know, but at least you can stop here. But most of things you probably can. So what we are doing when we have what's the next action and when we're writing it down is making it suitable to be a first thing to do, to making it a priority.
- [21:17]
C
Right?
- [21:18]
B
So actually here maybe I'll just jumping a little bit ahead of myself. But saying priority can only be next actions in my opinion.
- [21:26]
A
Right.
- [21:26]
B
So a vision or a goal really can't be a priority, right? It can be important, but it can't be a priority. Priority is something, you know, you should do right now. So at least that's an interesting, that's
- [21:44]
A
an interesting way to look at it because you could say that, well, my vision, my goal is my, my priority now. But what it comes down to is in order to demonstrate that it's my priority, I must take action on it. So it's always going to come down to a next action to achieve that goal. Even if I want to say, well, the goal really Is my priority that it's going to come down to a next action?
- [22:09]
B
Yeah, yeah. Well, and my general claim here is that the priority is only the thing that you can do right now, right here. So because it's, it's. You need to, you need to, you need to make it the first thing to do. Right. It's overall other things.
- [22:23]
A
Right.
- [22:24]
B
In some sense the, you know, and if I do something here, I have my own vision and priorities and doing this presentation is right now a priority for me.
- [22:33]
A
Yes.
- [22:33]
B
That doesn't mean that my vision is now gone or my long term outcomes are gone. Right. They're still there, they're important for me, but they are not.
- [22:41]
A
Yes.
- [22:43]
B
They generate priorities. I would be, put it this way, yes.
- [22:46]
A
And knowing you, doing this presentation is part of your larger areas of focus and vision and goals and all those good things. But it all comes down to what can you take action on now? And I realize your measures are referencing the five steps, Mastering Workflow and the clarifying diagram. And then this also gets into, you're bringing in the horizontal piece of it, which is the horizons of focus. You can say, well, yes, I have a goal and that's my priority. But in the horizons model, these priorities are all coming down to the ground level. Does that fit what you're saying?
- [23:28]
B
Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. And to be transparent here, I've been thinking about for this presentation and this topic for, for a while and I kind of was finishing this presentation and once I was finishing then I was like, oh, something else occurred to me. So we are actually making sausage here as we speak. So hopefully it's not too horrifying for everybody. So. Yeah, so we need to decide what the next action is. Because something to be a priority, it needs to be, it's something that you can do.
- [24:02]
C
Right.
- [24:03]
B
So. And then actually there's also, this is kind of weird one, but it's obviously part of the clarify process is to also decide what's the desired outcome. It's kind of measuring as well. And here I would say actually this now goes back to the conversation we just had which was about like, hey, can your vision or goals be a priority if they're important for you? But we start going like up horizontally and then because we don't do actions for their own sake, usually it's only for the change that we want to see in the world and it could be actually some small change. If it is, then the desired outcome is already achieved with accomplishing this next action. But in a case it isn't, then it's also important to make sure that we have that important desired outcome written down somewhere so that we can generate the next potential first action from there. Once this or this first thing to do from the desired outcome. So yeah, this is measuring if one action is not enough or if it is enough, then. Sorry, I'm just confused. If it's not enough, then write down the outcome so you can easily create the next first thing to do. So yeah, and then it's obviously it can go all the way back. Like this is the project, obviously writing down the project. And this is actually helping me to maintain my areas of focus, responsibility, which helped me achieve my goals, which helped me to make my vision reality. And this through that which I can manifest my purpose and play by my principles. So sixth measure is where should you organize it to find it easily? So it's. Yeah, it's kind of in a sense that we are not really kind of, we are moving close in actual direction here, but in a sense that if you can't do it right away, you have to do it later. But where should you put it so you can see it easily? And the question here is when and where should you see it again? Like if it's, you know, if it's like a meeting like this, then it goes into a calendar, right? So because then you know when, right? And then probably the calendar entry will also tell you where you know. But in other actions which are not time bound, then they will go to your next actions list and you'll find it from there. So basically maybe other way of pushing when and where should it be one of the options that can become a priority, right? So if I'm home and opening up my home list, then it's like, hey, this is one of your potential priorities
- [26:36]
C
that you can do.
- [26:39]
B
The seventh measure is what are all your things that can be priorities? So this is now basically going to the effect stage and you are reviewing and reflecting whether daily or weekly or as often as you need. Right. But why should you do this? Because maybe, you know, you've written down a lot of things, maybe there are conflicting actions and outcomes, you know, that you know, you can't do. Especially if they happen at the same time, for example, in your calendar. Or maybe they, you know, like, you know, I want to, well, you know, I want to be vegan and I want to work in a butcher shop. Right. I mean, could have been that you kind of, once you review those, I'm bringing very stark. And then maybe, you know, contrasting things, but something that jumped in my head. But it's like, hey, you know, these things kind of clash each other and I need to make a choice.
- [27:35]
A
You can be a vegan and still work in a butcher shop, but what you do on your lunch break, that's where the conflict comes in.
- [27:42]
B
Yeah, I mean usually the vegan veganism is understood in a more wider sense that it's not only like what you eat, but also like how do you interact with animals, etc.
- [27:53]
A
Exactly.
- [27:55]
B
And maybe there is things that at some point was important for you, but now is unimportant for you, or maybe things that are lower importance, such as things in your someday maybe listed now are important for you. So it's really important to make sure that you look at all over your things. And also another question asked, do you have too many actions in your list for any given time horizon? Right. So it might be that, you know, in case you don't use the someday maybe list, you might have 50 projects in your list and in your project list and 500 next actions. Right. So, and then, then it's well, you know, you can give it a go and try and see how it goes. But what we have seen is usually that doesn't work. And the smaller the number, the better. Right. And then you can go more detailed, use the projects and hold list and someday maybe list too extensive, etc. So really kind of see that basically curating the list. So when it comes to choose the priorities, it's as easy as possible for you.
- [28:54]
C
Right.
- [28:54]
B
It's not loaded up with the 500 things. And also making sure that you have created the right lists.
- [28:59]
A
Right.
- [28:59]
B
So you organize, you're also looking that. But here you're going to look in the higher picture. It's like maybe you know, well, okay, I know I have in a train commuting context for myself, which maybe I should create a list for, etc. And also here you're kind of looking at all your actions and outcomes in your list in sync with your higher levels or the important things in your life, areas of focus, goals, vision, purpose and principles. Right. So this gives you an opportunity to do that. So the eight measure is now we are in the engaged stage or close. Almost close. We need to measure a few more times. Eight measure is so now what David says, what can you do where you are with the time and energy you have? Right. So it's the kind of first thing. It's kind of this. I'm right here, right now. This is my context, where I am. This is the time I Have to do something until something more important, some another priority comes, time priority manifest itself. And then also what energy do I have? So basically this is kind of curating these options that you have down to smaller number.
- [30:06]
A
Eighth measure, you have condensed the limiting criteria model of context time and it's condensed all into this one in a way.
- [30:20]
B
Yeah, yeah. And I would say, I mean actually I've kind of. Why I'm using this nine measure thing is because of the. I noticed this interesting parallel between the Estonian Proverb of Measure 9 times a gut once and I was like maybe fiddling a little bit to make it match. Right. That's the entertainment part. Right.
- [30:42]
A
I think that one of the most fun things to do and also a very instructional thing to do is to see how far you can stretch a comparison. Maybe it looks at first as though it doesn't really fit, but the more you look for ways to make it work, you find out that it does fit. And you could end up learning a lot about how we prioritize by taking this thing called the three criteria limiting criteria model and spreading it out into a proverb that says measure nine times. Yeah, I think it's. I think it's instructional to do something like that.
- [31:16]
B
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think maybe just, you know, just we stopped into the. Or we kind of sidelined into a little bit of a commentary, then I can stay here for a moment and kind of say as well, it's. Is that what the GTD process really is? It's really thinking through. Thinking things through. Well. Right. So. And then this is actually, you know, if you look at the kind of the five step model, it's kind of, you know, the doing is right really at the end.
- [31:42]
A
Right.
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B
And you've done a lot of work beforehand, but this is the necessary work. You know, you're really going to talk through well and come to the punchline.
- [31:51]
C
So.
- [31:53]
B
Yeah, yeah. Well, Aliman is saying that if I push more stuff to my Sunday Maybelline, then my prioritizing would be infinitely easier. Yes, exactly.
- [32:01]
A
So this is on mine. The question that I'll ask back to you. What's the challenge with pushing more stuff to your someday maybe list? What goes through your mind when you start pushing more stuff to your someday maybe list that causes you to hesitate on that in any way later list? It's on hold. And someday, maybe both, they're so important. They're my friends.
- [32:25]
B
Okay, I can't answer that. Okay.
- [32:27]
C
Yeah.
- [32:28]
A
Somebody else is saying if I push it to the someday maybe list, I will miss things. So what to me this comes back to also is get really comfortable pushing things to someday maybe list or a not now list or something like that. But build your trust in those lists by reviewing often enough that you know that those those lists don't become just never and not going to look at it or anything like that. You can you can build your trust so that those lists work for you and support your have you support you in having fewer choices to choose from when it's time to prioritize.
- [33:12]
C
Sam.