Why Prioritization is Crucial for You to Reach Your Goals

A cluttered desk with a daily to-do list, a weekly to-do list, keyboard, notebooks, golden pens and scissors and papaer clips

I’ve worked for years trying to find ways to be more productive and get more done. I’ve started plenty of projects, written thousands of to-do lists, and gone to bed countless times wishing I had gotten more done that day. But how do you become productive and reach your goals? First of all, you have to understand how important prioritization is.

You see, if you don’t prioritize the things that matter the most, you will have a much harder time reaching even your simplest goals. This in turn can lead to you feeling like you can’t complete even the smallest projects you start, let alone reach your ultimate goals in life.

The first step to stop wasting your time and getting the important things done is to prioritize them over other things. Continue reading to find out why this is so crucial for your goals and your productivity.

What does prioritizing your goals mean?

You have to respect your goals. That means that you have to give them more time and energy than to things that don’t matter as much to you.

Big goals are difficult to achieve, whether you’re planning on becoming an actor or starting a new, healthy lifestyle. That’s why they require a lot of time and effort. You might have to give up some smaller goals or reduce your free time to have enough time for your bigger goals.

This is a sacrifice, but that’s what prioritizing your goals means. You have to be willing to push aside things that don’t help you reach your goals, such as spending a lot of time on social media.

Why is prioritization important?

There are many reasons why prioritization is so important. I will go through them step by step. I encourage you to take a moment to think about how you can make sure that none of these six things is standing in the way of you reaching your goals.

1. Time is limited

You only have 24 hours in a day, and even though it may sound like a lot, it goes by fast. Surprising things take a lot of time, like answering a phone call from a friend or doing menial tasks that you don’t even think twice about.

At the same time, what you are working on might take much more time than you even realize. You might for example think that typing a blog post takes an hour – but before you can even start writing, you have to come up with a topic, research it, decide how to structure your post, and so on. In the end, writing a simple blog post could take several hours.

You also want to keep in mind that accomplishing big goals can take thousands of hours. That’s why you really want to give as many precious hours of your day as possible to them.

Related article: What You Should Do With Conflicting Goals

2. You don’t have endless energy

Although technically you are awake for around 16 hours every day, it probably goes without saying that you can’t work for that many hours. It’s important to know what time of the day you have the most energy and commit those hours to the tasks that are the most difficult or that require strong concentration.

Save your energy for what matters the most and then do the easiest and least important things when you have the least energy.

Most people work best in the morning and unless you are sure you are the exception, you should prioritize the most important tasks by completing them first. The afternoon is a good time to complete easier tasks.

3. Your mind works better

You probably already know that no matter how much we try, we are not multitaskers. Constantly switching from task to task and being surrounded by super long to-do lists and notifications isn’t good for your brain (or your goals). These things simply distract you from what you’re supposed to focus on and they make you spend more time than necessary on even the simplest tasks.

Do your best to keep your tasks simple and your to-do lists short – this will help you to let your mind work at its best: in long-term, focused work that might even lead to you reaching the flow state.

4. Productivity is all about doing what matters

Too many people confuse being busy with being productive. But the truth is, productivity is all about getting what matters done, not completing as many tasks as possible. By prioritizing the most important tasks, you’re already being more productive.

If you only give your time to things that matter the most, you will get ahead before you know it. If you instead spend your time on every little project and hobby that you come up with, you will have much less time for what actually matters.

You may think that you don’t have 10 hours a week for something you think would be very important, but you might if you just forgot about the unnecessary things and focused on what really makes a difference in your life.

Related article: 9 Signs You Are Not as Productive as You Think

5. You have to know the importance of different tasks

Not all tasks are created equal and that’s why you have to decide what tasks deserve the best hours of your day and what tasks can be skipped altogether if necessary. Some tasks are crucial, while some don’t matter all that much. Some make a big difference, some just stress you out for nothing. Some have a deadline creeping closer, some can wait for a year.

Know the importance of every task on your list and don’t be afraid to do the less important ones halfheartedly if necessary and sacrifice the tasks that would be nice to complete, but don’t really matter.

And as said, always give the best hours of the day and the most energy to what really matters.

6. Your goals deserve your time and focus

If you have carefully chosen and planned your goals, you need to sacrifice the less important things and projects for your goals. You chose your ultimate goals because you knew that they would make a big difference in your life. Don’t let anything come in your way when you set your mind on something.

It’s easy to forget about the importance of prioritizing your goals since you have so many things to do every day. But you should always keep in mind that your biggest goals deserve the most time and effort. They are what will change your life.

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As you can see, prioritization is extremely important if you have big goals and you are serious about reaching them one day. If you have a lot of important projects in your mind but simply can’t fit everything into 24 hours, that means you simply have to prioritize what will help you the most right now.

Some goals and projects might simply just have to wait, whether it’s a couple of months or a few years. This may sound disappointing, but you shouldn’t worry about this too much. You will have time to do everything important. But for now, keep your life and your goals simple.

Have you tried prioritizing your most important goals? Did you see a big difference? Let me know in the comments!

If you want to read more about reaching your goals, you might be interested in these articles:

8 Common Reasons You Might Fail Your Goals

26 Life Goals You Need to Set for Yourself Today

What are You Willing to Give Up to Change Your Life

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