The Art of Prioritization 你還在瞎忙嗎？

A Game Plan 打仗前要先規劃策略
Once your tasks are on paper, it's time to organize your ideas. You will need to get your affairs in order before you start working on them. By putting your affairs in order, you will be better able to complete your tasks in a timely manner because you take some time to organize your thoughts. You can organize yourself by spending time to put things in the proper place. For instance, you need to put things in their proper place before you change jobs in order to have a smooth transition. Once everything is in the correct position, you can form a game plan on how you're going to complete. A game plan will help you to know how to approach each task individually and be able to complete it with very minimal effort.

“I need to have my affairs in order before I think of buying a new house.”
“He worked to put things in their proper place to help you learn faster.”
“We need to develop a game plan on what we are going to do next.”

Now or Never 優先次序影響成敗
To better understand the concept of how we're going to approach the task of prioritizing, we have to separate our priorities into three different groups. This will change the way we think about these tasks and set our minds on how to complete them.

一、列一張緊急清單
The first of these is the urgent list. If one of your tasks is urgent, it has to be done almost immediately and always be a high priority. To push yourself to do this, you should always think this is a now or ever situation which means you have to do it now or miss out on the opportunity. You also completely things no sooner said than done which means you have to complete them right after someone asks. Anytime something is urgent, it's a race against time for you to complete it. This means that you're thinking of time as an opponent and a very important race that you need to win. Once you start thinking about how these phrases connect to time, you'll consider that time equals money and be able to finish the test in the appropriate amount of time.

“In order to convince them of our proposal, it is now or never.”
“No sooner said than done, he emailed me the edits to the report.
“It is a race against time for us to finish this project on time.”

二、完成循序漸進的工作
After completing the urgent tasks, it is best to think of what tasks you have to work on everyday. These ongoing tasks are tasks that will take a long time to complete but you need to think about them like pieces of a puzzle or steps on stairs. In order to achieve this you have to keep in step. This means you follow what you're supposed to do by completing a small amount each day. You should always think about these tasks by doing them one piece at a time. You need to keep focused on what you're doing and just focus on that part that you have to complete. Finally it's important that you do things bit by bit. Like trying to put a proposal together, you a little bit at a time then combine them together in the end.

“We have to keep in step with our boss’ instructions otherwise we will fall behind.”
“Let us not rush this meeting and go through it one piece at a time.”
“He is learning bit by bit but will eventually be able to fulfill all his duties.”

三、把例行公事當嗜好
Finally you have to worry about the routine tasks. Anytime you think of something as routine, you should think of it as being ordinary, normal, or what you would come to expect. You need to make these tasks a force of habit. This means something which you do without even thinking about it so you can do it without even thinking about it. If you're completing this task, always think of it as business as usual which means that you do it the same way every time. However, you can be creative when you do these ordinary things. You can have a method to your madness. You were able to complete things in your own way and have our own system developed to make these tasks as routine as possible.

“It was a force of habit that I sent you an email on Monday, but I forgot that you were on vacation.”
“I am just checking my emails. It is business as usual.”
“He has a method to his madness on how he completes his reports. They sound so natural.”

本文收錄於英語島English Island 2017年9月號

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