A Note on Prioritization

Today’s post won’t be long because I’m going through a rare period of being a bit overwhelmed. The past few weeks and upcoming few weeks have been and will be far busier for me than normal. I’ve been traveling around a bunch, getting ramped up on my new job, studying for certifications, seeing a lot of friends, and of course, keeping up with my other habits of language, fitness, reading and so on.

Getting everything done has been feeling extra tough lately, but whenever I get overwhelmed, two things always make me feel better:

A Prioritization Matrix
And a plan based off of that matrix

I am just so fun, aren’t I?

I tend to use the Eisenhower squares method to prioritize quickly. You can read more on it here but basically the method forces you to categorize all of your commitments into four categories:

Urgent and Important
Important but not Urgent
Urgent but Unimportant
Unimportant and not Urgent

When I’m overwhelmed, I completely disregard category 4. My logic is that if they end up being important later, I’m sure they’ll end up back on my radar. I then create a schedule for myself for the rest. In my current situation, my schedule for getting everything done goes out about three weeks. Urgent and important tasks get my most productive time over the next two weeks, the important but non urgent tasks fit in around it, and the unimportant but urgent tasks get done in the evenings when my brainpower is at its lowest. For example, this blog is not urgent (no one is waiting on it or anything), but it’s important to me, so I still carved out some productive hours to write this post, even though it’s a little shorter than normal.

It’s not often that I feel overwhelmed and this time around, I’m noticing a few things about myself:

My prioritization metrics change based on the season. In the summertime, I’m more likely to prioritize my social life, events, and spontaneous plans rather than my self improvement projects. In summer, I will skip a workout to try a new restaurant with a friend, whereas in the winter I won’t really do that.

In general, close relationships are of high priority to me. If someone needs me, I somehow find a way to be there for them. I also always prioritize plans made in advance, no matter how crazy work or everything else is.

Joy is a metric that the Eisenhower squares imply with the ‘important’ category but that I consider separately. This one especially comes into play when deciding if I should add something new to my plate. Right now I know I need to focus on getting up to speed with my new job and it’s associated certifications, so even though there is other job related learning I would like to pursue, it will only cause me more stress to spread myself thinner.

This applies to other things as well, if I am already trying to learn a brand new language, trying to learn another brand new one will be very difficult until I get up to speed with the first one. Recognizing this limitation on myself, I add things to my life in chunks. I will spend up to 3 months on some key focus areas, that at the end of those three months, I will reevaluate. Maybe I need more time to establish the foundation I was looking for. Maybe I feel amazing and can start adding new things again. Or maybe, i hated it and want to remove it completely. Over time, this allows me to pursue multiple new things while still maintaining whatever came before it.

The last thing I noted is that some things may remain passive wants and that’s ok. This was something that really bothered me last year, but I find I’m slowly making peace with it. I would love to learn to draw, to take a pottery class, to learn to sail, etc. But right now, there’s no room in my life for extra learning. Because I’m busier than normal with the current new additions to my life, any extra time I have, I would rather spend on my relationships (my perpetual highest priority), so those net new things must fall to the wayside for now. They might not always be in the background but, I have to remind myself it’s ok to not do everything at once.