Prioritizing vs. Posteriorizing

A Tuesday Tip:

I learned something this morning that, for many, probably seems rather obvious. I’ve found that for me, however, some things just need to be SAID. Too often, things that are just assumed are consequently missed by simple people like me. I heard the following in one of my audio books this morning, and it really resonated with me.

"Sometimes, in the process of restructuring, reengineering, reinventing and reorganizing, you have to be prepared to completely change what you are doing. You have to be prepared to discontinue some activities so that you can spend more time on other higher-value activities. Since your most precious resource is your time, and the key to time management is your ability to set proper priorities, there is another concept that is invaluable to you; this is the idea of setting posteriorities as well.

A priority is something that you do more of, and sooner. A posteriority is something, on the other hand, that you do less of, and later… if at all. A priority is something that you move up on your list of activities and focus on getting done earlier and well. A posteriority is something that you decide to cut back on or discontinue altogether.

Here’s the secret… You can only get your life under control to the degree to which you STOP doing certain things of low value, in order to free up more time that you can then use to do things of higher value.” (Quote by Brian Tracy)

Until today, I’d never even heard of a posteriority. I’ve heard the word posterior, but never would have thought to link it to this context before. I like the concept, though, of not ONLY prioritizing but also posteriorizing. It makes EVERYTHING on your “to do” list more intentionally planned and organized. It also puts things on your list that should be done LESS. These things would never be on any of my lists otherwise!

Its true, for me anyway, that when I create my “to do” list each day, I usually prioritize those things that are most urgent to happen first. Then, I move on to the important things. By contrast, however, I’ve often heard that when most highly successful people plan the consumption of their time, they first distinguish between what is urgent and what is important. Then they do what is important FIRST. Easier said than done, I think, but a wise and valuable technique nonetheless.

Prioritizing alone, results in a process of elimination method, which leaves other things which are, by default, just not high priorities. This isn’t a very thorough way of planning with purpose. It leaves activities that are simply un-prioritized things to do. They are just things to be done…”sometime.” These are usually the things that carry over from one day to another, or in many cases, from one month or even year to another. The ironic part is that had those things NOT been added to the “to DO” list at all, they would still be undone. We put them on a list, but we don’t do them because they have not been prioritized highly enough. The day expires and we’re left with the list’s left-overs…again. And not too many people like left-overs. Occasionally, we need to just through left-overs out. Free up the space in the fridge for other things that need refrigeration. By posteriorizing, we can determine whether an activity even merits any place at all on our list. By this same technique, we can also determine which of the many activities consuming our time throughout the day needs to STOP consuming our time.