Have you seen the viral priority test? (BTW, it wasn’t written by Sigmund Freud),
It’s a little psychology experiment in which you’re told the following is happening at the same time:
- The baby is crying
- The clothes hanging outside are getting soaked by rain
- The water tap in the kitchen is overflowing
- The doorbell is ringing
- The telephone is ringing
You’re asked to resolve these in sequence. Each represents a priority in your life and this experiment is supposed to tell you what is most important to you.
While I don’t believe this is accurate, it does ask a question. If multiple things require your immediate attention, in which order do you proceed?
Here’s my decision tree:
- Fix critical issues first. Interrupt any on-going work if a critical issue arises
- Then resolve the ones that take less than 15 minutes
- Then tackle the ones that others are dependent on
- Schedule deep think time for those that require extra attention
- For all other tasks, jump between those your prefer to do, and those that you don’t
The last point is interesting. If you have 6 tasks to do, and you “like” 3 of them, then first do one you like, then one you don’t, then one you like, and back and forth. This keeps your interest level relatively engaged.
The takeaway
Remember the saying, “Success is not an absence of problems, it’s an ability to deal with them”.