We explore how to prioritize all the competing demands on your time to maximize your effectiveness and happiness.

Show Notes

• 2:50— We discuss how prioritization touches all different aspects of one’s life — personal, career, health, etc.
• 7:08— Ian shares his experience years ago when he discovered the need a framework for prioritization when he felt overwhelmed with all the things he needed to do.
• 11:42— March discusses how moving from Ireland to the US and then having children changed his priorities and the way he prioritizes his time and energy.
• 16:44— Darren frames his experience with prioritization in terms of practicing delayed gratification.
• 18:59— March describes the triage method that firefighters and first responders use to prioritize.
• 22:30— Ian explains the Eisenhower decision matrix.
• 27:46— We discuss the connection between prioritization and delegating some tasks to others or outsourcing some tasks.
• 35:48— March discusses the importance of having a rhythm and routine in your planning.
• 37:13— Ian explains that a key aspect of the Eisenhower matrix is having a single list including all of your personal and work related tasks. Darren and March share their personal methods for combining their personal and work priorities.
• 43:23— March shares a piece of wisdom from Mark Twain about doing the most distasteful task in your day first.
• 45:14— Ian shares a key piece of wisdom about prioritizing the one thing that will give you the most sense of satisfaction once you have accomplished it.
• 46:09— Darren shares his opinion that the #1 most important life skill is the ability to exercise delayed gratification.
• 49:16— Darren discusses the challenge of balancing the needs of others you care about and one’s own needs.
• 52:25— Ian describes the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method employed by Google and other large firms of aligning goals and priorities across the company.
• 59:12— Darren describes the RICE Method for prioritizing business decisions.
• 1:03:52— March explains the ABCDE Method for prioritizing all the tasks in a very long list.
• 1:06:25— Darren admits to being (very) human in his planning rigor and commits to re-adopting the practice of planning his days on the night before.
• 1:07:33— March shares a tip about focusing on the “mean time between recovery” instead of the “mean time between failure.”
• 1:10:20— March is going to document the change in his daily routine when he moves back to Ireland later this summer.
• 1:13:13— Ian is committing to applying the Eisenhower matrix to his Productivity Planner routine.

Mentions

• Eisenhower App
• RICE method from Intercom
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

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