Remember the Days When We Do One Thing at a Time (or Even Per Day)?

That’s What Priority Really Means

This was a real conversation I had with a friend ten years ago. His name is Rav.

Me: “Hey, Rav. What have you done today?”

Rav: “I posted a letter.”

Me: “That’s all you did? It’s 6 p.m. on a school day!”

Rav: “Yes, and then now I’m going to fellowship with you.”

This conversation felt like one you heard on a Moomin cartoon. Time is so luxurious at Moomin Valley that all Snufkin does is playing his recorder from dust till dawn, and Rav posted a letter.

On that same day, I think I had class, a Tinder coffee date, rushed through my readings, did my part-time job, cycled along with the London traffic, and was late to fellowship.

I’m now in my 30s and am still swallowed alive by my to-do list. It’s time to prioritize in reprioritizing my priority(!)

Get your priorities straight is false

This Youtuber is right to point out that priorities mustn’t be plural. When we have more than one priority, that’s just a to-do list with no sense of direction.

“Priority” must be singular, one at a time.

This is the secret of the present moment spiritual guru Eckhart Tolle keeps talking about in his book The Power of Now.

When we do our laundry, that’s our priority at that precise moment. After that, we re-establish our priority. We shouldn’t be thinking about what to cook for dinner or check our work emails when we are doing our laundry.

Strategy vs tactic

You might say that because doing the laundry is just part of my tasks-to-do, not my priority! I get what you mean, as in doing laundry feels like a merely unavoidable errand to run. We feel that our ‘priority’ ought to be bigger: maintain work-life balance, make more money, etc.

Without playing with words too much, in the world of consulting, that’s concepts being mixed up. Maintaining work-life balance is a strategy, or even a goal, not a tactic. A tactic is the actual steps we need to take in order to achieve the strategy.

Doing your laundry with your whole heart, as a priority, is a tactic for maintaining work-life balance. Because if you don’t have a work-life balance, then you’re likely to think about something else on your to-do list.

This applies to whatever situation. Say your strategy is to make a lot of money, your tactic could be to get a well-paid job. Then when you are preparing your job application, you must prioritize this task because it’s part of the tactic to achieve your strategy.

To-dos that are not part of your strategy

But the question is, how can we prioritize doing laundry when our goal is to make money? That’s not part of the tactics!

True, a lot of our time is spent on things that we don’t want to do and contribute nothing to our goals, I get that.

But we should still make doing laundry at that present moment our priority. Because when we are unwilling, distracted, and can’t be asked, we often procrastinate or do a crappy job at those tasks.

Say if you didn’t focus on what you put inside the washing machine, your red top might bleed to your crispy white shirt for work, now that ties back to your strategy.

I have a similar issue with changing my bedsheet. I hate it. When I do it I usually walk off and watch Netflix after changing a pillowcase. That’s the problem, procrastination is a big obstacle to efficient time management, which is of course, essential to anyone with a goal to achieve. If I had changed my bedsheet with a prioritized mind, then I will be quick on the next important task.

No matter what we do, everyone gets 24 hours a day equally. How we use our time is purely dependent on our attitude and choices. Prioritizing each task at a time, stay within the present moment, is not only a mindfulness practice but also a strategic move.

But then we will still have many priorities during the day

When we were 20 years old, Rav only had one job to do: to post a letter. If we have a different priority in each present moment, then we still won’t have a chilled life like Rav.

This is the thing, Rav’s chilled not because he only had one thing to do that day. We can do 100 things a day and still be chilled. The key is on your mental activity at any given point of time, not how many things we need to do.

We lost our efficiency when we’re stressed, we’re stressed when we’re overwhelmed. We are overwhelmed when we lost control of our to-do list and don’t know what our priorities are anymore, that of course, sacrifices our efficiency further. Big circle.

By prioritizing one thing at any given moment, our mind is not overwhelmed but focused, our action is precise and efficient, time is within our control. No stress and chilled as a cucumber.

No matter what, we should always have one priority at a time.

Today, Rav’s a director at a top firm managing 50 people in his team. He has 100 things to do every day, but when I saw him the last time at fellowship, he’s still the chill-out guy I knew ten years ago.

We had this conversation recently on Zoom:

Me: Hey, Rav. What have you done today?

Rav: I did quite a few things, but they’re now done.

Me: So what’s on your mind now?

Rav: Obviously God, we are at His fellowship!

Amen to that.