7 Steps to Determine Work Priority

In everyday life we ​​often face an overload of tasks, all needing to be completed immediately, and at the end of the day we end up having to take home one task or more. Too many deadlines can stress us out and then, upon arriving home, we realize that we’re in a bad mood which can create an uncomfortable atmosphere within our family at home. It is certainly unpleasant and should not happened. Our family has the right to peaceful, pleasant time together not just during the weekend, but also on other days.

Brian Tracy, in his book Eat That Frog! mentions that some people get stuck doing jobs that provide little or even no value first, and then delay the work that actually provides great results, or is more valuable – work which when we do it properly and thoroughly might change your life or your career.

We want to do so many things, we want to achieve so many desires, but based on “the law of forced efficiency”, there is never enough time to do everything, but there is always enough time to do the most important thing. It is impossible for a person to have enough time to do all things, but he/she will have time to focus on some important works to complete. Eat the biggest and ugliest frog first and then complete the tadpoles or smaller frogs, and as much as possible, avoid the temptation to complete a small job as a top priority to be resolved.

Before you determine which one is the first frog you should eat, Brian Tracy says there are seven steps to consider in determining the priorities:

  1. Specify clearly what you want. The clearer your goals or desires, the easier for you to not delay the work.
  2. Write what you want. By writing on a piece of paper what you want, what targets you want to achieve, the clearer your objectives will be.
  3. Specify the deadlines to achieve these objectives, if necessary, you can add sub-deadlines. Deadlines really help you to be more committed, more disciplined, and to more conveniently organize your time, especially when you have more than one purpose.
  4. Make a list of everything you think can help to achieve your goal.
  5. Based on the list, make a plan. Which do you think is the priority or should be achieved first.
  6. Execute your plans soon. Once you have a clear purpose and a plan, make a list of all the things that support it, next is to take action. If we do not immediately start it, the goal we want to achieve may not happen.
  7. Do something that supports your big goal every day. Make sure from day to day there is significant progress.

As with worldly (dunya) affairs, the affairs of the hereafter should be our priority as a Muslims and Muslimahs. What is your purpose in this world? Of course, to worship Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala. Have we set targets and deadlines for the great purpose and for provision in the hereafter? Our greater purpose is to meet Allah Subhanahu wa Ta’ala the Lord of the Universe and to enter His jannah, in shaa Allah. Have we upgraded our deen, understood, practiced, and used our time properly? For example if in 2016 your target is to memorize the first and the last 10 verses of Surat al-Kahf, to understand the meaning of the entire contents, what actions have you taken towards achieving that goal?

Let us remember the verses of Allah in Surah Al-Asr, that humans who are not able to use their times wisely will be the losers.

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