Richard Carlson, in "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff at Work", talks about the need to accept that, for most of us, there are far more demands on our time than we can ever satisfy. Someone will always be disappointed that we aren't giving them what they expect from us. It's a fact, it's not the end of the world; accept it as something you might always experience.
Today, at work, knowing that lots of people are expecting more than I can deliver, I went through a triage exercise. I thought about triage in a medical emergency: which patients must I treat first, letting the others suffer for now? I spent an hour sorting and resorting the list until I was SURE that if I worked from the top down, I would always be working on THE most important thing.
I've always had "high", "medium", and "low" priorities, but I think that I get something more by going through this top-to-bottom ranking system for my "To Do List". It helps me pick what to do next with less hesitation, with more confidence that the tasks I DO complete matter more than the tasks that I DON'T complete. I feel confident that, although I could not do it all, I did what mattered most.
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