First Things First: The Simple Step to Productivity and Reaching Elusive Goals
By: Magnus Gadowsky
Tags: Goals, Lifestyle, Time Management, Mindset, Productivity

The lack of reaching a goal likely does not have to do with your will, want, or work ethic but the time you are able to put towards it. With a “First Things First” mindset you will not only create the time to achieve that goal but also create more motivation along with it.

Milano, Paul. “What to Do When You’Re Completely Overwhelmed With Work.” Ever Productive, everproductive.com/top-peformance/how-to-conquer-overwhelm-and-stress.

Overview

Simply put, this mindsets goal is to help you prioritize your actions and time to lead to a more efficient and productive life. Putting “First Things First” is as easy as analyzing the tasks you have yet to complete and do them in the order of importance. This will not only allow you to get more done but more importantly help manage your time without much effort. In addition, this mindset helps build a more proactive lifestyle where instead of waiting for a deadline or command you will seek out what you need to do and complete it effectively and efficiently. Below are the 3 steps I take to put a “First Things First” mindset into effect and how I have managed to make it a part of my daily mindset.

Calm Down

The First step in adopting this mindset is to evaluate your situation. Ask yourself, “What do I have to do?” and “What am I doing right now?”. The simple way to say this is don’t put your focus towards stress or recounting the many objectives you have to achieve but towards the completion of the most important or urgent of those tasks. Only once you can acknowledge and set your priorities straight can you begin your journey to productivity.

Turn Your Haves Into Your Wants

The main thing stopping us from being productive is simply that we don’t want to do the things we need to achieve a goal. Although seeing only one task and not worrying about any others is an effective way to do something efficiently, it is not an effective form of motivation. Instead of just telling yourself to do a task, address why you are doing it; take a moment to see the bigger picture. This will make you realize that your goals are not only possible, put probable if you sit down and put “First Things First”. Doing this gives you the want and desire to tackle the task ahead. No longer will you sit dreading the next step but willingly and optimistically work.

Signore, Dino. “The Optimistic Organization: Leadership Lessons from Neuroscience.” The Edward Lowe Foundation, 2018, edwardlowe.org/optimistic-leader/.

Prioritizing

The idea of a “First Things First” mentality and its effectiveness stems from its successful way of organizing your tasks. By doing the steps above you should not only be able to compose yourself to do work but also create the motivation to get it done, and the next step is the simplest yet most difficult: beginning to work. In contrast to zooming out and seeing the bigger picture, now you have to only see whats in front of view and identify the most important task at hand. With this newfound motivation and optimism you should be able to get to work and tackle this previously daunting task. In turn the completion of this task will serve as praise and further motivation to get the next task done; ultimately creating a loop of productivity!

Simple Yet Effective

The steps and strategize listed above are straightforward and more importantly easy. A “First Things First” mindset is not difficult to adopt but it can be difficult to make it a habit. Everyday you must ask yourself, “What do I need to do?” and if lacking motivation, “Why am I doing it?”. With this mindset you can turn your unrealistic goals into probable ones and the steps to take from needs to wants. It sounds too good to be true but simply adopting this mindset will change your life immediately and for the better.

Further Explored

If you enjoyed this article here are some book recommendations to fuel further curiosity: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey and The One Thing by Gary Keller.