The Principle of Priority
“The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgentand what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.”Steven Pressfield
I had just herded my kids through the evening bedtime process:
Showers? - check Clean underwear? - check Teeth Brushed? -check Teeth Brushed WELL?? - check (why is this step always necessary??) Story time? - check Prayers? - check
The final step, the tuck in, was going to be handled by my husband, Billy. I sent the kids off to grab him for the evening close while I jumped onto my computer to finalize a hotel reservation. I was in the middle of filling in the details when my daughter came back into the room.
"Daddy's asleep. Can you tuck me in?" she asked. "Um. I'm in the middle of something, why don't you just tuck yourself in?" I offered.
She barely waited a beat then said, "Don't you have all night to do that? I'm going to bed right now."
Ouch.
Of course I had all night. She and I both knew that the world wide web would be there waiting for me five minutes later, after I had spent invested a few more minutes with her.
This particular night I had the opportunity to rethink my self-centeredness, but that's not always the case. Far too often the urgent takes precedent over the important; the in-front-of-me beats out the unseen.
I don't know about you, but I need to work harder on being intentional in ALL that I do. My priorities are established in my head, but they only work if they play out in my behavior.
Faith Family Friends Community Work
It's not a complicated list, but I need to keep everything on it in order.
I also need to listen to my kids.
How well do you apply the principle of priority?