Article Surfing Archive

As strange as it may sound, we can learn a great deal about how to prioritize our lives by taking a few moments and watching a sea turtle. That may sound crazy, but it's true. Sometimes major life lessons come from the most unlikely of sources. When it comes to prioritization, sea turtles are experts.

If you are like most people, you probably find yourself in a bit of a quandary each day. There are more things to accomplish, than there is time to work on them. You are in a constant battle to stay ahead of the 'To Do' list items that are added by you and other people. Short of going sleepless for a few days each week, it seems impossible to take care of everything.

Sound familiar? Then it is time to watch a sea turtle. Sea turtles face a similar 'To Do' list problem every time they swim. Only they are experts at prioritization. They only expend their energy on things that help them accomplish the most important goals they are trying to achieve. For example, when they are going away from the shore, they don't waste any energy paddling against waves that are coming at them. Instead, they float, hold their ground, and then when the waves are sweeping out from shore and in the direction they want to go, they paddle their flippers and use the outgoing waves to their advantage. Using this method, they never waste their energy on things that can't help them.

We can learn a lot from this because we face a similar struggle in our everyday lives. Only for us, the incoming and outgoing waves aren't composed of water. In our lives the incoming waves are made up of all the people, activities, and things that are trying to get our attention, energy, and time, but don't support what we are trying to achieve. The outgoing waves are the people, activities, and things that can help us fulfill what we are trying to achieve.

If we aren't careful, we waste all of our time and energy on the outgoing waves and are left with no time and no energy to spend on what we want or need to accomplish. Think of your average day. How many people are trying to get you to spend your time and energy on them? E-mails, faxes, phone calls, mail, meeting invitations, advertisements, it is an almost non-stop barrage. Just the mail we get delivered to our homes would take up most of the day if we participated in every activity, sale, and service offering we get notified about.

And that is just the mail. At work we have people who want to meet with us, get our advice, and have us help them. In our personal lives people want to capture our attention for television time, places to eat, shopping bargains and a multitude of other offerings. It can quickly become overwhelming.

But don't despair. By taking a few cues from the sea turtle, we can quickly re-prioritize on what is important.

Turtle Tip #1- Define Your Goals

Each Monday put together a list of the six most important goals you are working toward. Three should be work related, and three should be personal. A particular goal may be on your list for many weeks if it is a longer term goal, or it can be something specific to just that week. Remember, only list six. By limiting the amount of goals you can list, you will force yourself to prioritize what is really important to you.

Often it is our lack of clearly defined goals that enables less important items to get our energy and time.

Turtle Tip #2- Identify The Tasks You Need To Accomplish

Turtles have it pretty easy. They eat, swim, mate, and rest. Basically, they live the life most of us want to live. Unfortunately, you probably have a few more activities you need to complete each day. Every morning before you touch your cell phone, open your e-mail, or read the paper, list the six tasks you want to accomplish that day. Again, put down three work and three personal things. The items on your list should support your goals from Turtle Tip #1.

Taking time to determine the specific tasks we need to accomplish helps us identify what is most important for each day. In your list of personal tasks don't be afraid to put down items like relax, read, or time alone.

Turtle Tip #3- Block Time On Your Calendar For Your Tasks

Different people use different techniques for keeping a calendar. Whether your preferred method is a Palm Pilot, planner, Microsoft Outlook, or a big piece of paper, use it to block out time for the tasks you identified in Turtle Tip #2. Make sure you block time for both personal and work tasks. Be generous with your estimates on how long things will take. Tasks inevitably take longer than we expect.

Apparently turtles can keep all of this in their head because they don't carry planners and yet never forget to eat, swim, mate or rest.

Putting a task on our calendar helps solidify in our mind that the time is booked and can't be allocated to something else.

Turtle Tip #4- Just Say No

If something doesn't support one of your tasks, and therefore can't help you achieve what you have identified as the six most important things you need to accomplish that day, then don't do it. Put off less important errands, decline marginally important meetings, and resist the urge to look at and answer less important mail, e-mail and phone messages until you have accomplished your six tasks. If you have time and energy left over after you complete your six, then go back and work on other things.

We humans have a tendency to fall back on what we already know how to do and procrastinate on things that are new or are likely to involve more effort. That is why simple things like reviewing and answering e-mail and phone messages, often gets addressed ahead of tasks we know are more important but that require more effort. Break out of that mindset.

Turtles eat when it is time to eat because they know it is critical to their success. If we are selective in choosing our six tasks, then they should be things that are critical to our success. Say no to everything else during the times you have assigned to those tasks.

Remember, not only do extra tasks take up our time, they also take up our energy. Delaying our six tasks until the end of the day can leave us with enough time to get them done, but we may not have the necessary energy.

So the next time you open your mailbox, receive a meeting request, or get asked for a favor, think to yourself, 'Is this an incoming wave item, or an outgoing wave item?' Does it take up my time and energy, or help me achieve my goals? If you keep those questions in mind, you'll find you become much more selective about how much 'paddling' you do, and for what reason.' And you'll owe it all to a sea turtle.