Tackle the Hardest Thing First

 
 

“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”_Henry David Thoreau

 

Last week I wrote about one of the strategies behind the remarkable success of Elon Musk, who is CEO of not just Tesla, but also SpaceX among others innovative pursuits.

With the level of success he has achieved, he deserves our repeated study to learn as much as possible from his invaluable skills and uncommon vision.

Today, we want to glean another tip from him on how he prioritizes his work on a daily basis, which I think is one of the foremost secrets of his exceptional effectiveness.

It is perhaps one of the main reasons behind his extra-ordinary ability to execute and give form to his fantastic ideas.

If you’re interested in how he works smarter than most of us, please read on to learn his dominant tip for maximizing productivity.

He starts his day with the most critical problem he has to solve and then schedules the rest of his day strictly based on priority.

That sentence is probably the greatest productivity skill you will ever find.

And to put it another way, he tackles the hardest task first thing each day and does everything else in their true order of importance.

As the billionaire said in his commencement presentation at the University of Southern California: “Don’t waste your time on stuff that doesn’t actually make things better. Focus on signal over noise.”

To understand the practical value of that concept, we need to consider the fact that his once-struggling car company (Tesla) now has a current market capitalization of $525 billion, a staggering worth that is more than the value of both Toyota and General Motors combined.

In this direction, the author of ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ Stephen Covey tells you to imbibe this critical habit by deciding “what your highest priorities are and have the courage to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the ‘good.’”

You see, we can’t do everything within the very limited time that we have. So, it is smart to focus on the signals and ignore all the noise if we want to make the most of our short stay on earth.

Prioritizing is the key to exceptional productivity. It is how we can ensure that a thing which practically means everything is not inadvertently at the mercy of a thing which may eventually mean nothing.

Intelligent activity is different from living in a frantic state of motion. As the author of Four-Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss observes: “If you don't have time, the truth is, you don't have priorities. Think harder; don't work harder.”

By that, he meant to remind us to think carefully and be sure that our chosen priority is actually the thing that truly matters; the thing that actually makes everything else easier.

Finally, know that you can make great things happen in your life and business when you decide to focus on the right priorities.

Therefore, to change your life for the better, you don’t need superhuman measure of self-discipline, but you do need to make a better choice of priority, going forward.