Priorities


I’ve tried hard all my life to do as much as I can when promised. I’m no shining star and I realize I’ve made promises I’ve forgotten to keep or just got too busy, and for that I really feel bad about. Typically that comes with a followup promise and starts the cycle all over again. Even today I have 30+ things left on my immediate to-do list, and I’d love to get them all done before we leave for our cruise in less than a week and a half. But the real deal behind that is I know I can’t do it in the time I need to. For as long as I can remember I’ve tried to be that nice guy that helps out, offers favors, goes out of the way to put people before me. Maybe it’s the way I was raised, maybe its the Eagle Scout in me. Probably both. However when i think to how busy I’ve been over the years, the thing that keeps me going is not what I may be getting paid for it or how many websites I can knock out in a week for status.. but the gratification of accomplishment in knowing I did it myself.

I’ve gotten a lot done sofar in life, and mostly because I’ve had the fortune of keeping in good terms with people that have helped me where I need to be. Weather it be in a professional environment, or in casual, I’m proud of what I can hold to my name, and that’s something that will stay with me forever, even tho its shared with everyone’s favorite president. *heh. In any case, I was reading over a few blogs the other day and found this post on Seth’s Blog. Give this a quick read.

I gave a talk the other day, all about the unstoppable slow decline of interruption (traditional) media and the opportunities for rethinking how we communicate with people. At the end of the talk, someone came up and had very nice things to say about what he’d learned. The he leaned over and asked me to help him brainstorm about his brand’s upcoming ad campaign, because it was due to his boss on Friday.

Add up enough urgencies and you don’t get a fire, you get a career. A career putting out fires never leads to the goal you had in mind all along.

I guess the trick is to make the long term items even more urgent than today’s emergencies. Break them into steps and give them deadlines. Measure your people on what they did today in support of where you need to be next month.

If you work in an urgent-only culture, the only solution is to make the right things urgent.

Really well put, and as much as I’d be an idiot to disagree, the reality of the situation is no matter how much I shuffle priority, it’s my own fault for making priority in the first place.

I started my own business again this year for two primary reasons. To make some cash doing more programming, and to take photography. Sofar I’ve got one of those down (the programming part), however the only time I’ve picked up my camera since Christmas was to take a few shots at the Auto Club 500 race last month, and it was a chore, I couldn’t even get into it like I used to. Whats even better is I still havn’t downloaded the photos from my memory card. Hows that for priority?

What grinds my gears about priorities is this: photography means more to me than the web, hands down, so how do I put a half life on my money maker so I can do what I love best when it’s always second on my list. Can it be done without regret? Not unless it’s a priority.


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