Hey, what are your top 10 priorities right now?
Is that a question you've been asked recently, or perhaps you've asked someone else?
What are your top 10 priorities?
Well, I think we need to be very careful with that word—priorities—because by using it so often, we tend to water down our work, and as a result, we water down our output.
Priority—the word has a very interesting history.
Priority entered the English language roughly 500 years ago, but its definition was singular.
In fact, you couldn't have priorities.
In fact, even the definition of the word priority was your most significant task or where you were putting your most significant focus.
It wasn't until the beginning of the 20th century that we started to pluralize that word—priorities.
And now we've been throwing it around very, very loosely.
You hear it all the time: "Oh, here are my top seven priorities. These are my organization's top 12 priorities."
Well, I think it's starting to sound a little ridiculous.
Here's why.
As I work with individuals and organizations, I find that the more priorities they have, the less likely they are to achieve them.
And even those that they do achieve, they tend to achieve them rather poorly.
So, I think we need to go back to using priority in its truest sense—what is your most significant task? Where are you putting your most significant focus?
There's an old Russian proverb that states: "If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one."
And the same is true in our personal and our professional lives.
So, the next time someone asks you, "What are your top 10 priorities?" you can say proudly, "I don't have 10 priorities. I have one priority, and here's why."
It's very simple.
