Get clarity and focus on your priorities with "1st things 1st"

Balancing work responsibilities during personal crises can be challenging. It's not easy to juggle work priorities when dealing with personal issues, whether it's a family crisis, a health issue, or financial hardship. But, you can find ways to manage both your work and personal responsibilities by communicating with your manager, delegating tasks, and prioritizing critical ones. Asking for help from colleagues, seeking out professional counseling or therapy, and taking breaks for self-care can all make a significant difference. In this way, you can manage your work productivity while prioritizing your mental health and well-being during a personal crisis. Remember, be kind to yourself, and take things one day at a time.

Prioritization is the process of identifying and focusing on the most important tasks first. There are several methods for prioritizing tasks, including the Kano model, the 80/20 rule, and the "1st things 1st" approach. The Kano model is a tool that helps prioritize tasks based on customer needs and preferences. It is based on the idea that there are three types of customer needs: basic, performance, and excitation. The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, is a useful tool for prioritizing tasks. It is based on the idea that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. The "1st things 1st" approach involves prioritizing tasks based on evaluations by 2 or more criteria such as importance, urgency, ethics, supporting your goals, cost, etc. It is important to regularly review and adjust your priorities to ensure you are focusing on the most important tasks.

Zapier is a tool that allows users to connect the prioritization tool "1st things 1st" to their productivity apps, such as Trello, Notion, and Asana. By connecting "1st things 1st" to their preferred productivity app, users can easily clarify and prioritize their tasks, and have them automatically exported from "1st things 1st" to their task management app. This can be done using Zapier as an intermediary. To do this, users can create a project in "1st things 1st", create a project or to-do list in their productivity app, add a Zap in Zapier to connect the two, and then use the "Export via Zapier" feature in "1st things 1st" to trigger the export of tasks to the task management app. This allows for more efficient and effective task management, leading to greater productivity and success.

"1st things 1st" is a tool that allows users to prioritize tasks and goals by evaluating them based on multiple criteria. The tool calculates and sorts tasks and goals according to the priorities set by the user. In this article, the author provides 10 examples of how "1st things 1st" can be used in a business setting, including weekly planning, setting quantitative goals, choosing strategic outcome-oriented goals, prioritizing customer needs, evaluating opportunities and threats, prioritizing marketing efforts, prioritizing innovation ideas, evaluating new business models, prioritizing HR issues, and prioritizing financial planning. By using "1st things 1st," businesses can make more informed and rational decisions, leading to greater efficiency and success.

Making one-way door decisions is a problem-solving approach used by managers at large corporations, including Amazon, Virgin, and Facebook. This approach involves determining whether a decision is a two-way door decision or a one-way door decision. Two-way door decisions are reversible and can be tried out with the option to return to the starting point if they fail. One-way door decisions, on the other hand, are irreversible and involve significant risks. They require thorough consideration and should never be rushed. The approach can also be applied in daily life, with examples given for a life explorer, artist, NGO fundraiser, and startup founder. In each case, the decision-maker is advised to evaluate the choices by a list of criteria to determine the best approach.

The cycle of long-term success is a five-step process for achieving goals and achieving success. The steps are: research, prioritize, plan, act, and reflect. Research involves gathering information about your choices and options. Prioritize involves setting priorities for your activities, whether through a decision matrix or simply selecting the first few priorities intuitively. Planning involves scheduling your most important activities and booking time for necessary tasks. Acting involves actually doing the tasks and activities on your list. Reflecting involves reviewing your progress, celebrating successes, and learning from mistakes to improve in the future. By mastering this cycle, you can form a habit of success and become proficient at what you do.