"One option is no option. Two options is a dilemma. Three options is a choice.
Anthony Robbins

Now that you've decided which tool(s) are going to work best for you in our journey to better task management, it's time to look at how to best prioritize them.

I love that Tony Robbins quote because it is so true. Selection of the right things at the right times leads to a life of fulfillment and wonder, which means exploring the known and unknown together. A lack of options to select from limits all of that.

When you have problems prioritizing, it's not always a bad thing. It's because you have too many options. It's time to whittle those down.

But how do you do that?

Give yourself an honest self-assessment.

Know your habits. Know your strengths. Know your weaknesses. The more you know how you'll handle working towards a more productive lifestyle, the easier the hurdle will become.

Once you've given yourself that assessment, it's time to map things out according to how you see them fit into the grand scheme of things.

The Eisenhower Matrix (later adopted by Stephen Covey) breaks things down into four quadrants:

1. Urgent and Important

2. Not Urgent and Important

3. Urgent and Not Important

4. Not Urgent and Not Important

This is all good and well, and I think that using the matrix as intended (and there are tools that use this method) is a great thing to do. But there's a problem with the word "important"-and it's not what you might think.

The problem with the word important these days is that it is thrown around with little regard to what it means. Because of that, things that are important often are just things that have to get done, but have little resonance beyond that-they aren't attached to anything deeper or more meaningful in the greater scheme of things. Anything with the word urgent attached to it will always feel stronger because of the need for it to be dealt with sooner rather than later. Even in passing, when someone says the word "urgent", it creates a feeling or sense of immediacy.

Enter the word "crucial".

Crucial doesn't get thrown around as much. Better still, when someone uses the word in the same manner as they used important as mentioned above, you can really sense how much it matters to them all the more. When something is said to be crucial, it means that it is "of great importance" (by definition alone). It's possible that the other manner in which the word crucial is used-decisive or critical, especially in the success or failure of something (e.g., negotiations were at a crucial stage)-adds instant power to the word it wouldn't otherwise have, but the effects are still the same. When something is said to be crucial, you know it's important. When something is said to be important, well ... results may vary.