How to prioritize in life: criteria, influencing factors

“Family, duty, honor” - in that order?

The problem of choosing the right priority is relevant at all times, regardless of the time of year, political views or religious beliefs. The question of how to prioritize in life is the most frequently asked question to oneself since the beginning of conscious age. The very concept of priority implies paramount importance, the primacy of your aspirations and desires. The main thing here is to listen to yourself, your own desires, on the basis of which such a sequence is built.

Currently, there are eight components of any comprehensive priority model:

Spirituality and its development are your inner world, moral structure, as well as awareness and acceptance of human values. This is the so-called moral side of a person, his inner world;
Family is your relationship with family and friends: friends, relatives, loved one. Your desire to please them and make them happy;
A healthy lifestyle is your attitude towards sports, active recreation and, of course, your own health. Ability to take care of yourself;
The financial aspect is satisfaction with one’s financial situation, as well as the desire for wealth or luxury. Your ambitions are on material grounds;
Career – self-realization of one’s own ambitions on a professional basis, achieving career heights. The desire to become better than others in the professional as well as work field of activity;
Rest - the name speaks for itself - the ability to relax after a hard day or simply from the hustle and bustle of the world;
Self-development – the ability and desire to develop in areas of interest;
Society - the people around you, their relationships and your reputation in their eyes. Your desire to please complete strangers or unfamiliar individuals.

Each person is individual

As you can see, such a classification is very complete - it affects all life aspects of any person, from work and family to leisure and hobbies. Each of us has the opportunity to prioritize in life using such components. The only question will be which of this list will be at the top of the chart, and which will be at the very end. The main thing is to under no circumstances judge those whose alignment is different from yours. Remember that each person is individual, which means by default, he is not obliged to adapt to anyone, even if it is his family or close friends.

As already mentioned, the main priorities of life will be placed in the first three, thus showing the main aspiration of a person - in other words, his life goal at the current moment. With age, the scale of priorities can change significantly, for example, the first place will no longer be career, but personal life or family.

Factors influencing the main priorities in a person’s life

As much as we wouldn’t like it, in order to set priorities in life we also need to take into account the influence of a number of factors that imperceptibly, but nevertheless, greatly influence our life position and views.

The first such factor, no matter how trivial it may sound, is time . Let's be honest, which of the young people aged 20-25 thinks about health, proper nutrition, or creating a new unit of society? If it reaches 5%, then this will be a very good indicator. What about older people? Everything is completely different there - health, family, essentially turning the world upside down. However, there is no need to be indignant now and say that something or another state of affairs is wrong. On the contrary, each of them is right in their alignment of interests, you just need to take into account such a phenomenon as youthful maximalism and old man’s anxiety. In this case there is no erroneous or non-erroneous thinking.
The second factor will be all those key events that occurred in the life of any individual. They make it possible to correctly set priorities in life, based on your own experience. This experience can be both joyful and sad, but its main task is to allow a person to look at life differently in certain situations that he has already experienced or that he has already dealt with. For example, for a young family, the priority will be to take care of their child and only then will rest come.
Difficulties in one or more areas of life - also helps to prioritize in life. Even more, this factor is the key one. But at the same time, two scenarios are possible. This area becomes leading, for example, failures at work force one to strive even harder for the required result, or vice versa - a person puts it on the last line of his personal chart. This is very often observed in personal life. Fear of rejection or previous failures force one to sharply change one’s own desires, since a person becomes ardently convinced that in this field he will not achieve the desired success.

As you can now see, life priorities are not a fixed value or a kind of axiom; they are by no means something constant, a moving and direction-changing phenomenon that can remain in suspicious calm for no more than 5-10 years.

What does this mean in science?

Here this term means primacy in the field of scientific achievements . It belongs to the one who made a discovery, invention, or conducted useful research. For example, the term can be used in the following situations:

The priority in Arctic exploration belonged to the USSR.
In Soviet times, priority in scientific developments was given to the military-technical complex.
Ivanov has developed a way to increase the efficiency of the company's production; he has priority.

According to the law, priority is given to the scientist who first announced his invention: published information about it in the press or filed documents for a patent.

How to determine your priorities?

In order to learn how to prioritize in life, all you need is to take the time to analyze your own thoughts and your own desires.

The secret is quite simple - take time for yourself, and then think about a number of such questions:

What do I want?
What are my goals?
What am I willing to do to achieve them?
What can I give up for the next 5 years?

Such seemingly simple questions will help you, however, fully understand the importance of some of the components that were given earlier. By answering these questions, a person, perhaps without realizing it, already knows how to set priorities in life: what needs to be placed in the top three, and what can be completely abandoned.

Ask yourself the main questions at least once a year

But you shouldn’t do this procedure just once, because life doesn’t stand still, which means that what was relevant to you now may turn out to be completely unnecessary the very next day. Make it a rule to engage in this kind of self-analysis every six months, and then record the result of your applied psychology session. After a certain period of time has passed, you will have the opportunity to analyze possible changes, which will only benefit you in the future. Because a change in priorities does not happen just like that, but only under the influence of the three factors described above.

Start keeping your calendar , planning it based on the priority of tasks: first the most important ones, which cannot be delayed, and then the minor ones, which can be delayed. By submitting your daily life to this kind of planning, each person can easily not get confused at the moment of changing his life position, but apply the same skill in deeper plans for much longer periods.

With any prioritization, the only thing that should worry a person, the main thing that needs to be guided first of all, is his own internal thoughts: “ What do I really want? ” or “Is this really what I want to strive for?” Ask yourself a few questions of this kind - and you will understand what is the best strategy for you to choose, how to prioritize in life. The main thing is to maintain a kind of balance, and not go from one extreme to another. The ideal option, of course, would be a uniform time return, although this is something from the realm of science fiction; it is in principle impossible to achieve this. Good advice would also be that you can use your own experience to realize your own desires, which undoubtedly affect your priorities. Experience is an advantage that makes it possible to make decisions that are simply not available to others. Don’t give up the desire to be the best, just learn to act tactfully and most importantly, don’t forget to remain human in any situation.

You can't do without choice

A person decides for himself which path to follow; he is the director and screenwriter of his own life. If you know and be able to set priorities, this opens up vast spaces for self-realization, improvement, and putting your life in order. There are various systems in the world, which are based on the assertion that each person is inclined to choose his own path. Each of them includes certain stages that help you achieve your goals.

Paper and pencil

Everyone has their own priorities, but they can change places slightly, adapting to the current rhythm of life. For example, you wanted to relax, but you need to spend time with your child. Or a work trip does not allow you to be alone with your loved one. Life doesn't always go according to plan, so small changes should be tolerated.

Initially, you need to arrange your personal values in descending order. For clarity, you should arm yourself with a sheet of paper and a pencil. Ask yourself the questions listed below and try to answer them honestly and candidly:

What do you consider the most important thing in life? Multiple items are allowed.
Where do you spend most of your time?
What do you dream about, what do you strive for, what do you expect from life in a few years?
What do you need to achieve each goal listed?
What obstacles stand in the way of realizing your plans?
What things must be done? This could be caring for children, parents, pets, etc.
What tasks can you refuse, are they the most insignificant and unimportant?

The to-do list that you will see in front of you will help you clearly understand which things and tasks are a priority, and which ones you can return to after a while if they do not lose their relevance.

We think and analyze

When you have a specific goal, you need to think about how you can achieve it. To do this, you should analyze what resources and capabilities are available. If something is missing, it’s time to solve this problem. Don't do rash or reckless things. Carefully think through every detail, little detail, nuance. Otherwise, you risk moving away from your goal.

Making a plan

When the goal is set, resources and forces are calculated, you need to develop a plan that will help you move slowly and confidently towards the result. Breaking a large task into small pieces will allow you to more effectively achieve it. The large-scale goal should include intermediate goals, for which forces and time should also be calculated.

If you try to do “everything at once,” you can become disappointed in yourself, lose interest, and give up. Try not to tell strangers about your plans and desires. Push back this moment until you begin to realize your goals. Otherwise, you will waste energy on empty chatter. Sometimes the disapproval of others makes you think that you are wrong. Do not be influenced by the opinions of others, be guided by your thoughts.

It's time to act

After the preparatory stages, it’s time to move on to the main thing – achieving the goal. Put aside all doubts and hesitations, you need to decide, otherwise all the work was done in vain. The surrounding reality will change over time, so periodically review your priorities and make adjustments. Deal with the minor daily tasks first. Gradually move from small goals to larger ones, follow the intended path.

Don't forget to record all the results achieved. This will help you understand what emotions you experienced from completing small tasks and which ones from large ones. Don't fuss, don't waste your energy.

Stick to your interests no matter what

The main thing that I would like to emphasize is that in order to set priorities in life, the main thing is to remain yourself, without falling under the influence of so-called advisers. You need to understand that the correct, and most importantly, harmonious choice of priorities is the key to success in any endeavor, since you yourself know what exactly you want to achieve.

The final touch is that, despite the advice of friends or various trainers, do not try to try on the mask of someone you are not. If you are a workaholic and a misanthrope, then relationships and social communication will clearly not be a priority for you. Follow your own aspirations and then everything you plan for yourself will definitely be achieved.

MoSCoW method

In this technique, you classify each case into one of 4 categories:

M (Must Do) – tasks that you must complete.
S (Should Do) tasks are things you should do, but they have a lower priority than M tasks.
C (Could Do) – these tasks could be done, but if you don’t complete them, then nothing bad will happen.
W (Won't Do) – you don't have to do these tasks at all.

If you always work through your list from top to bottom, you will ensure that you only spend time on the highest priority items.