The Most Important Thing

As we ring in the new year and reflect on where we have been and what we would like to do next, I am reminded of a story that I once read. A prominent industrialist hired a consultant to help streamline his business operations. The consultant spent a couple of weeks observing the work that was being done, asked questions, and took notes. He then presented his suggested solution to the industrialist.

“Have your people make a list of everything that they have to do. Ask them to order the list from the most important item to the least. Ask them to work on the most important item until they finish it. Then, they can move on to the second item on the list. This way, they will always be working on the most important task.”

The industrialist thanked the consultant, paid him a lot of money, and asked his executives to implement the new plan. 

The executives didn’t like the idea very much. It seemed too simple. They felt that it wasn’t workable and that it wasn’t worth the money that the high-priced consultant had charged. The industrialist argued that he liked the idea of having his people work on what is most important, and that revolutionary ideas are often fundamentally simple. He insisted that the executives implement the plan without delay.

It’s a good story, but there’s one thing that always bothered me about the consultant’s recommendation. It lacks a key component. It provides no framework for deciding what the most important thing is at any given time.

If you ask yourself, “What’s the most important thing that I can accomplish this year?”, you might struggle to come up with an answer. It’s difficult to decide on a single most important objective, because we have competing demands in our lives. We have jobs. We have bills to pay and houses to maintain. We might be parents. We might be involved in a relationship. We might do community service or volunteer work. Each of those areas has its own priorities.

The late Dr. Stephen Covey addressed this issue with a brilliant approach. Dr. Covey suggested that before we can decide what the important tasks are on our agenda, we need to identify the different roles that we play in life. The roles will be different for each person, but they might look something like this.

Role 1. Parent

Role 2. Spouse or Partner

Role 3. Job/Student

Role 4. Volunteer at ...

Role 5. Friend

Role 6. Captain of the Bowling Team

Dr. Covey recommended a list of up to about seven roles to keep the scope manageable. He also suggested adding an extra role that he labeled “Sharpen The Saw”. This last role covers things that are important to our well-being such as exercise, medical checkups, and relaxation.

Once we have a list of the roles that we fulfill, we can think about think about what’s most important in each area of our lives. What are the two or three most important things that we might want to accomplish as parents? What are the two or three most important things we want to do for our spouse? What are the two or three most important things that we need to handle at work?

I would encourage you to try this exercise. It should only take a few minutes to list the roles, and you can think about what’s important for each role at your convenience.

I would also strongly encourage you to read Dr. Covey’s book, ‘The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People’. What I described above is discussed in one section of the book (Habit 2: Put First Things First). The book goes into much greater detail includes a surprisingly insightful discussion on the difference between what is “important” and “urgent” in our lives. I’ll leave that as a teaser to inspire you to check out the book. :-)

Best wishes on your New Year’s planning and brainstorming, and I hope that you will accomplish all that is important to you in the coming year.

Copyright © 2019 Daniel R. South 

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