All of these things are important

Is everything on your list a priority? That's not a problem. That's the goal.

Photo by Kasia Derenda on Unsplash

Years ago, I had a coach who would write how fast he wanted us to swim each set on the practice sheet. The problem was that it came out like this:

Fast. Fast Fast. FAST. VERY FAST!! SUPER FAST!!!!

I suspect many of our task lists look like this. We refer to the items on the list as priorities and can only distinguish between them by tagging them as a low or a key priority. My planner calls out top priorities — plural. 

We like to say that when everything is important, nothing is. But what do you do when everything on your list is important? 

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What is a priority?

The word priority has evolved. In the late 14th century, the word was prioritie, which meant the "state of being earlier (than something else), prior occurrence or existence.”

In 1897, Century Dictionary wrote, "Priority is the state or fact of coming first in order of time; what little use it has beyond this meaning is only a figurative extension.”

In the 20th century, it shifted to "fact or conditi…