Priority
Priority. What does that mean, exactly?
Prior: “preceding in time or in order”
Priority then, sounds like something given to.. something to indicate it’s order in a list of ..something. That’s a lot of somethings. To say that something “has priority” doesn’t mean much, then. To say that something has “high priority” is a bit more helpful, but still vague. If I was told that something else had “low priority”, then I would understand the relation between the two. But the minute someone gives me two somethings that are both of “high priority”, I‘m lost again.
I’m not sure I can remember the last time someone told me that something had low priority, but I digress.
Let’s say I was told that something had “Top priority!!!”. That does sound more clear. Surely that is the most important thing of all? Or is it the most urgent? Or both? And what does important mean, anyway?
Important: “necessary or of great value”
Hm.. value. That’s a popular word. But what does it mean?
Value: “the importance or worth of something for someone”
Wait a minute. Important means it has great value, and value means importance. So if something is important, then it is.. important. I guess that is good to know. It also tells us that without further reference or clarification, these words doesn’t tell us much. Oh, and we almost forgot one word. Urgent.
Urgent: “very important and needing immediate attention”
We’re not getting anywhere, are we? Urgent means important too, but apparently this one is important right now. Way back in 1994, Covey and Merril attempted to make sense of this:
The idea was to focus on long term stuff that were important, before they got urgent. That yellow quadrant up there is where you are able to do focused work with high quality, as there’s no need to rush. You know, like install a smoke detector before your kitchen is on fire.
Glad we cleared that up. And now you know that the next time someone screams “This is a priority task!” in your face, you can confidently answer “Sir, you are not making sense”.
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