Life is full of choices, and deciding what should be the top priority can be difficult. And sometimes, we can make the wrong choice when we make decisions hastily. That's why prioritizing is essential in planning for our future and faster decision-making. But unfortunately, having too many priorities is not optimal and can affect our productivity. Hence, prioritization is one of those skills you can improve with practice. To help you master it, our collection of priority quotes below offers insight into maneuvering through work and personal life.
Should I binge-watch the latest show or finish the assignments early? Should I schedule time with my family or spend another weekend with friends? Should I grab the promotion or form a business? If we know ourselves and what we want in our future, picking the right choice is a breeze. So, continue browsing our priority quotes below to start gaining clarity.
Quick links to our selection of priority quotes:
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a prominent psychological theory developed by Abraham Maslow in the 1940s. This theory states that all people are motivated by five basic needs: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. We must meet each need before we can pursue the next.
At the pyramid's base are physiological needs, including food, water, air, and sleep, while safety refers to protection from physical and emotional harm. Next, love and belonging demand strong relationships with family, friends, and peers.
As one moves up the pyramid, the needs become increasingly complex and require more time and effort to address. On the next level, esteem contains respect, recognition, and feeling valued. Finally, self-actualization is at the top of the pyramid. It requires much personal growth and development to achieve.
Setting priorities based on Maslow's pyramid allows us to allocate our efforts accordingly to satisfy them. After reading the priority quotes below, rank your current needs based on the pyramid.
"There is no such thing as ‘I do not have the time'. This is all just a matter of priorities."
"Focus on your priorities before your priorities lose focus on you."
"Desires dictate our priorities, priorities shape our choices, and choices determine our actions."
"The mark of a great man is one who knows when to set aside the important things in order to accomplish the vital ones."
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
~ Aristotle.
We will discover our strengths and weaknesses when we reflect on ourselves objectively. Not only that, we will examine our inner thoughts to identify our life goals. With this understanding, we can prioritize our choices and activities better. However, it takes time and guidance to be self-aware. And there's one way to do it, not based on stars or animals but on science.
Donald O. Clifton, after careful research, developed the CliftonStrengths Assessment for people to discover their innate strengths and how to cultivate them. How reliable is it? Fortune 500 companies have benefited from this tool to boost the performance of their employees. The assessment teaches us to invest in our talents, and they also have resources where they suggest career paths based on our abilities.
Assess your strengths and list your top priorities after getting inspiration from the priority quotes below. You might also like our compilation of motivational quotes, success quotes, and our article on the benefits of a positive attitude.
"In all planning, you make a list and you set priorities."
"The key to a good life is this: If you're not going to talk about something during the last hour of your life, then don't make it a top priority during your lifetime."
"To succeed today, you have to set priorities, decide what you stand for."
"When you have too many top priorities, you effectively have no top priorities."
"The root of productivity is in personal priorities. Know what matters to you and why."
"The first step to regain control of time is to decide what activities are most important so that we can plan to give them the proper priority during a day or a week or a month."
"A great leader must focus the time and energy on the highest priorities and must maintain the single-minded, unwavering resolve to see each issue to completion."
"Nobody's life is ever all balanced. It's a conscious decision to choose your priorities every day."
There's nothing like a good night's sleep to remember what your priorities are.
~ Amy Reed
Prioritizing tasks and responsibilities can be complicated, especially when many people are involved. Fortunately, several established methods can help to simplify the process. Below are three strategies we want to share with you in this article to get you started.
When you're managing a project, this method is ideal. The triple constraint, or the iron triangle, is a project management tool that helps to prioritize tasks by balancing the cost, scope, and time of a project.
Popularized by the 34th American President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Eisenhower matrix is another way to prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. As a result, we should either do, decide, delegate, or delete the tasks accordingly.
Finally, Pareto's principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, is a method to rank activities based on their potential to create a positive impact. As a result, we can maximize our efficiency by focusing on 20% of tasks, contributing to 80% of the desired outcome.
Get your pen and paper and apply these strategies after checking our priority quotes below.
"Success is only another form of failure if we forget what our priorities should be."
"Passion is hidden motivator that dictates and drives every decision and determines life priorities."
"Make priorities based on your goals and not desires."
"Like it or not, the world evolves, priorities change and so do you."
"Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don't try to do everything at once or you won't be successful."
"Stop and take your time to notice things and make those things you notice matter."
"Our greatest danger in life is in permitting the urgent things to crowd out the important."
"It is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves."
"Change according to the Spirit all your priorities, and then joy is your own."
"Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music combined."
The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what's important first.
~ Steven Pressfield
Perpetual devotion to what a man calls his business, is only to be sustained by perpetual neglect of many other things.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
I'm starting to judge success by the time I have for myself, the time I spend with family and friends. My priorities aren't amending – they're shifting.
~ Brendan Fraser
Your decisions reveal your priorities.
~ Jeff Van Gundy
When we know what we want, actions are automatic, and challenges are easier to overcome. For example, Warren Buffett, a successful investor and business magnate, is well-known for his value investing principles, making him one of the wealthiest people in the world. We also have Mahatma Gandhi, an influential figure in modern history famous for leading India's freedom movement through civil disobedience and his philosophy of non-violence.
Buffet invested in a comfortable future, while Gandhi prioritized peaceful protests. Despite the challenges ahead, they do what they do best because they know their priorities. And you can too! So read the rest of our priority quotes below, inspire your personal development, and make your future self proud.
"Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have."
"Action expresses priorities."
"I do know that when I am 60, I should be attempting to achieve different personal goals than those which had priority at age 20."
"It is not daily increase but daily decrease, hack away the unessential."
"Sometimes things in life happen that allow us to understand our priorities very clearly. Ultimately you can see those as gifts"
"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least."
"Wise are those who learn that the bottom line doesn't always have to be their top priority."
"Secondary choices are always subordinate to a primary choice. Often there is no reason to make such choices outside the context of the primary choice that calls for them."
Productivity refers to both the action and the result of a process that centers on assessing one's priorities and then acting on them.
~ Melissa Steginus
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
~ William Bruce Cameron
The word priority came into the English language in the 1400s. It was singular. It meant the very first or prior thing. It stayed singular for the next 500 years. Only in the 1900s did we pluralize the term and start talking about priorities.
~ Greg McKeown
Don't be a time manager, be a priority manager. Cut your major goals into bite-sized pieces. Each small priority or requirement on the way to ultimate goal becomes a mini goal in itself.
~ Denis Waitley
Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
~ Lin Yutang
Isabela is a determined millennial passionate about continuously seeking out ways to make an impact. With a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering with honors, Isabela’s research expertise and interest in artistic works, coupled with a creative mindset, offers readers a fresh take on different environmental, social, and personal development topics.
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