Stop Wasting Time on Low Leverage Tasks (Here’s How with The Priority Power Play)
Case Study
Dakota, a graphic designer, joined Optimize Your ADHD Brain, because she felt like there was never enough time in her day.
No matter how many lists she wrote or how often she organized her life, she felt overwhelmed by the amount of tasks she had to do.
Pretty quickly we realized she would get distracted with low leverage tasks.
This meant she was wasting time on things that don't really matter and would have to stay up late to do the important work.
All it took was implementing one framework and she started seeing results.
Once we improved the thinking skill related to the framework, it all happened naturally.
Thinking Skills
While you are doing any task, you (without even realizing it!) are using your 28 thinking skills.
When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task happens easily.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task will be a challenge.
The struggle that Dakota had, came from a weak thinking skill of comparisions.
Comparisons
Comparisons is the cognitive function that most business owners think they are good at but actually have lots of room to improve.
In order to prioritize correctly, we need to be able to compare correctly.
We need to be able to see the task relatively to our goals and compare it to other tasks.
Staying Focused on the Task at Hand
With Dakota, we started off by training her brain to stay on task and not get distracted by other the little voices or shiny objects she’d see while doing a task. (We spoke about this last week in episode 475.)
While this helped a great deal, this was not enough.
It didn’t help with her choosing which tasks to do first, especially when there were so many that were a lot more fun & easy, yet weren’t really important.
So, I showed her the Priority Power Play 😏
Priority Power Play
- List out all your tasks/projects. Just dump it all out.
- Starting at the top of your list, compare the first 2 items. Which of these 2 are more important? Take the winner and compare it to task 3. By the time you get to the end of your list, you have your most important task. Write it at the top of a new sheet of paper.
- Repeat this process till all your tasks are rewritten on your new sheet of paper.
Now you know what’s most important.
The way this works is, you don’t move down your list until your most important task is done. (Obviously don’t be dumb, if you’re waiting on someone, don’t not do the work of the next task.)
Note: You can do this for all your overall business, or you can do it for daily tasks.
As soon as Dakota implemented the Priority Power Play, her productivity level rose drastically. She now knew what she needed to focus on and wouldn’t let the low leverage tasks distract her.
Focusing On What's Most Important
Since an important piece of Priority Power Play is being able to compare tasks to understand what’s most important, we worked on her thinking skill of comparisons to make it easier.
If you’d like some exercises to improve your own comparisons, check out episode 465.
Your Challenge
In order to stay focused on high leverage tasks, your brain has got know which tasks are more important.
The Priority Power Play helps you organize your projects, so you know what you need to do even when you feel pulled in 100 directions.
Your challenge this week is to do the Priority Power Play:
- List out all your tasks/projects. Just dump it all out.
- Starting at the top of your list, compare the first 2 items. Which of these 2 are more important? Take the winner and compare it to task 3. By the time you get to the end of your list, you have your most important task. Write it at the top of a new sheet of paper.
- Repeat this process till all your tasks are rewritten on your new sheet of paper.
You don’t continue down your list until your most important task is taken care of.
Remember this can be done on a small scale with all the tasks you need to do for today or a bigger scale with all the projects you have focusing on in your business.
I personally like Priority Power Play whenever I feel like I’m being pulled in 100 directions. It’s a sign for me to that my brain doesn't know what it needs to focus on.
Cheers to Peak Brain Performance!
Hi, I'm ST,
Just like you, I want to be more efficient and effective.
Most entrepreneurs want to grow their business but already got a lot of stress.
At LifePix University we help you rewire your brain to become more efficient and effective while experiencing more inner peace.
Learn more here.
Your Essential Guide
to Cognitive Functions
This guide will give you all you need to start improving your cognitive functions. Learn what all 28 thinking skills are, how they apply to you and what you can do today to begin improving them.
Cognitive Functions Assessment
Thinking is not one big thing. Thinking is made up of 28 parts, called cognitive functions.
Take the FREE assessment to see where each of your cognitive functions are currently at.
We're on for 1M downloads
By the end of 2025
Can you help us reach our goal?
Share this podcast with someone you love!
Stop Wasting Time on Low Leverage Tasks (Here’s How with The Priority Power Play)
Case Study
Dakota, a graphic designer, joined Optimize Your ADHD Brain, because she felt like there was never enough time in her day.
No matter how many lists she wrote or how often she organized her life, she felt overwhelmed by the amount of tasks she had to do.
Pretty quickly we realized she would get distracted with low leverage tasks.
This meant she was wasting time on things that don't really matter and would have to stay up late to do the important work.
All it took was implementing one framework and she started seeing results.
Once we improved the thinking skill related to the framework, it all happened naturally.
Thinking Skills
While you are doing any task, you (without even realizing it!) are using your 28 thinking skills.
When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task happens easily.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task will be a challenge.
The struggle that Dakota had, came from a weak thinking skill of comparisions.
Comparisons
Comparisons is the cognitive function that most business owners think they are good at but actually have lots of room to improve.
In order to prioritize correctly, we need to be able to compare correctly.
We need to be able to see the task relatively to our goals and compare it to other tasks.
Staying Focused on the Task at Hand
With Dakota, we started off by training her brain to stay on task and not get distracted by other the little voices or shiny objects she’d see while doing a task. (We spoke about this last week in episode 475.)
While this helped a great deal, this was not enough.
It didn’t help with her choosing which tasks to do first, especially when there were so many that were a lot more fun & easy, yet weren’t really important.
So, I showed her the Priority Power Play 😏
Priority Power Play
- List out all your tasks/projects. Just dump it all out.
- Starting at the top of your list, compare the first 2 items. Which of these 2 are more important? Take the winner and compare it to task 3. By the time you get to the end of your list, you have your most important task. Write it at the top of a new sheet of paper.
- Repeat this process till all your tasks are rewritten on your new sheet of paper.
Now you know what’s most important.
The way this works is, you don’t move down your list until your most important task is done. (Obviously don’t be dumb, if you’re waiting on someone, don’t not do the work of the next task.)
Note: You can do this for all your overall business, or you can do it for daily tasks.
As soon as Dakota implemented the Priority Power Play, her productivity level rose drastically. She now knew what she needed to focus on and wouldn’t let the low leverage tasks distract her.
Focusing On What's Most Important
Since an important piece of Priority Power Play is being able to compare tasks to understand what’s most important, we worked on her thinking skill of comparisons to make it easier.
If you’d like some exercises to improve your own comparisons, check out episode 465.
Your Challenge
In order to stay focused on high leverage tasks, your brain has got know which tasks are more important.
The Priority Power Play helps you organize your projects, so you know what you need to do even when you feel pulled in 100 directions.
Your challenge this week is to do the Priority Power Play:
- List out all your tasks/projects. Just dump it all out.
- Starting at the top of your list, compare the first 2 items. Which of these 2 are more important? Take the winner and compare it to task 3. By the time you get to the end of your list, you have your most important task. Write it at the top of a new sheet of paper.
- Repeat this process till all your tasks are rewritten on your new sheet of paper.
You don’t continue down your list until your most important task is taken care of.
Remember this can be done on a small scale with all the tasks you need to do for today or a bigger scale with all the projects you have focusing on in your business.
I personally like Priority Power Play whenever I feel like I’m being pulled in 100 directions. It’s a sign for me to that my brain doesn't know what it needs to focus on.
Cheers to Peak Brain Performance!
Hi, I'm ST,
Just like you, I want to be more efficient and effective.
Most entrepreneurs want to grow their business but already got a lot of stress.
At LifePix University we help you rewire your brain to become more efficient and effective while experiencing more inner peace.
Learn more here.
Your Essential Guide
to Cognitive Functions
This guide will give you all you need to start improving your cognitive functions. Learn what all 28 thinking skills are, how they apply to you and what you can do today to begin improving them.
Cognitive Functions Assessment
Thinking is not one big thing. Thinking is made up of 28 parts, called cognitive functions.
Take the FREE assessment to see where each of your cognitive functions are currently at.
We're on for 1M downloads
By the end of 2025
Can you help us reach our goal?
Share this podcast with someone you love!
