How to Prioritize
The Hidden Secret of Extraordinary Achievers
What separates the truly exceptional performer from everyone else?
One skill stands above the rest: effective prioritization. The most accomplished individuals in any field excel at focusing their limited time and energy on what genuinely matters.
Yet this fundamental skill remains woefully unappreciated and underdeveloped by most. The good news? There’s a straightforward technique that can dramatically improve your ability to prioritize, and it hinges on understanding how your brain works.
Your Brain's Limited Bandwidth
Your brain has a biological constraint that affects how you process information, referred to as "channel capacity.” It’s the cognitive bandwidth available to your mind at any given moment.
Here’s the problem: when your mental bandwidth overloads, your brain starts deleting information. Unfortunately, you don't control what information gets deleted.
Have you ever forgotten something important? Something you were sure you'd remember? This is channel capacity overload in action. Your mind works like juggling. You can reliably handle three balls, but add a fourth, and you likely drop them all.
The Magic Numbers: Three and One
Scientific research reveals two critical thresholds in human cognitive processing:
Three is the number of items your working memory can consistently handle simultaneously.
One is the optimal number of new habits or improvements to focus on at once.
Three and one represent fundamental limitations of human cognition. When you exceed these thresholds, your performance deteriorates rapidly.
The Power of Writing It Down
Keeping your daily task list entirely in your head guarantees you'll forget something important. Research consistently shows that physically writing down your priorities substantially enhances your ability to remember and act on them.
Writing activates your reticular activating system (RAS), a brainstem network that filters incoming information and determines what deserves attention.
Writing signals to your brain that this information requires priority focus. It primes your subconscious to begin working on a solution before you consciously address the task.
Organize Tomorrow Today
This brings me to a technique developed by Dr. Jason Selk and Tom Bartow in their book Organize Tomorrow Today: 8 Ways to Retrain Your Mind to Optimize Performance at Work and in Life (OTT). Their approach respects your brain's channel capacity while maximizing your productivity.
Each evening, take five minutes to identify your three most important activities for the next day. Of those three, identify the most important activity that absolutely must get done.
This simple practice yields profound results.
It eliminates decision fatigue. You wake up already knowing exactly what deserves your attention.
It reduces cognitive load. By deciding priorities beforehand, you free mental bandwidth for actually doing the work.
It focuses your subconscious. Your mind begins problem-solving overnight, preparing you for tomorrow's priorities.
It establishes clear success criteria. At day's end, you have concrete evidence of achievement.
The Science Behind Prioritization
When you consistently practice OTT, you work with your brain's natural strengths while bypassing its limitations.
Your prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for planning and decision-making, operates most effectively with clear and limited objectives. When you identify your three most important and one must-do tasks, you program your prefrontal cortex for optimal performance.
Research in cognitive psychology confirms that explicit prioritization enhances focus and improves completion rates. When you narrow your scope to the vital few rather than the trivial many, you align your actions with high-impact outcomes.
The Benefits of Prioritization
When you master proper prioritization, you will see significant improvements in the following:
Mental clarity
Stress reduction
Decision quality
Creative thinking
Overall life satisfaction
This happens because your cognitive bandwidth, once freed from the burden of juggling too many priorities, is available for deeper thinking and problem-solving.
How to Avoid Common Pitfalls
Although this solution is straightforward, many people struggle with its implementation. The most common obstacles include:
Treating all tasks as equally important. This undermines the entire concept of prioritization. Force yourself to make difficult choices about what truly matters most.
Confusing urgency with importance. Urgent tasks demand immediate attention, but they may not be genuinely important. Important tasks align with your core values and long-term objectives.
Changing priorities midday without reflection. While flexibility is important, constantly shifting focus suggests a reactive rather than intentional approach.
Exceeding channel capacity. Adding just one more thing to your top three increases the likelihood that you won’t accomplish any of them effectively.
How to Elevate Your Practice
As you become comfortable with the basic OTT technique, incorporate these advanced applications:
Apply the same principle to your week, month, and year. Identify the three key priorities and the one absolute must for each timeframe.
Use your "One Must" as your starting point each day. Complete it before other tasks compete for your attention.
Revisit and refine your priorities as circumstances change. Prioritization isn't a one-time exercise but an ongoing practice of discernment.
Practical Application
Here's how to begin if you’re ready to implement the OTT technique:
Set aside five uninterrupted minutes this evening
Identify tomorrow's three most important activities
Determine which one absolutely must get done
Write these down with a pen/pencil and paper (not digitally)
Place your written priorities where you'll see them first thing tomorrow
If practiced consistently, this simple routine will become one of your most powerful habits for achieving sustained success. When you respect your brain's natural limits and focus its considerable power, you'll join the ranks of the extraordinarily effective.