Benefits of Priofitizing a List

It's not enough to just simply create a list. But this also has to be prioritized. That means that you place it in order from highest priority to lowest priority. The highest priority items are the most urgent to be done immediately. The lowest priority items can wait. And in between you have to create a list in order to find out what can be done second, third, fourth.

This list is dynamic. Things that used to be lower priority yesterday might be moved up to a higher priority today because it became more urgent. Circumstances caused it to become more urgent. Things can also move down in priority and the list is constantly in a state of flux. This does not mean that the original list was in the wrong order. It simply means that as people go through life their priorities change. They may even change on a day to day basis or more frequently because of external circumstances.

This organized list will help you decide what to do first, second, and third. And it will not be simply a to do list in which you're stuck because you don't know how to do with a very very long list and you're frustrated and you have to go through the entire list each time to select what to do. Sometimes this selection might be made on an incorrect or inefficient basis or because at the spur of the moment you didn't have the patience to determine after going through the entire list which things are more or less important.

A list which is placed in order of priority or an ordered list eliminates this problem and assures that you will do just the right things in just the right way.

It's very nice to say that it's important to place the list in order but how can this be done? That is the topic of the next article.

How To

The first step in placing things in priority order is to take a look at the items the list of items and to try to see if you can find a way in which to see things. You should be able to determine certain items that are indeed quite urgent. Put them at the top of the list. You should be able to determine some items that really could wait. Put them at the bottom of the list. You should be able to determine some items that you're not sure about. Put them in the middle of the list. Do this with as many items as you can and you should be able to have an ordered list which represents part of your needs. However, this is not a fully ordered list because within the beginning, middle, and end there will be a number of items which can vy for any different spot and you are not really sure how to order them.

Divide the list into sections, the top, middle, and bottom might be a good way to do it. You might even have more sections if needed, or if your list is very long.

In each list try to break up the items into parts. Say you are working with the top of the list. Divide it up into the top of the top and the bottom of the top. You now have two smaller lists. Divide the top of the top into itself two parts, the top of that and the bottom of that. And so on. Keep doing this until you have divided up each section into smaller sub-sections, each one in a priority listing with one being more important than the other.

After you have been able to divide up the list in this way you will find that it is easier to put things in priority order.

There may be just a few items at the end in which you have to struggle but the main part of the job is completed.

This is a recommended way to handle To Do lists that have to be in priority order.

So what do you do about other lists such as a list of what you are looking for in a husband?

These lists are not placed in order of urgency but rather they are listed in a different order.

Looking for a Mate

If you are prioritizing a list that does not have to do with urgency or time than there is a different method of ordering them.

If you are trying to create a list in which you want to place things in the order of importance then the method might be somewhat different.

Say you are creating a list of things that you want to look for in a mate.

YOur intended spouse should of course meet everything on your list, but that is not reasonable to expect. More likely you will have to make certain compromises.

It is much easier to determine which compromises you are more ready to make if you create a list of items that have the most important items or things to look for at the top and the less important items on the bottom.

This list should be ordered but in its own special way.

Of course it is important to remember that this list must be created before going out with a certain boy or girl who may refer to this list. If it is created in advance then you can be somewhat more objective although never really objective. If it is created after you've already met the potential spouse even once then it will not be objective at all. It will be based on what you like or dislike about a particular individual and not in general terms and this will not be a fair representation of what you are really looking for.

In order to make up this list you should make three groups. In those three groups you should place the tings which are most important to you at the very beginning, the tings which are of medium important at the middle, and the things which are of least importance on the bottom of the list.

Of course, even those tings which have the least importance are of great significance to you, otherwise they would not have been on the list at all. But we are talking about a relative importance. These things are less imporant than others. The items at the top of the list are things which you could not bear sacrificing in your search for the right husband. The things on the bottom of the list are of much lesser relative importance.

Now that you have three groups of lists, take each part separately. In the top part for example you will have a number of items. Try to organize these items from most important to least important. At a certain point you are likely to be stuck, at which time you should take the list as it is and divide it into half. With each half of the list divide the items on the list into the top part and the bottom part of that segment of the list. It will be easier to do it this way since you are working with a much smaller number of items.

Keep dividing the list as needed until you have put everything into its own relative position or until you only have two items in each segment in which case you can put one or the other at the top.

Put all of the segments together. You should have an ordered list at this time.

However, you're not through yet. After sewing up the list there might be a few clashes because of the manner in which each relatively smaller segment was broken up.

That's okay. Now's the time to rearrange those small clashes so that they seem to "work". Go ahead and do it at this stage and keep going until you are satisfied with the list.

At some point you will have an ordered list going from the most important thing you are looking for in your potential mate to the least important items that you are looking for in a mate, and all this refers to relative terms.

This is a reasonable way to prioritize the list of items for your potential spouse.

Prioritizing it chronologically

There is another possible way of prioritizing things which is equally important.

Say that the Jewish holisay of Pesach is coming and you have to prepare for the holiday.

There's a lot of work to be done. There's food to be purchased and possibly some housewares. There is a lot of cleaning to be done and some cleaning needs to be done before other items. The family has to get haircuts and there's a lot more to be done.

The best way to do things is to leave everything to the last minute. In that way you can be sure that nobody will bring additional chametz into any room and any work that you put in will not be destroyed.

However, although that may seem to be the most efficient way it means that not too much is going to get done and you will be in a difficult position before Pesach. That way is not recommended.

This article will deal with how to organize the things that have to be done before Pesach.

However, before you begin please discuss with your own rabbi the actual things that need to be done in your home before Pesach. You may be surprised by the stress or the emphasis that has to be placed on various things and the job may be different from what you had originally planned.

Assuming that only one person is doing the Pesach cleaning, you might want to take the room that the least possibility of getting more chometz into it such as a bedroom as the first item and work your way to areas in which there's more and more of a likelihood of chometz up to and including the dining room and then the kitchen. The room which has the least possibility of getting chomentz into it or the least issur chometz should be done first whereas the room which is the kitchen would be at the bottom of the list to be done at the end.

Work through this list, room by room, and within each room determine how much time to allot for each item and put the time next to the item. In that way you can decide how many day to allot for each room based on the number of hours that are available for cleaning on each day. You'll find that each room may take several days if you are to do a very thorough cleaning but much less time if your own rabbi suggests a different method of doing the cleaning or a faster method of doing the cleaning for that particular room. After preparing this ordered list you will have a good idea of how many days it will take for this part of the job.

However, leave a buffer of several additional days for things that mya come up or for unexpected surprises. It is also wise to keep in mind that the clenaing is not the only part of the Pesach preparations but there are other things to be handled as well. Working backwards you can then list how many days from Pesach to allocate for each item. A big number means that it will be that many working days before Pesach before the actual work can get done.

If you want to be reasonable about your work, be sure that you do not count Shabbat as one of the preparation days. Do not count Friday for one of the preparation days because there are other regular, routine items to handle on Fridays. If you regularly have a Thursday of the week off you can take that into consideration and possibly add more work to that day. It will usually be Sunday, but it may be any other day depending upon your own schedule. There are also other days in which you have a more full schedule than others, in which case you may want to keep this in mind when allocating the amount of work to be done on those days. This may also affect the day before - you may want to get some extra sleep before working that day, and it may affect the day after - you may want to rest up after a particularly busy work day. Keep all of these considerations in mind as you order the list.

Following a preparation of a prioritized list in this way the Pesach preparation work will make a lot more sense and you will be able to maintain a sensible and reasonable pattern of work that will not be overwhelming.

However, there is no doubt that there will be mistakes in the allocation of particular items so be sure to make notes of these mistakes so that you will be able to make minor changes based upon your own experience for the following year.

There will also be changes based upon the number of people who are carrying out the work. If more than one person in the family is preparing for Pesach then the work should be divided up accordingly. In some families it would be better to work in small teams of two or more whereas in other families it would be best to have each person work in a different part of the house who has to keep out of their way. A small family conference together with your own knowledge of the situation can help you determine how to deal with this issue in your own family situation.

There are other ways of getting a quick start on these issues. Be sure to keep in mind that the Internet or family or friends may be a resource for getting lists of things to do on Pesach, possibly based on other people's priorities. These lists are never one-size-fits-all situations, but they may certainly be a way for you to start and then to reorganize the list according to your own personal situation and style.

There are many styles of lists

This series of articles has discussed several styles of lists but the styles here are by no means comprehensive - nor can there ever be a comprehensive list of the types of lists that might be created by various people.

The basic method of creating the lists, however, does remain the same and if you have followed the discussions the articles carefully you can see that the method is the same in all of them:

1. Brainstorm and throw down all of the possible ideas of things that need to be on that list.
2. Organize the list from the most important or urgent or needed or necessary to the lowest level.
3. Break up your list into sections perhaps into thirds and organize each section. After that section is organized as well as you can there are likely to still be problems, so divide the resulting list into two parts and work on each part separately as well as you can. It mays be necessary to divide up each of those parts and to keep dividing things into parts until you have been able to place everything into the right order.
4. "Sew" the sections together so that you have an ordered list.
5. Work on this list in order to place these items in a logical order because sewing is never perfectly accurate.
6. Make sure that the entire list holds together the way it should be done.

It is always useful to work on these lists with somebody else whom you feel close to, even your confidante or someone in the family with the exception of lists that you would not feel comfortable discussing with others.

Working with another person you can get other opinions about the ordering of the list and it may help you to be more logical about your work in some cases it may beat the things up.

Call Me

We sometimes hear from friends when we try to make arrangements with them that they cannot plan things in advance and they won't know if they will be available for an event, a visit, an obligation, or whatever else until much closer to the day in question. Sometimes they may say call me that day and I'll see if I'm available.

This is very much connected to the topic of priorities. A friend who is close to you should place you in top priority. That friend realizes taht you also have your own schedule, you also have your things to do. You are trying to make arrangements to do things enough in advance so that there will be a date that is convenient for both of you. By saying call that day, the friend says the friend is really being quite rude and inconsiderate. By asking you to call that day to make the arrangements and not committing himself or herself in advance, this friend is really being rather inconsiderate of your own needs. This is saying that his time or her time is more valuable than yours; you go ahead and make whatever arrangements you want to. You commit yourself to a date. You work your plans around a particular date but the friend is not going to be able to do it. The friend is too important to be able to plan in advance. This is not a very polite way to act.

There's more. The friend may think I will not make any arrangements until I see what else comes up. I can't tell if I'll want to keep my commitment with you or whether I will want to take up another offer from another friend.

Either this friend has a problem making decisions, or the person simply does not value your company enough or the person simply does not realize that he or she is being unfair in the request. At any rate, it is certainly wrong for one person to have to make arrangements and commitments and the other person not to feel any need to maintain these commitments or to follow through on these arrangements.

It is likely that most people who are guilty of these last minute decisions do not realize the damage in good will and the insult that they are causing to others around them or to their friends. It may also be difficult to tell them about the problem so that they would be able to correct it.

However, in a psychological encounter it may be important to point this out to certain people in order to help them develop a better relationship with their friends.

Yes, other poeple may be able to get away with it but that doesn't mean that you always can.