Now that you’ve decluttered your projects, the next step is to determine your #1 most important top priority.

What Top Priority Means

Defining a top priority doesn’t mean you can work on nothing else but that one project. Few of us ever have the luxury of dedicating our full focus to only one thing. There are always other obligations or side projects that demand at least some of our attention.

However, your top priority is the project that you choose to prioritize over everything else, during your work hours, whenever possible.

When in doubt, work on the top priority. Whenever it’s possible to say “no” or “later” to something else, do so to work on your top priority.

With that said, if you are unsure how to choose a top priority project, the following questions are here to gain clarity.

If you have no trouble identifying your top priority, you can skip to question 4.

Question 1: Out of all your important projects, which ones are highest leverage and which ones are lowest leverage?

Work that most effectively moves you towards your goals is high leverage. Work that doesn’t move you towards your goals is low leverage. For example, if your goal is financial freedom, then working on creating & launching a product is high leverage, while working on a new website design is low leverage.

Question 2: Which projects are most aligned with your strengths and values? Which are least aligned?

Work that you love doing and that fulfills you is likely aligned with your values. While work that you dislike and only do because you have to is poorly aligned.

Question 3: Which important task offers the best combination of high leverage and high alignment?

Based on your answers to the previous 2 questions, pick the project that represents the best of both factors.

Question 4: How can you describe your top priority project in as few words as possible?

The goal is to create a short, memorable phrase that represents this project. E.g. “Launch my product”.

Question 5: What is the definition of done for this project?