To manage your time well, it’s critical to make wise choices when you set priorities; but that can be a major challenge, especially when everything seems like a top priority.

In crises situations, you might be tempted to give top priority to the person who’s yelling the loudest, to whatever is at the top of the pile, or to the item you can finish the fastest. When you’re in a hurry, it’s best to slow down. A few seconds of thinking about where to invest your time could save you hours of misdirected time.

When you set priorities here are some criteria that can help you to sort things out. All things being equal focus on:

• Opportunity

• The future, not the past

• The return on the invested time

• Priorities that support your values

• Long-term fixes rather than the “quick fix.”

• Problem preventing rather than problem solving

• System-wide solutions rather than a local solution

• High-impact priorities that matter to a lot of people

• Breakthroughs rather than perfecting the status quo

• Feeding your elephants (big important stuff) and starving the ants (trivia)

Making wise choices when you set priorities is the key to managing your time well. Using the above criteria should help you to identify what is truly important.

为了管理好自己的时间，在设定优先级时做出明智的选择至关重要：但这可能是一个重大挑战，尤其是当一切似乎都是头等大事的时候。

在危机情况下，你可能会被诱惑把最大声喊叫的人的话放在首位，或者是不管什么就堆在你眼前，可以最快完成的。但这有时候会使情况变得更糟或者使你陷入更大麻烦之中。

当你着急的时候，最好慢下来。用几秒钟的思考，决定你的时间投入到哪里，或许可以节省你几个小时的误导时间。

当您在此处设置优先级时，有一些标准可以帮助您做出决定，这些事情包括：

• 是否能带来机会
• 面向未来，而不是过去
• 投入时间的回报
• 是否支持您的价值观
• 有利于长期解决，而不是"快速修复"
• 重视预防问题，而不只是解决问题
• 采用系统性的解决方案，而不是解决单个问题
• 影响很多人的重要的高影响优先级
• 是否带来突破而不只是完善现状
• 喂饱你的大象（重要的东西），饿死你的蚂蚁（琐事）

当你设定优先事项时做出明智的选择是管理好你的时间的关键。使用上述标准应有助于您确定什么是真正重要的。