About priorities - "Things which matter most...

must never be at the mercy of things which matter least," said Goethe.

(only I bet he didn't. I bet he said 'Dinge, die am wichtigsten darf nie zum Spielball von Dingen, die zumindest Matter sein,' or similar)


Look! It's 7 o'clock in the evening and I'm only just writing my blog. I considered my priorities today, on an extraordinarily long To Do List. Here they are:


1. Clear Poppy's fields of the dreaded Ragwort.

Quite pretty but it causes a slow and painful death for horses if they eat it. I've said on another blog that I hate Ground Elder. That's just annoying. Ragwort is a killer. 


2. Get ready for my friends to came round for a garden party.
3. Party! ...without for a second thinking about all the other things I 'should' have been doing. (Success!)

4. Watch Andy Murray losing to Federer. Sigh...


NOW I can write my blog, safe in the knowledge that today, for a change, my priorities were well sorted - protecting my horses, entertaining and enjoying the company of some very dear friends and family, watching the tennis with them (much more fun than watching it on my own) 

And NOW I can get on with my work (deadline tomorrow) - which, in the grand scheme of things, matters least (especially on a Sunday) only perhaps don't mention this to my clients. 

The job will be done and done well, just not FIRST!

What comes first, the compass or the clock?

"Before one can truly manage time (the clock), it is important to know where you are going, what your priorities and goals are, in which direction you are headed (the compass).

Where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. Rather than always focusing on what's urgent, learn to focus on what is really important."

(Who said that? Nobody knows.)

Then there's another quote, this time from Donald Rumsfeld. “Control your time. If you're working off your in-box, you're working off the priorities of others."

Mea culpa, Donald. I'm trying to get my head round the dilemma, because I think that this is the lot of a busy copy-writer. Your client needs something done. Quickly. You do it. Quickly. You drop other things with longer deadlines.You play catch up.

 What I have done so far today:

• Got up
• Went to yard to feed and turn out/bring in the horses
• Came home
• Spent half an hour, when I could have been working, writing a blog about time management

Sometimes I wonder about myself.