Compassionate Prioritisation: Focus on What Truly Matters

In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks, responsibilities, and goals we’re juggling every day. But when everything feels urgent, it can be hard to know where to focus your energy, time and leadership. That’s where The Compassionate Prioritisation framework supports you to strategically focus on what matters while giving yourself permission to consider the items that no longer serve your goals.

Why Use Compassionate Prioritisation?

Most prioritisation methods focus solely on efficiency—getting more done in less time. But that mindset can lead to burnout, especially when we try to juggle every task as if it’s equally important. Compassionate prioritisation offers a more strategic process that helps you to consider not only what needs to get done but also how you can prioritise, all the while being kind to ourselves and others in the process.

By using compassionate prioritisation as one of your leadership tools, you:

Reduce overwhelm: Narrow your focus to the tasks that are most essential.

Avoid burnout: Give yourself permission to let go of tasks that aren’t necessary in the moment or are no longer worth your time or energy.

Align with your goals: Make sure the tasks you’re doing are linked towards your overall strategic objectives and move you toward what matters most.

This method encourages you to be thoughtful about what’s essential and allows you to relieve yourself of the pressure (that we all feel at times) to be perfect or over-committed.

How to Implement Compassionate Prioritisation

The compassionate prioritisation framework breaks down into five steps: Retain, Relax, Restrict, Review, and Remove. Here’s how you can implement it in your daily, weekly, or monthly routines:

Step 1: Retain Essentials

What It Means: Identify the core tasks that directly support your key goals. These are the non-negotiables—tasks that must be completed because they are critical to your success.

How to Apply: At the start of each day, week, or month, list the tasks that are essential. These are the things you can’t skip, like critical deadlines, key meetings, or major project milestones.

Step 2: Relax Standards

What It Means: Not everything needs to be done perfectly. Identify tasks that can be done to a lower standard without negative consequences.

How to Apply: For tasks that don’t require perfection—like internal reports or routine emails—set a time limit and aim for completion over perfection. This gives you back time for higher-priority tasks. When responding to non-urgent emails or internal documents, give yourself permission to keep it simple and concise rather than aiming for perfection.

Step 3: Restrict Scope

What It Means: Some tasks can be scaled back or simplified, allowing you (and your colleagues) to save time and energy.

How to Apply: If a task doesn’t need to be as detailed or time-consuming as originally planned, narrow its scope. Set clear boundaries around how much time or energy you’ll invest.

Step 4: Review Alignment

What It Means: Re-evaluate whether certain tasks still align with your overall strategic goals. If they don’t, or elements of them no longer do, consider how you might adjust or reconsider them.

How to Apply: At the end of each week or month, look at your tasks and assess whether they still fit with your current priorities. If they don’t align, consider shifting your focus or delegating them.

Step 5: Remove Unnecessary Tasks

What It Means: These are the tasks that can be eliminated from your to-do list because they no longer add value to the overall strategic objective that you are focusing on. This might mean removing them entirely or downgrading them to your Review Alignment Section.

How to Apply: Regularly evaluate your priority list and with clarity eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute to your goals. Giving yourself permission to do this is extremely liberating as it allows you to intentionally focus on what matters most.

Building Compassionate Prioritisation Into Your Routine

Daily Practice: Start each day by quickly reviewing your task list. Identify the essentials you need to focus on, relax your standards on less critical tasks, and eliminate anything unnecessary.

Weekly Practice: At the beginning of each week, plan out your tasks based on the five steps. Look ahead to see where you can simplify, and review whether ongoing commitments still align with your goals.

Monthly Practice: Take time each month to review your overall workload and see what needs to change. Are you spending too much time on tasks that don’t matter? Are there responsibilities that you need to drop or scale back?

Remember...

Compassionate prioritisation isn’t just about getting things done—it’s about doing the right things in a way that respects your time, energy, and well-being but are also linked to your overall strategic objectives. In the busyness of life, we often become distracted from that strategic objective - by incorporating this framework into your daily, weekly, or monthly routine, you start the process of focusing on where you need to focus your time and energy.  

Remember, being compassionate with yourself isn’t a weakness; it’s a strategy for long-term success. Prioritise what matters, relax where you can, and let go of what no longer serves you.

Make sure you get your editable Compassionate Prioritisation PDF that you can use and reuse…

Let me know how you get on,

 Sinéad

PS - Remember you can do anything but not everything...