"I am not the product of my circumstances. I am the product of my decisions."

Monday, 14.08.2017 The phone is ringing, constantly notifying us of new emails - new information and stimuli are pouring in on all channels. How often do we feel like we are inefficiently jumping back and forth between things and not completing anything one hundred percent. In order to perform well and be successful without getting sick, we need to focus our attention and energy, and learn to be selective with our decisions. Working intelligently to achieve more is the goal of setting priorities. Successful prioritization means making conscious decisions, both professionally and privately, so that we do not lose ourselves in everyday life. Priorities determine our planning and actions. Everyone must realize that we are responsible for managing our time and deciding what things to let go of. Why do we so willingly react to urgent activities? The well-known emotion psychologist Joseph LeDoux proves through neuroscientific studies that every form of attention is the result of the interaction between two parts of the brain: the cognitive system (neocortex) and the emotional system (limbic system). The limbic system is our emotional evaluation system, which operates unconsciously, faster, and is focused on survival, thus playing a significant role in our decision-making. The prefrontal cortex controls attention, concentration, inhibition or suppression of impulses and instincts, as well as social relationships and even moral behavior. The organization of the emotional brain is much simpler than that of the neocortex and much more primitive. Before the neocortex can complete its analysis, the emotional brain, based on the information, triggers survival reactions that seem most appropriate to it. Applied to office life, this means turning on our "brain" and countering our impulses with mindfulness and discipline. Pause - Clarify - Decide - this helps us not to react immediately to disturbances, but to act and consciously make a decision. We must learn to distinguish between important and urgent matters. Important is not always urgent, and urgent does not always mean important. Urgent means something requires immediate attention - now! Urgent matters are usually visible, pressuring us, and insisting that we take action. These tasks make us popular with others, are often pleasant and easy, but are often unimportant. On the other hand, importance has to do with results, with your goals and our future. If something is important, it contributes to our life statement, our goals and values, and our top priorities. We react to urgent matters. Important tasks that are not urgent require more initiative. We must act to seize opportunities, to set things in motion. Our behavior stems from our decisions, not from the given conditions or circumstances. The key rules and insights for setting priorities are as follows: - Focus your energies on goals and successes - Ask yourself: Do I have a full life or a fulfilled life? - Do what is important and do not react to what is urgent - Pause - Clarify - Decide - Remain under pressure! - Develop a shared "priority culture" within the team - Work on an important, long-term task every day - Plan weekly and give your priorities a fixed deadline - Be proactive: Seize the initiative and take responsibility for shaping things. - Be a player, not a victim!