PRIORITY PYRAMID....ARE WE SURE about our
priorities in life?
Sometime ago I discovered this concept of ' priority pyramid'
on the internet that talks of being productive during our daily life but as we can see there is a lot
more to it than meets the eye.
The 'priority pyramid' basically prioritises our
daily activities by trying to ‘monetise’ by assigning a certain dollar value to each of
our activities during the day. There is some truth in the value assignment
process that helps one to simplify the task of organising our daily lives around activities that are more worthwhile, more productive, to ensure that we get the best out of the fleeting time!
Beyond the monetisation part that puts a dollar value
on each of our activities, this pyramid attempts to capture the most elusive
aspect of our life - TIME! The Vedic rishis or ‘seers’ spoke of the greatness
of the fleeting time as 'every moment is a precious gem' and hailed its value in glorious terms,
" Kaalaya Tasmai Namaha' (IT IS TIME, TIME IS EVERYTHING! SALUTATIONS TO
TIME!).
Perhaps it is not wrong to say that if a person values time and manages his or her day productively, in a way, he or she has already discovered his or her own true passion or 'calling' in life!
The priority pyramid is sliced into several
layers. The bottom most layer belongs to ' $0 activities’, the next higher one
to $10 activities, then $100, $ 1000, and so on till we reach the top of the
pyramid! The top most layer depicts the apex of the pyramid with activities
that are priceless, perhaps worth millions of dollars (notional value!), those activities that
are a tremendous value addition to ourselves and communities!
The example is premised upon an average individual!
The $0 activities include googling, surfing, watching TV, chatting, gossiping, social media etc.
$ 10s / hour activities are those spent on activities
earning a livelihood.
$ 100s / hour activities are those that help our
children, ourselves, friends, families - time spent on serving, guiding, mentoring, learning etc.
$1000s / hour activities are basically value-additions where we give
our time to organising our life itself that enriches our worth, activities that give us a sense of fulfillment- this is the time spent on exercise, care of health, lifelong contributions to family, neighbourhood etc.
When we reach the peak of the pyramid, we get to
the activities that add VALUE FOR LIFE, as it were! These activities are worth millions of
dollars per hour (you can't even put a figure on this). This is the time we give for the TOP MOST PRIORITY IN OUR LIFE, call it our passion, this is the single most important thing in our life, this is our ‘calling’, perhaps this is what
we always wanted to do in our life! These are activities that we engage ourselves in while building
value for life, doing things that can make a difference to ourselves and people in our own
humble way, activities that could
impact life around us!
How could the priority pyramid guide our life?
Each of us, regardless of who we are or or what we
do, regardless of our professions go through energy cycles, the ebb and flow of life! Sometimes we are at
the peak of our energy and at other times we are at the rock bottom - we suffer lows, blues and moods at different periods during the course of the day!
There is an energy flow in our daily life based on our biological
clock called the Circadian Rhythm that depicts scientifically the ebb and flow
of this life energy or bio-energy. There is a vast amount of literature available on the
net that gives details of the Circadian Rhythms that could really prove to be a beneficial study!
The fact is that the energy peaks are not everlasting! From our own experience, we can
see that we are bubbling with energy (going through the peak of energy
cycle) for approximately 90 mins out of the entire 24 hours at our disposal! Yes, this is a tiny fraction of the day!
But this 'hour and a half' holds a lot of promise with
its tremendous outburst of creative , spontaneous flow of energy. Channeled properly, this could be harnessed to solve many of our living problems. On the other hand, these 90 minutes , if not recognised properly, could be simply lost for ever in doing
non-essential things - googling, chatting, emailing, WhatsApping, surfing or
gossiping! Yes, these ‘90 minutes’ could be employed for contributing to what we
consider as the top most activity (top of the pyramid) in our life – in following our true passion or love ( for want of a better word)!
The human energy is astounding. What is it that it
cannot accomplish? Those 90 minutes of creative energy could change our lives
for the better! We could abuse this bubbling energy or if we are careful enough, engage ourselves in an activity that could produce
great value addition.
The essential or non-essential, important or inconsequential,
both involve the same brain process, same energy, same thought process. Whereas
one activity is a sheer waste of effort, the other could make a huge difference
to us and perhaps others.
Most of the time, we don’t need genius to achieve
results rather we need energy that could see things through. In an hour filled with life
energy, we could simply achieve things beyond our imagination!
Unfortunately many of us are leading shoddy lives where
the pyramid is turned upside down. Not that we are incapable of organising time but many a time we are
simply unaware!
After the 90 minutes peak, our energy progressively depletes over time during the rest of the day, hitting a low and then starting all over again in a continuous cycle. In these lean periods of low energy flow, we could engage in other less demanding, less important activities necessary for operating and functioning in our own sphere of life.
Here it is important to recall UG's words! His
pointed question to any one who encountered him was, "Do you know what you
want? Tell me what is the single thing that you want in life? The problem is you
want this, that and the other. If you really know what you want, there is no
way you can't get it!"
UG saw no difference between material and
spiritual goals – for him all were selfish pursuits, the goal being
self-gratification. True, he ruthlessly rubbished spiritual goals and in a way discouraged
people from chasing spiritual goals calling them mirages but he always insisted
that one should never lose sight of our mundane existence. We need to take care of our basic needs and necessities of life, take
care of the ‘here and now’!
Perhaps the only thing we need to realise is our PRIORITIES , everything else in life will then fall into place!
