You shouldn’t prioritize more than three things at a time, says Laura Mae Martin, Google’s executive productivity advisor.
“Your time is only finite,” so choosing just three items to focus on forces you to make clear to yourself what you really care about, she said on an episode of LinkedIn’s “SPARKED” podcast earlier this month.
Martin is the author of the 2024 book “Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing” and advises Google executives on how to optimize their time.
Every three months is a good time to reassess your three key priorities in life, but being selective about those areas requires a tradeoff mentality, she said. For example, if you’re preparing to move across the country with your family or if you’ve taken on a big new project at work, expect to focus on those aspects of your life while putting other parts on the back burner.
Here are three techniques …