Chapter 3: Lining Up Your Ducks: Prioritize! “Lining up your ducks” is a familiar and charming phrase. It derives from the tendency of baby ducklings to swim in a perfectly straight line behind their mother. | Lining Up Your Ducks Prioritize Lining up your ducks is a familiar and charming phrase. It derives from the tendency of baby ducklings to swim in a perfectly straight line behind their mother. If the ducklings begin to stray too far the mother duck will invariably shepherd them back into line thus getting her ducks in a row. The application of this phrase to time management is clear If you deal with things in a logical orderly sequence you re sure to bring efficiency and results to your efforts. When your ducks begin to stray too far afield danger is lurking for them and for you. Want a winning game plan for your life This chapter will help you create it. It will examine prioritizing in all its forms short term long term personal professional and more. It will guide you through a revealing array of possibilities. And it will expose you to five prioritizing options from which you can choose. The goal to find a ranking process just right for your style and disposition. 29 Copyright 2003 by the McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Click here for Terms of Use. 30 Time Management The ABC System Preached by virtually every time management expert especially time guru Alan Lakein and practiced by more organizationsensitive people than any other method the ABC system is the grandfather of prioritizing strategies. In a nutshell it says that all tasks can and should be given an A B C value A tasks are those that must be done and soon. When accomplished A tasks may yield extraordinary results. Left undone they may generate serious unpleasant or disastrous consequences. Immediacy is what an A priority is all about. B tasks are those that should be done soon. Not as pressing as A tasks they re still important. They can be postponed but not for too long. Within a brief time though they can easily rise to A status. C tasks are those that can be put off without creating dire consequences. Some can linger in this category almost indefinitely. Others especially those tied to a distant .
