My three levels of PRIORITY for growing a startup.

My three levels of PRIORITY for growing a startup.

For me, it's no longer Low, Medium and High.

A few years back this really helped me set a new standard for assigning priority levels to my tasks and projects.

Setting priority is something most startup founders struggle with.

My problem with Low, Medium, High is everything ended up being a "High" priority.

So let me share what I learned from a fellow startup founder/investor who at the time pulled off a $425 million exit. Not too shabby!

Instead of setting priorities into Low, Medium, High — I began to prioritize my tasks by ...

- Air
- Water
- Food

Here's the logic.

All life survives on air, water, and food.

- you can only live minutes without AIR
- you can only live days without WATER
- you can only live weeks without FOOD

So AIR priorities must be done now.

WATER priorities must be done in the next few days

And FOOD priorities must be done in the next few weeks

When I started looking at my tasks as air, water and food, I was amazed how easy it was to focus on the right things.

And then, if you are a faith driven founder, let's add a greater game-changer.

Every morning when I meet with God, I go through all this with Him. He promises to establish my plans and steps. So after that morning meeting, my clarity is at level 10.

I'm so thankful for His constant presence in my life!

-Gerald