It’s no secret that life is busy. Between work, home, hobbies, and social life, there can be lots to juggle.
When you face many different tasks, it’s normal to get overwhelmed or not know where to begin.
In this article, you will learn about the Posec Method, which can help you set priorities to achieve your goals better.
What is the Posec Method?
Posec is an acronym that stands for:
Prioritize
Organize
Streamline
Economize
Contribute
They are arranged in order of importance so that one is completed before you move on to the next.
This method is related to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which organizes a person’s needs in order of importance. The needs hierarchy is often depicted as a pyramid with the order of importance moving from the bottom of the pyramid to the top.
Basic needs such as food and shelter are at the bottom, then psychological needs like intimate relationships and good self-esteem. At the top of the pyramid is self-actualization, where your potential is fully realized.
The Posec Method’s organization is arranged similarly, but you set priorities entirely. Each step will help you create a plan that makes the most of your time. We will end up with even our days off being productive. So, let’s get into it!
How to Use the Posec Method
Using this method of time management is simple. To make things easy for yourself, take one component at a time and write everything down. As you write, you will immediately feel less overwhelmed and more in control of your life. To help you, we have broken down each step of Posec:
Prioritize
While you can use Posec for specific areas of your life, such as work, the method can be used as a tool for all areas.
If you are applying it to your daily life and work, the prioritization list you create should include not only possible work tasks but also everything you need to do to meet your basic needs.
As Maslow outlined in the needs hierarchy, a person must have food and shelter to feel safe and secure enough to pursue further needs.
You can start by listing everything you can think of that you need to get done. These can be items large and small, from completing a complex project to household chores.
There are bound to be items on that list that feel like they have more importance than others and must be done first.
For example, applying before an approaching deadline will need to be done before some of your other tasks because it is time-sensitive.
You may also have other people depending on you carrying out certain duties, such as replying to an email from your boss, which could be more important than replying to a simple message from a friend.
In the end, you know your priorities best.
This first step is here to help you identify what needs to be done first out of all of the things you need to do so that you can complete the next steps of the method in the most effective way possible.
Organize
The second step of this method goes hand in hand with the first. This is why you might see the first two steps of Posec combined into the phrase “prioritizing by organizing.”
Once you have identified your priorities in the first step, you can organize your task list. The highest priority items can go to the top of your list, and the rest can be organized in order of highest to lowest priority.
If you are confused about where some items go, do not worry, they will be covered in the next steps. It can be adjusted or added to as you continue to work through the method. The organization component gives you a place to start creating a plan and alleviates stress about remembering what needs to be done.
Streamline
In this step, you can start to consider the smaller chores or jobs in your life that need to be completed.
While these may not seem pressing at first, if you continue to push them aside for other tasks, they can get to a point where you feel out of control.
This also includes doing any task you don’t want to but need to get done anyway.
Imagine there are only a few dirty dishes. It is easy to see washing them as a low-priority task.
However, if they begin to pile up, you could run out of dishes entirely, which gets in the way of eating – this disrupts the previous step of ensuring you’re meeting your basic needs.
Doing these things regularly will result in a system that will streamline your day to be more productive.
One way to do this is to create a plan that includes daily or weekly habits to maintain stability in your life.
Whichever way you approach it, the important thing to remember is that your everyday, regular chores may be a higher priority than you first think.
Economize
You have economized your time by tackling the things that needed to be done first.
Now, you have some free time left over for yourself.
This step is where you can pursue things you want, such as personal hobbies or socializing. This is a great time to reply to that message from your friend, treat yourself and go for a coffee, or watch an episode of your favorite show.
This can also include doing work tasks that are not urgent or that you enjoy doing. If you have to do research for a project, but you love doing research and are passionate about the topic, it’s going to feel easier than some of the tasks you didn’t want to do in the streamlining step.
Putting the things you like in a lower priority ensures that the other chores get done, as you are likelier to do the things you enjoy anyway.
Contribute
Until this point in the Posec Method, the focus has been on ensuring that your needs are met and that you are working towards your own goals.
The final step encourages you to consider how you can give back to society.
Look at what you can do in your life to help those around you or help make the world a better place.
You could become a volunteer for a local organization or spend some time researching a charity and donating to a cause that is important to you. This could even mean doing something kind for a friend or family member!
Helping others not only contributes to the well-being of others but also adds to your sense of belonging in your community. This feeling and the feeling of success after completing your goals are included in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, leading you toward self-actualization.
Example of Posec Time Management Method
Now that you understand what each step means, here is an example of a task list that is prioritized using the Posec Method:
List One – All tasks, not in order:
- Review notes for meeting at 11:30 am
- Reply to emails
- Take the dog for a morning walk
- Take out garbage
- Pick out food
- Write report due next week
- Make bed
- Clean bathroom
- Call mom
List Two – Organized using Posec Method:
- Make bed
- Take the dog for a morning walk
- Reply to emails
- Review notes for meeting at 11:30 am
- Write report due next week
- Take out garbage
- Clean bathroom
- Call mom
- Pick out food
Conclusion
By prioritizing by organizing, you identify your big and small goals and create a plan to achieve them. Through streamlining, you maintained a sense of stability so that you could continue to work without getting dragged down by chores.
As a result of the previous steps and economizing your time, you created space in your day to do the things you enjoy, hopefully contributing to making your day better. Finally, by contributing to those around you, you have also made strides toward impacting the world.
This time management method considers all aspects of your life, but you are in control of how broadly you wish to apply it. The Posec Method is a great tool for organizing time and can contribute to your life by helping you work towards fulfillment and self-actualization.
