When I was a kid growing up in Los Angeles, I used to listen to AM Radio all the time.

No, I wasn’t a 12-year old conservative talk show fan. (I think Rush was still in Jr. High at the time.)

In those days, (man….I hate to admit this) if you wanted to listen to music, you turned on your AM radio and dangled it on the handlebars of your Schwinn 10 speed.  If you were very lucky, it was a red 10 speed.

I remember one tune in particular that was a frequent favorite of the D.J.’s – it was called, “Who Wrote The Book of Love”.

This is a Doo Wop diddy sung by the “Monotones”.  While I’m not a huge fan of this type of music, I have to admit that the song has a certain, je ne saus quoi.

But what I didn’t like about the song is that it asks an insanely stupid question.

Who cares who wrote the book of love?  Who cares if there is a book of love?  Who spends time thinking about this?   Either you are in love or you aren’t.  That’s all that matters…right?

OK.  So why should you care about this?

Well, you might not be walking around asking the question posed in the song, but you might be asking yourself equally irrelevant questions when it comes to getting your finances in order.  And that  could endanger your financial security.

Let me give you an example:

Someone I know is in the middle of getting a divorce.  He’s understandably upset by this terrible development.

Once he realized that the divorce was going to take place, he spent all his energy and most of his time dividing up the household items, putting things in storage and selling what he could.  He spent so much time focusing on this that he lost his job and as a result of that, he lost his home. Now he’s forced to live with friends until he finds work.

The odds of that happening soon are pretty remote because he’s still focusing on everything but the most important thing which is finding a job.

You might think that I’m rather callous but I find this person’s actions selfish and inconsiderate to his children and to the friends who took him in.

Hopefully, your situation is nowhere near as desperate as this person’s, but I wonder if there is a lesson in here for all of us.

How do we make sure we’re asking the right questions?

How do we know we’re focusing on the most important tasks at hand or issues?

This boils down to priorities….right?  So how do we know we are pursuing the right ones?

I don’t have all the answers but I’ll share an approach a friend of mine uses who is about the most productive person I know:

1. He makes a list of the  3 most important things he needs to get done each day.

He can’t do this in his head.  He was to write it down.  He also makes a list of 2 backup tasks in case he gets his top 3 done quickly or in case some outside obstacle prevents him from going further on any one of his top three.  He sets himself up for success rather than failure.  He does this by limiting the number of items on his “to do” list.

2. He sends his list as an email to his accountability partner every day.

I love this idea and I’ve written plenty about how important it is to be accountable to somebody else.   There is just something magical about making a commitment to another human being that makes us more effective.

What’s most important about having an accountability partner is that she will make sure you stay on track.

If, for example, she knows you are out of work and your list of 3 consist of cleaning out your garage, going shopping for a surf board and reading a chess manual….do you think she might give you a “knopf” upside of the head?  You better believe it. If not, you need a new accountability partner.

3.  Keeps the list on his desk at all times.

During the day, plenty of distractions come up.  It’s easy to get off base.  Calls and emails come in faster than incoming did at Danang in ‘68.  By keeping the list on his desk, my buddy can make sure he gets back on track in case some distraction gets him moving in the wrong direction. Several times a day, he asks himself if the tasks he is engaged in at the moment are on his list or not.  If not, he readjusts and refocuses.

I don’t know why, but I don’t use this method – but I should and will start today.  No kidding.

I may not do it perfectly.  But even if I do it imperfectly – skip a day or only do 2 out of 3 – it’s better than doing nothing….right?

If you want to make sure you don’t spend your day singing the wrong tune, try these three steps.  In my opinion, the most important step, as always, is checking with your accountability partner to make sure the items you identify as your priorities are really all that important.

Are you sure you’ve got your priorities straight?  How do you know? Do you think this approach could work for you?  How?

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