Take ownership of your time by honing in on the effective leadership skill, prioritization. 

Do you tend to make to-do lists and still find yourself running out of time or resources to complete them? The issue at hand might not be time management but prioritization. Prioritizing is about doing the most important thing first—once you understand how to spend your time, that’s when you can start to improve on it. Take some time today to self-reflect on how you spend your time and what being intentional with your time might look like.

Check out our top 10 favorite leadership quotes on prioritization from successful speakers, authors, and consultants and more to get inspired! 

“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”

– Zig Ziglar, motivational speaker, author, salesman

“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.”

– Stephen R. Covey, American educator, author, businessman, and motivational speaker

“Instead of saying “I don’t have time” try saying “it’s not a priority,” and see how that feels.”

– Laura Vanderkam, speaker, writer, and author

“Think of your priorities, not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything.”

– Dan Millman, American self-help writer, speaker, and author

“Productivity refers to both the action and the result of a process that centers on assessing one’s priorities and then acting on them.”

– Melissa Steginus, mindfulness teacher and productivity coach

“Time management is an oxymoron. Time is beyond our control, and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives. Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.”

– John C. Maxwell, American author, speaker

“Good things happen not by managing time but by prioritizing attention.”

– Richie Norton, author and entrepreneur

“Where your attention goes, your time goes”

– Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”

– Peter Drucker, American business consultant

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.”

– Arianna Huffington, Greek-American author and Co-Founder of the Huffington Post