I read in a recent Reddit, Inc. post that the word “priorities” is only a recent invention and according to Google Ngram, the word did indeed only enter mainstream English in the 1940s (specifically American English with a peak in 1941, no prizes for guessing why). It’s continued on ever since reflecting a modern mindset where we need to juggle many important tasks simultaneously.
Interestingly the word "prioritise" has never really caught up, limping quietly along. In a world of finite resource and scarce bandwidth are we working on #priorities but without an idea of how to #prioritise?
Even more interestingly: the word "strategy" has soared effortlessly above both (see second image), implying that whilst we place priority on being strategic thinkers, how we actually go about allocating resource and sequencing investments sits somewhere further down the list (see what I did there 🙂 )
#Strategy #Google #Productivity
Charts courtesy of Google Ngram Viewer, standard caveats on content of Ngram.
