Peter Nicholas suggests pensions should be in your top 5 priorities.

I must get my priorities sorted. Each day there seems to be a growing and endless set of other peoples' priorities driving my behaviour.

There never seems to be enough hours in the day.

Maybe it's just this time of year, with my children returning to school after the prolonged summer break, the days starting to get noticeably shorter and the perception of time diminishing against a backdrop of an ever increasing list.

There's a great story circulating on the internet, attributed to Warren Buffet, on how to spend less time procrastinating and more time achieving.

Apparently it was the advice that he gave to his personal airline pilot Mike Flint, who was looking for guidance on prioritising activities for his future.

Buffet advised him to take a piece of paper and write down his top 25 goals, then review the list carefully and selectively to identify the top 5 goals. This gave him two lists: 5 top goals and 20 other goals.

Buffet explained that the list of 5 were his priorities and that the list of 20 was the "avoid at all costs" list. No matter what, the things on the list of 20 should get absolutely no attention until the top 5 are achieved.

The concept definitely has appeal. I like the idea of ruthless prioritisation to create the focus to get things done. But where would my pension ambition land – on the list of 5 or on the list of 20?

Sadly, for too many people pensions probably won't make either list. Or if it did it may be there as an impossible dream with too much to be done and too little time to do it.

To me it highlights the imperative of raising the pension priority.

If it's not on everyone's top 5 then why not? If people are to embrace retirement confidently and with financial security it will take more than a recovery in investment markets.

As I have said before, investment may deliver scheme performance but communication drives member outcomes.

Are you communicating well enough to get this on your members' top 5?

I wonder where it is on Mike Flint's list?

Writtn by Peter Nicholas,CEO, AHC.