Are you feeling overworked, stressed out with too many things to do and not enough time to do them? Are you letting important things slide due to your lack of time and then feeling guilty because they too have gotten ignored?
Those tasks left unattended can have a very negative
impact on our ability to be productive, not to mention the energy it takes just worrying about getting them done.
To best be of assistance, I must reference the exercise of a mentor of mine, Brian Tracy. He showed me how responding to the important not the urgent is key when deciding how to handle all the” to do” lists in life.
I can tell you that if you invest a few minutes now you will experience a calm and focused attitude by placing value and priority to your tasks and once identified, everything else just doesn’t seem that urgent or important. So let’s begin.
To begin, I want you to imagine that you were just given 3 months to live by your doctor and on the 90th day you were to drop dead. Who would you want to spend your last 90 days with here on this earth? What would you want to be doing and whom would you want to be doing it with? I really urge you to play with this and think about those things that you really must do whether its go on a trip, eat more ice cream or take more time to nap. And whom most would you want to be doing those things with?
From the first exercise you have developed your bucket list or goals as well as identified those whom matter most to you. Your goals are what gets you out of bed each day by providing you with a sense of purpose and value for your own life. Take these dreams and desires and put them in an action plan of 2, 5 or 10 years with all the steps you are going to take to make them a reality. You may need to take classes, make investments, save money or spend money, either way, write out exactly how you will achieve them.
Once you know the action steps, place them into daily things you will do, weekly and monthly. Then transfer them to your day timer and monthly and yearly planner so that you have put yourself first.
Then look at the people on your list. These are the people that add meaning to your dreams and desires. Take those people and schedule time with them in your agenda. Some of them may need 10 minutes day and some may need 1 hour a month. For example you may choose to take 10 undisturbed minutes each day to chat with your spouse, read to your children or call a friend. You might also schedule a visit with your parents once a month or dinner with the girls. Whatever you choose to do is not as important as prioritizing those that matter first before business meetings, and appointments.
Those things that are not of importance can be delegated freeing you from the urgency and responding to the important!
Credit: Brian Tracy
