Actions not Thoughts Reflect Your Priority
March
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How many times do you get to the end of the day and think, “I didn’t get to that because I ran out of time.”
How many new year’s resolutions have you maintained into March, April and later?
How many times have you sighed heavily at bedtime because you didn’t have time to exercise, work on that assignment or study for an upcoming test? You had the time, but you spent your evening binge watching Netflix or doing something else. It was your conscious choice of Netflix over the other activity because you didn’t prioritize properly. And in this example, if you had put exercise first, there still would have been time for Netflix.
We can set priorities in our life, like making new year’s resolutions, but it is our intentional actions that reflect what we consider important.
How do we do better at managing our priorities throughout the day?
Do the Right Thing First
Understand that it’s not about time, but prioritization.
You must be intentional about prioritizing your activities every day.
It’s human nature to want to spend the most time doing things we enjoy. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Most of us don’t enjoy exercising, so we aren’t going to jump out of bed in the morning and shout, “yeah, I get to exercise!” We might then carve out time for things that we know we have to do and can tolerate. We tend to leave the things we despise or the things we know we should do, but dislike (like exercise) for last.
We all have the same number of hours each day. What we choose to do with them is up to each of us.
All too often we wait until the end of the day to look back with regret that we didn’t prioritize wisely. As you start each day, take a moment to decide which activities are important enough for your attention. Then reassess throughout the day and adjust as needed so you don’t end the day with a lot of regrets.
All Interruptions are not Created Equal
Interruptions are a part of life. Some interruptions are important and worthy of our redirected attention. But how many other times do you simply switch gears to a different activity because someone asked?
When you are interrupted and forced to focus on something else, it takes time to get refocused on the prior activity (if you get back to it at all). If this happens once it’s probably not a big deal. But if this happens multiple times a day, this creates significant impact on your productivity.
Prioritizing your activities is important, but it is just as critical for you to defend your top priority activities from interruption.
It’s a challenge for many of us because we have a desire to help others and don’t like to say “no.” But you don’t have to say “no,” you can respond, “Not right now, I’m working on something critical.” And then let them know when you will be available at an appropriate break in your activity.
Don’t fall victim to allowing everyone else to set your priorities for you because you won’t defend your own.
When Everything is a Priority, Then Nothing is a Priority
Multi-tasking is an illusion. We might juggle multiple activities, but we can only truly focus on one at a time.
Many car accidents occur because people get distracted with their phone, radio, navigation system or something else that takes their focus off driving. Try as you might, you can’t have one eye focused on the dashboard or your phone and the other on the road. It is one or the other.
But we try to deceive ourselves into believing we can successfully multi-task.
This produces less than optimal results and delays.
I’m reminded of a show I saw as a kid. A man used a long six-foot pole and started spinning a plate on the top of it, then he added a second pole and plate and a third and a fourth. He kept increasing the number of plates and poles and eventually the first one started to wobble. He dashed over to it, gave it a good spin and then continued adding more plates and poles. Before long more plates started wobbling and the man shifted from adding plates to running back and forth stabilizing wobbling plates. Eventually there are too many plates wobbling and one crashed, then another and then a huge cascading effect occurred of broken pottery all over the stage as plates crashed to the ground everywhere and the man gave up.
When we try to treat everything as a priority, then we are no better off than the man on the stage spinning plates like crazy. We might feel we have a handle on it, and we might for a little bit, but eventually all we are going to be doing is dashing from activity to activity doing the bare minimum because too many things are vying for our attention. And eventually things are going to start crashing around us.
You are not doing yourself, family, friends, teammates, or customers any favors by taking on too much at one time. Choose what’s important and focus on those activities. It’s okay to swap activities if priorities change, but don’t simply take on more. Either swap it or complete something before taking on the next activity.
Be Intentional About Your Priorities
Whether or not you set them yourself, you live your life based on priorities.
Going to work or school is a priority and the reason you get out of bed in the morning. At some point during the day, eating becomes a priority. Is your car getting low on gasoline? Then filling up becomes a priority. If you choose to sit around on a Saturday and do nothing then that has become the priority activity for you.
We allow others to define our priorities when we don’t set them ourselves.
There are times this needs to happen. Our boss may decide what our assignments are and when they are due. Our spouse or significant other may “suggest” some important things for us to do. A teacher may assign a research project that must be completed to pass the class. These are just a couple examples of important priorities outside our control, but that doesn’t mean our entire day is set this way.
Imagine a box where you and others are standing around it. Your spouse/significant other, boss or teacher go first with some mandatory priority activities they place in the box. Then it’s your turn. Do you fill up the rest of the box with your activities or just stand there looking at it? The catch is, after a short time others will start filling up the box if you don’t. Wait too long and you may only have space left to add one or two activities, or by the time you react, the box may be full.
Is this important? Yes. Highly successful people did not become successful by allowing everyone else to set their priorities. They controlled as much of the space as possible in the box to ensure their activities received their focus and effort.
What goals do you have for your life? Where do you want to be ten to fifteen years from now? What do you have to do to make that happen? What are the priorities in your life such as family? Now, take those activities and make sure they make it into the box every day. Don’t allow others to crowd your priority activities out of the box. Your success with your life goals and priorities are directly tied to how successful you are at managing the contents in the box.
How to make it a habit
Maybe you’ve tried this in the past and like new year’s resolutions, things go great for a couple of days or even couple of weeks, but then things start falling apart and before long you are back to the old ways.
Don’t worry, many people struggle through the same challenge. How do we get consistent with doing something different. You want to, but you struggle with the actions to consistently see it through.
How do you take your desire and consistently execute on it? You need to make it a habit. It takes 21 days to make something a habit. Where the activity becomes part of your normal routine and it becomes noticeable and harder to skip than to perform.
Be intentional.
There will be legitimate conflicts some times and that’s okay. Write the activity on a note card that you see everyday as a reminder. Block out the activity on your calendar or list of things to do each day. Tell your spouse, significant other or a friend to help hold you accountable to complete the activity.
Decide where the activity should fall on your priority list and then don’t allow your lower priority activities to impact it (no binge watching Netflix until done).
Be specific.
Don’t just say or think, I want to exercise. Be very specific regarding the execution of the activity. Something like; before I eat breakfast every morning I will go into the other room and exercise or immediately after getting home from work I will change clothes and exercise.
When you are specific with the time, place and other details, then the activity will not have the tendency to slip farther along during the day until you “run out of time.”
Be forgiving.
You’re going to forget. You’re going to have down days where you just can’t motivate yourself for the activity. You’re going to have true conflicts you can’t avoid. It’s all okay and it doesn’t mean that because you missed the activity you have failed. Pick it back up later in the day or the next day at it’s specific time. Missing one does not make you a failure.
Be Driven
Decide what your objective or goal is. Is it to hit a certain weight, participate in a marathon, publish a book, take a special trip? Remind yourself when you aren’t feeling motivated of your end goal.
Set a reward for yourself at certain intervals as a way to help motivate yourself. Small rewards at intervals and then larger rewards at key milestones. When you are struggling with the motivation, remind yourself of the reward.
Sometimes your goal may seem so far way you begin to doubt your ability to reach it. If this happens, focus on an interim goal and then reward for that. Maybe the thought of publishing a book becomes too overwhelming, then focus on completing the next chapter. Then the chapter after that. You may be surprised at the moment you can build focusing on the next milestone, then before you know it you are over half way through the manuscript and the momentum begins building on itself.
The first step is always the hardest and the more you do it, the easier it gets. Keep your focus on the goal or the interim steps and celebrate your victories along the way.
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