How I Am Prioritizing In 2019

If you are like many people, you are juggling a lot of things in your life. Work or school, family, marriage, your health and wellness-not to mention having some fun once in a while! And when you have a lot to do, it is often hard to know what to do first.

At times you may be resenting the fact that that you do not have time for anything else. When you feel you are always at work or away from home; you may start to view time as your enemy and you find that your energy is zapped and you can feel even more out of control.

I have been like this numerous times over my 25 years as a single mom, working, traveling and trying to run a household all at the same time. The key to getting yourself out of this cycle is to change your relationship to time and learn how to manage yourself around time. This has worked for me in the past, hope this helps you!

What Are Priorities…

First of all, let’s remember what priorities are: short-term goals. These are the things that you want to accomplish in any given period of time. The more your goals represent your values, strengths and passions, the more likely you are to achieve them.

The same thing goes for your priorities. A lot of people are stuck with to-do lists that have a lot of “shoulds” rather than their choices. Why not recreate your to-do list and have it reflect the things that represent your true wants and desires?

3 Steps That I Took

1. Be aware of how you are currently spending your time

The first step to changing your old habits with time is to assess how to spend your time. Write down all the things that you do. How much time do you spend in each area? The way you spend your time is a statement of what your priorities are. You’d be surprised just how much time we spend on our phones and watching TV!

2. Assess how satisfied you are with the way you are spending your time

Next, think about the most important areas of your life (e.g., career, relationships, personal development, finances, health, fun, service etc).

• Rate each area in terms of how important it is to you. Use a scale of 1-10 with 1 being “not important” and 10 being “vitally important.”

• Now rate how well are you living each of these areas. How satisfied are you with the amount of time that you spend on this area? Rate this on a scale of 1-10.

Look back at those areas that you rated as very important (8, 9 or 10). If there is a gap of 2 or more points between how important an area is and your satisfaction rating, chances are that you are feeling a lack of balance because there is a gap between what is important to you and what you are actually doing.

**This is something that totally shocked me, I was not even close to where I wanted to be. Basically, I was living to work…that had to change!

3. Set new priorities to start doing more of the important things in your life

The third step to reordering your priorities is to figure out what important activities are missing from your life. As you review each question, write down the activities that come to mind.

1. What is the most important thing in my life right now?

2. Where would I want to spend more time?

3. Where would I want to spend less time?

4. What areas need my attention now (e.g., school, health, relationship)?

Write down your activities in the order that feels most important to you. This is your new list of priorities.

Remember that your priorities can change in any given period of time. If there is something important on your list that you do not have time for right now, think about when you can slot that in. It’s another way to take charge of time and feel in control.

Visualizing Your Progress and Seeing Your Goals Increases Your Ability To Maintain and Accomplish Your Goals

I’m sure you have heard people say they put their goals on their refrigerator or on a bathroom mirror, somewhere they will see it daily. Why? So they see it daily lol The problem I had with this is I got used to seeing the paper on the fridge and I would start to overlook it. What helped me was to download an app called Evernote. This actually helped me more than I ever thought it would.

Evernote integrates with just about everything. It has browser extensions that allow you to save a web page—in its entirety—in one click for future reference. A dedicated Evernote email address lets you forward emails, tweets, or any other type of content to any of your Evernote notebooks. Also, IFTTT (If This Then That) support means you can automatically send content from other services (e.g., Gmail or Google Reader or Pocket) to your Evernote account. If nothing else, you could use Evernote to archive your digital life.

To Get Evernote Click Here!!

30 Ways I Have Used This App

Track your time
Write a note to your significant other
Journaling
Book notes
Collaborate at work
Gift ideas
Grocery list
Save articles and other interesting things for later
Keep your clothing sizes and measurements handy
Track goals
Digital rolodex
Track finances
Master meal list and journal
Fitness/weight journal
Write a book ( Started an E-Book YAY)
Send yourself voice memos
Record interviews or other important meetings
Master to-do list
Distraction to-do list
Honey-do list
Keeping your insurance policy info and phone numbers handy
Vacation itinerary and info
Bucket list
Class/meeting notes
Pocket notebook
Resource organization
Remind yourself of the things you want to do
Record DIY projects you’d like to do
Learn your family’s history
Commonplace book

You’d be surprised what this app will do and how it can help organize your life! It can be downloaded on your computer and you can use it for so many things. Copy and pasting recipes…I have an entire recipe book nearly now! And it’s ALWAYS there – no worries about it getting lost!!

These are a few things that have helped me that I am implementing AGAIN!! When I get off track, I feel like walls are closing in on me and I HAVE to get back straight. I hope these things help you in 2019, they certainly helped me over the past 3-4 years. Good luck and Happy New Year!!

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