January, 2001 January is usually when people make New Year's resolutions. Instead of making resolutions set priorities for what you really want to accomplish over this year. You'll have better control over your time and your life. Time Management and Setting Priorities Are you rushing around not sure of what task to tackle next? Does it seem like you never get the important things done? Or maybe you're not sure any more what's important and what isn't? Do you feel that you no longer have time for yourself? Are you dead tired from not getting enough sleep? It's time to discover your real priorities and use them to get your time under control. While you're doing this remember that you, your life and your health are your number one priority. Your Real Priorities Sometimes we're so busy rushing around and trying to get things done and cram in as much as possible in as short a time as possible that we lose sight of what's really important. When I work with clients on time management issues we spend a lot of time figuring out what are their real priorities? Very often the truly important aspects of their life -- whether work or family related -- are getting lost in the shuffle. Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees. What we think is really important is not -- in either life or business. For business; is it designing a new letterhead or are the real priorities actually making sales calls, improving customer service or doing the monthly billing. In your personal life; is it keeping the house neat or making sure you stay healthy by getting enough sleep and eating nutritious foods, reading to your children and spending time with friends and family. How To Get Started 1. Write down a list of what you think your priorities are. Put down whatever comes to mind in whatever order they come to mind. This includes business, your financial plans, family, your spouse and children and yourself. Put down what has to get done and also put down what you want to do. Think not only in business terms but what is important to you as a person. Losing 20 pounds? Learning Chinese? Spending time at your kids' sporting events? Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro? (I had a client for whom that was a very high priority. And by doing this exercise it meant she then had to think about what this meant in terms of finding the right guide, the training she needed, making travel arrangements, getting a block of time off from work, etc.) Writing your priorities down: makes them real makes your thoughts clearer gives you an opportunity to view them objectively 2. When you've made the list put it away for a week. Create objectivity for yourself. You can do this by taking a step back, away from what you think is important. You'll see these ideas later, as if for the first time 3. Take out the list and look at each priority as you ask yourself questions about it: "Is this really important to me?" "Will it be important to me six months from now?" "A year from now?" "Does this really fit into the larger scheme of myself, my family, my work?" "Will this priority fulfill me in any way --- emotionally, financially, relationships, health?" If the priorities no longer seem important take them off the list. Check now to see how you rank them in importance and rewrite the list with the most important on top. I find that people chronically do not think in terms of themselves and their health as important priorities. They put them down at the bottom, if at all. They belong at the top. If something happens to you all your other priorities are meaningless. 4. Now put them to work in your life. Focus on what's really important to you. Adjust your schedule and rethink your time commitments. Plan ways to accomplish your real priorities. Let go of things that are not of real importance. Focus on doing fewer things better. 5. Redo your priority list every three or six months. Think about how well you are actually meeting your priorities, where you want to make adjustments and what's getting better or worse when it comes to how you spend your time. Copyright © 1998-2006 A Place for Everything.