The Priority Puzzle. 

Navigating Lifes Maze..

The art of being wise is. Knowing what to overlook. We can make things a priority that aren’t necessarily as important as we may think. You want to hear something crazy!? A poll from Duolingo revealed that the average adult wastes 26 days per year “doing nothing.” That’s 12 hours a week and more than 624 hours a year!.. I’m not here to claim I have it all figured out. Life as we all know it, is a continuous on going journey of figuring it out slowly as we go. Thats the goal right! So I can confidently share from what I’ve grown from so far. I know first hand about waisting time. I love to be lazy naturally. I was always using “I’ll get to it later, I have time”. Not with everything I would say. But It was definitely a go to thought. Even for things I knew where important!

As I got older. I started to notice I wasn’t progressing in the areas that really actually do matter to me. What a crazy concept! Their my most important things I want for my life. Yet I’m not PRIORITIZING them? That made no sense to me…But yet here I was doing just that! So I started analyzing what I do in the day thats either a distraction or spending all kinds of my free time doing things that aren’t doing anything to move me in the directions I want to be in life. I believe we aren’t here to just be consumers of life and what we are given. But to provide and add value to our communities and our fellow man or woman. So I started to put into place strategies that helped me to get on track. They felt forced at first. There where new things my mind and body had to start doing. Things that weren’t doing something idle or just wasting time. But you can quickly start to feel better about yourself, knowing your doing things for YOUR life!

Different Types Of Priorities. 

–Personal Priorities. You should do what you can to make yourself better as a person. We need to have things to aim for. Things to attain for yourself. Why? Don’t you want to have know that when you leave here that you will have given back something? Provided value in some way.. So start to look at what you do in your non work time. Read, write or learn something new…. Prioritize things that are going to give your life meaning. There can be a difference between things that make us feel good and things that give meaning. Just to throw that out there too. So pay attention don’t let your brain deceive you on what matters most.

–Professional Priorities. Prioritizing your professional career involves being strategic about doing things that will advance you in your career/entrepreneur path. What are you doing with your free time to advance you forward. Study new areas within your scope to broaden your learning. Challenge yourself to grow and advance in your field. Create small logical incentives if you need to. To get yourself on the right track. We need to be able to adapt to growth as we need to. Also with AI coming in like a freight train. We will all need to start to get better to keep up and stand out. Time to get your A game on!

-Social Priorities. Prioritizing your social life involves making time for meaningful connections. This can involve scheduling social activities, being mindful of how you spend your time, and setting boundaries to protect your well-being. We are built believe it or not to be social creatures to a point. But find a healthy balance. But for some. You may not need that to help you move forward in life. Thats ok too! But at some point you have to live a little too. Don’t as they say “be too busy trying to make a living. That you never end up living”.

Heres a couple great videos on helping give some views on helping with prioritizing. Along with how to be more strategic about choosing what are your priorities. . 

If your someone who likes to write things out? There is a method thats been beneficial for me and my clients. It is called the Eisenhower Matrix. Dwight D. Eisenhower—the 34th President of the United States and a five-star general during World War II. Presented the idea that would later lead to the Eisenhower Matrix. On the Do’s, Schedule, Delegate and delete methods. 

Do– Quadrant one is the “do” quadrant. This is where you’ll place any tasks that are both urgent and important. When you see a task on your to-do list that must be done now, has clear consequences, and affects your long-term goals.  

Schedule– Quadrant two is the “schedule” quadrant. This is where you’ll place any tasks that are not urgent but are still important. Because these tasks affect your long-term goals but don’t need to be done right away, you can schedule these tasks for later.

Delegate– Quadrant three is the “delegate” quadrant. This is where you’ll place any tasks that are urgent but not important. These tasks must be completed now, but they don’t affect your long-term goals. But only if its possible to of course.   

Delete– Once you’ve gone through your to-do list and added tasks to the first three quadrants, you’ll notice that a handful of tasks are left over. The tasks left over are tasks that weren’t urgent or important. 

To Wrap Up.. 

To close it up I think its important to note. We cant have it all. No one can. If you want to be successful in something as a person or as a leader. You must prioritize. The good is the enemy of the best. Its easier to prioritize the good from the bad. But when faced with two good choices which do you choose? Then lastly I would say is to be proactive over reactive. Think ahead. Think about potential obstacles that you may face. Weather their habits your trying to break from starting this new way of doing things, or whatever it may be. Things will come up! But I believe in you and you got this! We got this…