WOW – talk about conflicting priorities! Salads are usually considered pretty healthy . . . and hamburgers and bbq . . . well . . . possibly not so much!
What DO you do when you have conflicting priorities?
Here’s a snippet of a conversation I had with a client earlier today . . .
AWESOME Client: “I’ve been trying to make my morning routine (consisting of exercise, meditation, mean planning . . .) a priority. However, I find I often choose to put something ‘urgent’ in its place.”
This is certainly normal! Often the “urgent” will take precedent over the “important”. (Hello Covey’s 4 Quadrants!) Yet, usually the “important” is our own self care. If we continue to prioritize “emergencies” over self care, we will eventually be in no condition to adequately handle the emergency.
My suggestion for this AWESOME client was to pick ONE item off her morning routine to commit to for a week. Either exercise, or meditation, or meal planning, or . . .
Just pick ONE activity. If she was able to complete other activities in her morning routine – great! If not – completing ONE is better than wishing she had completed six.
Seems like a great idea – right?! But the implementation is certainly key.
Here’s her plan! When she is planning her day the night before – she is now going to schedule her “morning activity” first, then react to emerging priorities. Maybe she only has time for a 5 minute meditation. Maybe she can create an hour block of time for a walk. Maybe she sets her alarm for 15 minutes earlier to fit in some meal prep. But at least ONE “morning routine” activity will be scheduled first.
Your thoughts! What strategies do you use when trying to prioritize the important over the urgent? What tips do you have for my AWESOME client? Please post below.
If you are looking for some additional support ensuring that “first things are first” in your life, I invite you to join the 30 Day AWE Inspired Challenge.
Learn how to build AWARENESS, create a plan that WORKS, and EVALUATE and celebrate your success!
The benefits of joining this COMPLIMENTARY challenge are:
- A little extra motivation to help you stay on track
- The opportunity to cheer on your fellow participants
- A sounding board to help you push through obstacles
- Guidance from Lisa Crilley Mallis, your time strategy visionary, on how to live a life of A.W.E.
image adapted from Stuart Miles / freedigitalphotos.net
That’s awesome!
Here’s a strategy that I developed to help me drink more water during the day. I would tell myself, “Self? Drink Water!” But I would not. So I set alarms for every hour, on the hour to drink water every day. Even my co-workers are into my water drinking, because they hear my alarm go off on my smartphone. One time someone brought me the water because I was helping them do a task and I couldn’t leave it at that moment. So they got the cup of water for me.
8 Hours – 8 Alarms – 8 Cups of Water!
Thanks for posting and have a great day,
David
Love this example! By the way, I also say to myself, “self . . .” Makes me giggle to see someone else write it. Thanks for your comment!
Lisa
Priorities are definitely important. I love the idea of focusing on one thing rather than six. Oftentimes we get so overwhelmed because we just ave too much on our plates.
thanks for sharing this awesome message!
Benecia
Thanks for stopping by! Thinking about doing and doing – very different. Pick one – do it – then evaluate!
Lisa
Ah, I am bad when urgency appears and it may take priority to the really important things. But I notice that when I make the effort to stop and become aware of it, I can handle it better. And I love picking one thing and doing it consistently until it sticks, great strategy!
Delia
Thanks for your comment! Certainly prioritizing the important over the urgent is a constant struggle for me – and many of my clients. I find when I build in some structure or routine it’s easier. Going to the gym first thing in the morning . . . creating and commenting on blog posts on Sunday afternoon . . . connecting on Twitter in the evenings . . . etc.
Lisa