Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A Helpful Exercise To Prioritize & Maximize Your Time
Something to help us do everything we want to accomplish and use our precious time efficiently is to prioritize your tasks and goals for the day, week or month. Just like you’d do at work, whether it’s prioritizing by deadline or by importance to your boss, the same holds true for home and family life.
But to prioritize this aspect of our lives, I think it’s helpful to start at the very basic level and remind yourself of your values. Not necessarily moral or family values, but more like the guiding principles of how you live or want to live your life - what qualities are important to you in life.
Here's a helpful exercise to identify your values:
1. From the list of values below (and if you have one that's not on the list, feel free to add it), pick 5 values that speak to you and that are most important to you. The easiest way may be by process of elimination, by picking 10 first and then whittling it down to 5.
2. When you have 5, then put them in order from #1 to #5.
3. Have your partner do the same and compare your top 5. They don’t have to be the same, but it’s helpful to know where each other is coming from.
Now that you’ve reminded yourself of your values, you can start thinking of each thing, task or “to do” throughout your day and whether it aligns with one of your top 5 values. If it doesn’t, then maybe it’s something you can put off to another day or not do altogether.
For example, my top 5 values are family, health, freedom, love and wealth. However, I can get very easily sucked into watching Grey's Anatomy, The Amazing Race, Private Practice, The Mentalist...(sometimes having a DVR is a blessing & a burden!). But TV watching is not one of my top 5 values and yet I give away my time to it. If I prioritize my time according to my values, TV comes in maybe 35th in order. So, the solution is, stop spending time on TV and instead spend those hours with my family, which is my #1 value after all!
By prioritizing what you do according to your values, you can start maximizing the little time you do have by identifying and cutting out those things that are not valuable to you.
List of Values
Family * Loyalty * Community * Affection * Peace * Love * Learning * Self-Respect * Advancement * Innovation * Spirituality * Accomplishment * Honesty * Integrity * Wisdom * Power * Freedom * Pride * Achievement * Order * Recognition * Cooperation * Creativity * Wealth * Security * Intelligence * Vitality
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