WHAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT?

If you continually ask yourself, "What's important now?" you won't waste time on the trivial.

–Lou Holtz

Last week I told you about the advice my sister and mother-in-law gave me when I had a lot of responsibilities and was feeling overwhelmed.

I’d like to continue exploring the feeling of being overwhelmed because it is very prevalent in our society today. Every day I hear people, especially women, say that they are overwhelmed. What is overwhelming us?

Please take a minute and think about what is important. If you know what is important, it will help you to make better choices about how you will spend your time. Personally, I find it way too easy to waste my time, especially on the computer, and before I know it a few hours have passed.

So, when you are faced with a busy day, ask yourself,

• What’s the most important think I have to do today?

• What is the best use of my time now?

• What absolutely needs to be done by the end of the day?

Once you’ve answered those questions, do those things and you will end the day with a sense of accomplishment. By determining what’s important to you, it helps to decide the steps to take.
Here is an exercise many people have great success with. You might want to try it.

1. Make a list of things you need to do.

2. Download the Prioritization Chart. (If you didn't receive it with your blog update, email me and I'll send it to you)

3. Look at the first thing on your list and put it in one of the quadrants in the chart above. Ask yourself:

a. Is this important? If so, how urgent is it?

b. If it isn’t important – how urgent is it?

4. Put every item on your ‘to do’ list into one of the quadrants.

5. Now, study your completed diagram.

6. Focus on the two areas on the right: Important & Not Urgent and Important & Urgent

7. Decide what in those two areas you want to complete first – which is the most important?

8. When you’re done, cross it off and give yourself a high five. Take a few minutes to reward yourself.

9. Work your way through your list and remember that it is important to reward yourself each time you cross off something. Own that feeling of satisfaction.

It will take a bit of time the first time you use this tool, but it will be well worth it. I hope this tool will help you so you can have more peace in your day, less stress and forget about feeling overwhelmed.

Next week, I’ll help you to explore your values and show you how knowing those will impact your life in a surprising way!

Please leave your comments about how using the tool helped you. Please leave your questions as well. Someone may have an answer.

It is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, 'What are we busy about?’ ~Henry David Thoreau

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials. Lin Yu Tang

GET HAPPY

Gretchen Rubin started a Happiness Project a few years ago. She’s even written a book about it. I read about it in our local Metro yesterday. She had a theme for every month.

Her January theme was Boost Energy, Vitality
This is what she had to say: “The key thing here is that outer order contributes to inner calm. Consider clutter and organizing. It matters. A messy closet doesn’t matter, but it does. You get a disproportionate boost from it. You can self-medicate through cleaning closets.”

My daughter told me that her goal for this year is “use it or lose it”. In other words, if she isn’t using it, she’s going to get rid of it – get it out of her home. I get it – if I have too much stuff around that I’m not using, it clutters up my space and my mind. When I de-clutter, I feel free. I’m not spending as much time on rearranging, cleaning, dusting, storing and maintaining it. It frees up valuable space and time that can be used for other things.

The same goes for my closet. When I have too many clothes in my closet (and who doesn’t?), it takes longer to decide what to wear. After I’ve reorganized my closet and gotten rid of the things I never or seldom wear, it really does give me a boost of energy. Energy to go shopping to buy things that I actually WILL wear, ...I think :)

How do you feel after you’ve tidied up an area, cleaned up the kitchen, washed your car, organized your closet? How do you feel when you have outer order?

What will it take to de-clutter your home, your desk your closet, your kitchen, your mind? What will it take to give you inner calm? What will it take for you to ‘get happy’?

Please leave a comment and tell us how you plan to boost your energy and vitality this month.