Priorities

Have you ever felt disorganized and overwhelmed?
This is actually something that is not hard to fix or get back on track with. It starts with priorities.

Priorities should be few in number, but clearly defined. A priority of ‘wake up early’ is not defined. Change it to ‘get out of bed at 5am’, and you have yourself a clearly defined priority.
A priority of ‘be generous’ is vague. Define it, and it changes everything. Generous how? ‘Give X amount of $ away each week’ or, ‘Give 3 hours to volunteer work each week’.

Take some time to think about what it is that you need to prioritize as an individual or a family. Or both! Ideally, designate a few days for this activity. Write down the top 3-5 things that are important to you. Keep in mind however, that if everything is important, nothing is important.
To define what is important, think: what overrules other things?

I maintain a blog: I make time to write once or twice a week. This overrules other things. Instead of reading, spending an evening with the family or meeting with a friend, I will write.

What are the things that you will make happen, no matter the circumstances? You will push other things off and overrule lesser things in order to make this one thing of importance happen. That is a priority.

I learned very early in parenting to say “No.” I quickly understood my boundaries and sought to live within them. I had a newborn with cleft-palate as well as an active toddler. Immediately following the birth of our second child, I was thrust into the world of hospitals, specialists and multiple Dr. visits. Tests, scans and MRIs became the norm. We weren’t just dealing with a regular cleft-palate baby, but she had a teratoma growth in her mouth as well as a dual pituitary gland. My life suddenly became very focused on just a few important things: keep the small humans well-cared for, maintain the house and don’t be late for a Dr appointment. These 3 things overruled everything else.

In hindsight, I would now add one more priority: consistent self-care. This is one thing humans in general overlook – to our detriment.

My priorities look a little different today. Now, it looks more like: workout at 6am, feed the children, educate the children, don’t be late for a Dr, dentist or therapy visit, and take a few hours a week to be alone. For those alone hours, I will either sequester myself in my bedroom for the evening after Dave gets home from work or leave the house entirely.

A day of rest is important to me: Saturday usually turns out to be that rest day. The kids and I clean the house on Friday, leaving Saturday open for other things. I rarely cook on Saturday, as we only eat two meals that day and Dave often takes care of both meals. Me? I sit around, I read, I write, putter in the gardens and help Dave with farm projects. This is what rest looks like for me right now. Minimum of housework and not responsible for meals. =)

Something that I’ve found to be helpful in keeping me on track: write things down.
Each weekend, I’ll take 10 minutes to sit and record the coming week’s activities in a simple flip tablet. The old week’s page gets torn off and a new one filled out. Anything that wasn’t crossed off gets transferred to the new week’s schedule. Not only am I able to keep the priorities straight and in the forefront of my mind, but everything eventually gets done! Sometimes one project might flip to new weeks a few times, but it always gets crossed off eventually. I love crossing things off!

No matter how you keep track of priorities, or the order in which you place those few priorities, be sure to define them, write them down and maintain consistency!
Priorities change and shift according to circumstances and personal growth. Expect this and check back often to see if you are holding to the ones that are truly important to you and reflect the season you’re in.

Happy prioritizing!

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Benjamin Franklin