Organizing Your Priorities

Welcome to another week of organizing! If you are checking in for the first time we just got started and it has been so much fun. Please join along! We are using the book Organize Now as our guide. Last week we talked about organizing our mind and life vision.

This week is all about organizing our priorities. It falls under the category of organizing ourselves, which is so important if we want to get the rest of our life in order.

If our priorities are in order and we are actually living by them, then everything else tends to fall into place. When we start living for other people's priorities and not our own, things can get out of balance. Jennifer, the author, suggests that we spend our time living instead of just doing. Love that!

This week's goals:

1. Write down the top ten priorities in your life.

If you are having trouble doing this then ask yourself what is most important to you. My list includes God/prayer, my husband/having a strong marriage, my children and family, quality time with my kids, good friends, good health for me and my family, a clean and organized house, my business and taking care of my customers, education and peace of mind.

I truly feel and have seen first hand in my life that when I keep God first, everything else seems to fall into place. I can always tell when life seems out of balance, it is because I have neglected my relationship with God. (this blog isn't about religion but I wanted to share what my priorities are)

Write down your priorities and put the list somewhere that you will see it and review it often.

2. Write down all of your current activities

Does this list coincide with your priorities? Think about eliminating activities that do not fit into your top priorities. For me, many of my priorities did coincide with my current activities. But some did not. One of my activities each day is to check my email and facebook pages, both personal and business. This can totally be a time drainer if I am not careful which can steal time from my priorities. Can you relate to this? I have found that when I make a schedule and write it down I am more likely to stick to it and therefore keep my priorities in check. Easier said then done on some days. :)

3. Add your priorities to your daily planner

I thought this was a really great tip. I have been doing this more lately and it has been great. Some examples: each month I try to schedule in a date night with my husband (something we recently started doing and it has been great! :) Sometimes we turn these into "dates in" and get a movie, play a game or get a special dessert for after the kids go to bed. I also schedule in time to exercise, family time, and time to work on my blog and other work projects. I keep my daily prayer and reading on my schedule and get up 5-10 minutes early each day to do that. It's been an awesome way to start my days. My husband and I used to say things like, "next summer we need to go to this or that zoo or museum with the kids. Or go see a baseball game, or take a trip to Chicago, etc." Sometimes it would happen but sometimes the summer would fly by and we ended up not having the time available for it. Now we are adding things like that to the planner months in advance so we make the time and have more things for everyone to look forward to.  I have found that by putting it in the planner as if it were an appointment, we are much more likely to follow through and save the time for it. It's a great feeling!

4. Learn to say No!

This has always been a hard one for me. I think women in general have a harder time with this for some reason. Do you agree? We tend to be people pleasers and it is difficult to say no to someone. But it is important to do this if it means keeping your priorities a priority!

One last tip:

When you find an extra 10-15 minutes in your day try using it toward one of your priorities. I thought this was a great tip to add. Think about how much more you could accomplish in your day if you did this. I have been trying this lately. When I have an extra few minutes here or there I use it to clean a small area of the house. I am amazed at how much more cleaning and organizing I can do when I find myself with a few extra minutes. And it is a mood booster because of the sense of accomplishment that I feel at the end of the day. :)

For more organizing tips, please read the Organize Now book.

So how have you been doing so far? Are you enjoying the book and the blog? I hope you are and I hope you are getting some useful information from it. I sure am! Please let me know if you have any tips of your own to share. Don't feel like you have to do everything from the book. If you miss a week, don't get discouraged. Just jump back in. Little by little, you will see and feel yourself get more organized. Think of it as a long distance run instead of a sprint. And remember that you can link up your blog or social media site with my blog and share your journey with your friends and readers too.

Thanks for reading and see you next week Thursday when we will organize our schedules! Can't wait:)

Rebecca