Scheduling and Priority Shifters

This month we have looked more closely at how we can better handle our scheduling, priorities, and focus in our studios and home practice areas. Let's take another look at our scheduling with an eye and a nod towards our priorities and time management philosophy.

Which Priority?

What are priorities and where can I buy them? A priority is something that is more important then some other competing objective. It could be something that merits attention before something else in terms of time. It could be someone who deserves more time or attention due to superiority or hierarchy.

I like to think of priorities as those nagging whispers that come to me in the middle of the night and disturb my sleep for a few moments of anxious awareness. You know what I am talking about. These are the thoughts that wake us up in the middle the night and remind us that we forgot to sign our child's permission slip for a field trip that is happening the next day, or that we forgot to call our mother for her birthday the day before. Aargh!

We all have too many things to do on a daily basis. With the high level advances that technology has brought to us, we have also been graced with the ability to do way too many things than perhaps we ought to be doing at one time. How do we handle this? I have an idea to share.

How about we turn our priorities into shifters, you know, like the shape shifters in the Star Trek episodes? Let us admit that we have a lot of priorities and that they need to take turns. For example, today I might need to prioritize my mother as the most important thing on my to do list because it is her birthday. Tomorrow I may need to prioritize my family as the top item on my list, because we have a special event planned together. Next week my job may outrank other things if I have a big presentation due at work or a recital to perform.

Sometimes we have some things on our list that cannot be shifted out of the first three or four categories, but for everything else, perhaps we need to cut ourselves a little slack and allow those items to take turns. I confess that I feel much more comfortable with that sort of attitude than I do with the attitude that I need to beat myself over the head because I was not able to do everything on a prime level one priority list.

For another look at priorities and an argument that our children should be placed at the top of our priorities list, click here. For a reading recommendation concerning priorities, check out this article I wrote concerning the 12 daily practices suggested by John Maxwell in his book, Today Matters.

This week, look your list over with a view to allowing your priorities to shift and take turns. Until next time,

Happy Practicing!

----- Paula -----

© 2016 by Paula E. Bird