Think about what you have been worrying about this past day. All the mental and physical effort and energy that has gone into it. The question is, how will you think about it a year from now? Will you look back on it thinking it was worth all the time on it? Or will you find the next thing to worry about then?
Most of the activities we do tend not to be things we’d celebrate or even think of a long time from now. We are pleased when we do well in them, sure, but we almost never look back at them as a proud moment.
And if that’s the case, it’s worth asking instead, what in your day would you be glad you did a year from now. And why do you think something like that is worth sacrificing rather than prioritizing?
Your values dictate what’s essential for you. And understanding what activities correlate with your values is likely the most important thing you can do. Because what’s going to happen when you don’t follow those values?
James Clear breaks this down as the difference between an urgent and an important life. We view our need to consume things and get by our day-to-day tasks as the important things because they’re urgent. But if we only do urgent projects, we leave little room to do what’s valuable. We validate our neglectance by saying once we get done with the urgent things, we can focus on what’s valuable to us.
But the urgent things never end. There’s always some task you or someone else needs you to do. And that valuable idea you had keeps getting put off.
The truth about our time is that we don’t truly have any. It simply passes by whether we like it or not. We don’t decide when we spend it. We only decide how each moment. Once we decide what we believe to be the best investments, how can we ensure we don’t get off track?
We prioritizing what’s important, instead of what’s urgent, by recognizing the difference between the two.
