It’s always surprising to me how easy it is to lose perspective when it seems like there’s a hurricane of work around me.
It could be a lot of homework. It could be a project. It could even be other people.
And during those times I tell myself it’s ok to sacrifice a little bit of something else. Maybe it’s ok to just skip the gym for today. Maybe it’s ok to take away some sleep from our schedule. Maybe it’s ok to miss a post today. Maybe it’s ok to pass on family time.
It’s true that sacrifices are always necessary. But only for the sake of things that matter. And it’s not easy to differentiate what’s truly important in the heat of the moment. In fact, most of us, including myself, can fight a losing battle against the weight of short-term goals. We find ourselves focusing on what seems important now only to find much later we have worked towards trivial things with little to show other than effort. Most of all, we may regret not having started something more valuable sooner, but tell ourselves we’ll start it soon.
How do we determine how to organize our day to keep perspective on our highest quality goals? And how can this change how we view our daily life?
The Game Plays On
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 should be used. Six months will pass whether we like it or not. The question is, how do we make sure we don’t look back after six months and wish we had started something six months ago?
Essentially Minimal
Think about what you consider to be the most essential tasks of your day.
Most can give a plethora of activities that they deem important. But very few people can shorten that list to about three things. And that’s the problem.
Priority by definition is the most important thing. You can’t have multiple of them. That wouldn’t make sense. But most of us think to ourselves that it’s ok to have three, five, even ten priorities for our day. And of course, if we have so many things considered to be essential, we provide very little time to give them the essential energy and focus they need.
This problem was researched by Greg McKeown in his book, Essentialism. And he found that the concept of being overworked, busy, and in a time crunch came down to a lack of prioritization. That is, marking most things as a priority rather than the small few. The few that matter.
When you think about your priorities, consider the difference between what’s important and what’s urgent. Of course, the urgent things need to be done. But they aren’t essential to who you are. Prioritize those one to three things that are the true investments of your time. Because the less priorities you have, the more energy and time you can put into them, rather than spreading it thin.
What you’ll find is that only having three tasks in a day is easy. Because you know how to focus on three things. The issue was just that there was too much to focus on before. Now you can do those high-priority tasks first so you always can look back at a meaningful and essential day, no matter the results of the short-term urgent tasks.
Eye Of The Storm
What I hope to communicate is that we are not helpless in the hurricane of life. It’s caused by our sense of worry and being lost in a storm of what we feel are necessities. But when we calm down and engage in what’s meaningful first and foremost, we build a foundation to shelter us from the storm. And we realize the storm was created by us in the first place.
Organizing yourself is as simple as taking a deep breath and taking stock of what’s around you. When you’re far sighted, you may have to make sacrifices in those things you considered urgent. But it’ll be worth it to be calm no matter what’s going on around you. Because you know what’s essential and what’s not. You know what really matters to you and what doesn’t.
Look at what you value. Focus yourself on those things. Because suddenly you’ll see the hurricane dies down on its own.
