How to prioritize || Blogtober #7

“Instead of saying “I don’t have time” try saying “it’s not a priority,” and see how that feels.” Laura Vanderkam



Hey, hi, hello and welcome back to my little corner of the internet, a place where we drink comical amounts of coffee and discuss how we can make our lives just a bit better!

Also... WELCOME TO BLOGTOBER DAY 7!
If you just popped by, Blogtober is a series that I started on my blog, where I post daily content for the WHOLE month of October. 




In this post, I wanted to talk about something that I struggle with a lot and that is

PRIORITIES.

I am that type of person that focuses (read obsesses) over small, relatively unimportant things.
An exaggeration would look like this:

I have two things on my to-do list
o wash the shoe laces
o SAVE THE FREAKING WORLD

Guess which one I would choose? Yup, that's right. Shoe laces all the freaking way baby!

After a long time of self-analyzing and pondering over it, I realized that I just suck at prioritizing my schedule. 
And when I realize that I suck, well I hate that, so I work on changing it. 

So, here are the few tips and tricks I've picked up over the years that help me prioritize:

1. Look over your whole to-do list
Is that absolutely everything that you need to get done? If not, add in, tweak it, change it. Do this until you are satisfied. Now, group them all in a category. 
Categories can be like ''work'', ''school'', ''home''; or by room if you're cleaning the crap out of your apartment. 

2. Separate the urgent tasks
Now, you need to see if something needs your immediate attention. Usually, it is something with a deadline, and that deadline is today or even within the next few hours. 
These get done first. So even though you really want to clean out your closet, the trash that stinks in the kitchen is way more urgent, if you catch my drift



3. Now see what is important
After you clear out the urgent tasks off your to-do list, next tasks are the important ones. So what does that mean? Important tasks are the ones that, once completed, bring you to a goal of yours. So, if your goal is to get lean, your important task is to work out. If your goal is to get organized, you organize your bookshelf. 

4. What takes less effort? What takes more?
Out of the important tasks, some will be easier and will take less time while some will be more difficult and will take quite a chunk from your day. My advice is to do the difficult things first, and when you're a bit lower on the energy skale you can work on the easier things (i.e. you would work out first, organize the bookshelf, write to-do list for tomorrow)

5. Don't be set in stone
Things will change from week to week, day to day and even within the same day. Be ready to change, tweak, and adapt your to-do list. Some days, when you wake up, you will feel energized but something will happen in the day and you might not feel too good by the evening. Make a cut in the list, using the differentiation tools from the previous steps. Also, as you change, your goals and values change and evolve so you priorities will follow, naturally. From time to time you will have to change up the whole system. If you use the steps above, the systematic change should be a bit less daunting!


There it is guys, a insiders info on how to prioritize your schedule and to-do list.
These steps are applicable to every type of a task, whether it is something that you must do, a call you must make or a coffee date that you arranged with someone. With practice, you will get better in identifying what is urgent and what is important, and this will come more easily to you!





Do you have troubles prioritizing? What is something that is very difficult to prioritize in your to-do list?

If you have any questions or suggestions you can find me on my socials! 

here or here

Thank you for your attention! 

k e e p         g r o w i n g

-omega- 

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