When it comes to organizing, many people think that it is about organizing stuff only. But that is not the case. The essence of staying organized is so that you can lead a more productive and better life. That is, the whole point of organizing is so that you can put your life in order moving away from chaos and disorganization. Establishing priorities play a significant role in organizing your life. You honestly need to determine what is important to you so that you can focus on that. If you do not get your priorities straight, then you will get into trouble.
Establishing priorities are easier said than done. There are so many aspects of your life that you want to organize. Where do you begin and how do you prioritize? The following will make it somewhat more comfortable for you. Just remember to be honest when you are undertaking the task of prioritizing. This will lay the basis of organizing, and proper prioritizing will help to keep your life organized in every aspect.
What are your principles?
Simply put, principles are qualities that you value and which resonate with you as being of high importance. What do you truly value? Through life experiences, you must have sifted and sorted to conclude what it is that you value. It might be honesty, integrity, loyalty or other principles. Every individual has something that they value the most. You should be clear about what you truly value. You should spend some time to think about your principles because these lay the basis of how the rest of the organizing turns out.
Thinking and determining your principles is the first step to establishing priorities. You can look at your principles and perform actions accordingly. This is why principles are of utmost importance. You can direct your thoughts and eventually all your actions based on your principles. You need to be crystal clear about your principles because cloudy principles won’t get you organized at all. You will then be able to make all your decisions with ease once you know what your principles are.
What are your priorities?
This is when you start thinking about your priorities. When the principles are clearly defined in your mind, then you can think about what your priorities are depending on the principles. You will have a rather tough time if you want to accomplish everything. When you have a set of principles that matter to you, you can think about the priorities. This will cut down on what matters and what doesn’t. You cannot just set priorities and then the principles. It has to be done the other way around as it is a more practical and logical step of organizing.
You do not need to do everything. Priorities help you determine what you should do and what you should ignore altogether. You are a human with a finite amount of time at hand. You can’t do everything, and this is why you should dedicate time to priorities. It eases the decision-making process. When you know what your priorities are, you know for sure what you want to do without regret. It helps you take control of things that you can control instead of beating the drum of what you cannot control such as circumstances.
How do you utilize your time?
Time is crucial to anything. And it is more critical when it comes to establishing priorities. How you utilize your time essentially determines how much you can organize and how efficient you are. You should log your time so that you know what you are doing with your time. It is easy to get carried away and end up not accomplishing much. When it comes to organizing your life, you need to think about how you are spending your time. Do the activities that you spend your time on, serve you?
How would you know the way in which you utilize your time? You should record it. That is, keep a log of what you do in your day, and this will clear up everything for you. You will know exactly where you are spending your time. Be super-specific about what you do each day, and you will see whether you are steering away from what you intended initially. Remember that in emergencies, priorities do change so don’t beat up on yourself for that. You will be able to explore where you do spend time and whether you are on the right track or not.
What are your objectives and goals?
A goal is a long-term result that you are seeking. It is not the activity that is associated with achieving the outcome, but it is merely the result that you want. When you are organizing, you need to be specific about the goal that you are striving to achieve. This will help build boundaries and clear up your mind about what it is that you want to achieve. An objective is an action that you intend to take to reach or achieve your goal. Hence, many targets are required for you to reach the goal that you have set for yourself.
Goals and objectives are separate as defined above and this is why you need to remember that each has a set of requirements. When you are thinking about what your goals and objectives are, you need to make them achievable. However, don’t make them overtly simple either. There should be that passion for achieving it otherwise it will be boring and you won’t feel inspired to succeed. Don’t forget that every goal should be specific in the sense that you want to think about when you want to start and by when you want to achieve it.
What course of action should you take?
This is the last step that you need to plan when it comes to establishing priorities. You have set your principles, priorities, time required, goals, and objectives. Now it is time to think about how you want to go about doing it in real life. You need to think about how you are going to schedule your organizing. You know how to get to your goal so writing a step by step approach is an excellent way to start. When you are thinking about the activities that need to be done, it brings in more focus to get to where you want to be.
You need to think about three factors; time, action, and money. How much of these are required for you to achieve your goal and to organize? You have hundreds of habits. Which ones are pushing you forward towards growth and which ones are hindering you? These help to determine what you need to let go of and what new habits you need to adopt. The course of action that you take should be thorough and precise. If you have done the step by step work, then it should not be a problem for you.
Establishing priorities should be at the top of the list. Organizing is synonymous with priorities, and so any time you think about organizing anything in your life, you must think about priorities. This will help pave a clear path as to how you need to organize, and it will make your life much more comfortable and smoother. Don’t procrastinate when it comes to prioritizing because it will delay everything which will lead to pure disorganization. Whatever you do, prioritize. This will enable you to do more with less effort and time.
