I would like to share the thoughts of one of my coaches and mentors. These ideas and processes are the core of what we teach in our Spiritual Warriors group.
Maybe you want to start your own business and begin the journey to financial freedom or maybe just even want to create a goal to read more books.
But even though you have a goal to sit down and work on your business or read a few chapters each day…
Something inevitably comes up, and the time you set aside disappears. Day after day.
So how do you manage your time in a way that will allow you to work towards your goals without the rest of your life falling apart?
List It Out
Start off by listing out every task on your plate.
Start with today, and then continue on into the next few days until you have everything laid out before.
Don’t worry about organization. Just get it out.
That way it’s out of your head and instead of being an overwhelming swirl, you have a clear list of tasks that can now be organized.
Urgent Vs. Important
Now it’s time to organize your tasks into two groups:
What’s the difference?
Important activities are important because they lead us to achieve our goals.
These goals can be personal or professional.
For example, if you have a goal of losing weight, then your exercise for the day would be an important task.
Or if you have a goal of starting an online business, then working on your funnel or writing emails may be on your list of important tasks.
As long as a task leads us to a goal, it can be considered important.
Urgent tasks are urgent because of a deadline.
They may or may not lead us to accomplish our goals. But they require immediate attention.
For example, regardless of your goals, if it’s trash pickup day in your neighborhood, then taking out the trash is an urgent task.
It needs immediate attention because there is a deadline by which the trash must be out in order to get picked up.
Sometimes urgent tasks are placed upon us by others who need or want our help.
The key to remember is that urgent tasks have a deadline which is what makes them urgent.
Delegate
“If you do not fill your day with high priority actions that inspire you, your day will fill up with low priority distractions that will not.”– Dr. John Demartini
As you are listing out your tasks for the day, week, or month, you may notice something.
You may realize just how quickly urgent tasks pop up out of nowhere.
As urgent tasks appear, you may see your important goal-related tasks get pushed back further and further.
After a while, they simply get pushed to the next day…
And the next day….
And the next day, in an endless cycle.
This happens all the time, but it can be tough to realize until we are really looking.
So how do we protect our important tasks so that we can make continuous progress towards our goals?
Try to delegate as much as possible.
If you can identify urgent tasks that are not as important, see what you can do to get them off your plate.
Can you simply say “No?”
If not, is this task more important to someone else?
Then it may be appropriate for them to take over.
Or maybe you can hire someone to take care of it for you for a small fee?
It may cost a little money to have someone run small errands or do simple chores for you…
But sometimes what you get back in time saved can be well worth it.
Do your best to delegate tasks that are not important so that you can keep moving towards your goals.
Disregard
As you list out and organize your upcoming tasks, you will find a few that are neither urgent nor important.
So what do you do?
Disregard them.
This task can be difficult, as there may be tasks here that seem fun or interesting.
But allowing these things to distract you from what’s important is a disservice to you.
Learn to say no, put things on the back burner, and focus on what’s important.
Conclusion
As you go about your day, it’s easy for urgent tasks to come up and distract you from your goals.
But using this simple strategy daily can help you stay on course.
Remember to list out any tasks you need to complete so they are on paper and out of your head.
Then, organize them between urgent and important.
Urgent tasks have deadlines and need immediate attention, whereas important tasks lead you to your goals.
Delegate as many urgent tasks as possible, especially if they aren’t high on your list of values.
Disregard anything that isn’t urgent or important, as these are merely distractions that will keep you from your goals.
Stay vigilant and protect your important tasks to keep moving towards your goals!
Sandi
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