Prioritizing Makes Time Management Easier
Making exhaustive lists of goals is not the key to effective time management. Prioritizing these goals and values will however help you achieve them one by one. If we do not rank them accordingly then we will not know which of our goals and daily activities are most important.
Here is an example: One of my values is to maintain a healthy and nutritious diet and follow a vigorous exercise regimen. Another value listed on the same sheet is that I am a devoted husband and a loving father. I also have some personal values like reading something educational for an hour each day. Yet another is to spend some time with my children every day. All of the above values of mine can actually be accomplished without overlapping , but what if it did? What if I was forced to choose between spending time with my kids or reading a very important career educational material? Which should I choose? Well, if I did not have my priorities set then I would probably choose the one that would be more fun, which is reading my books. But being a loving father is my top priority, and hence I wouldn't have to think twice about it.
If we don’t prioritize our values, we will definitely end up with conflicting goals and daily activities, as also the constant need to make confusing decisions. Allow me to illustrate yet another example: Two more values that are on my list are to stay financially secure, and to always be honest. Now let's assume that I am having a lot of money problems and my family is in financial difficulty. All of a sudden a friend comes along and offers me an opportunity that is one hundred percent sure to bring me enough money to take care of my family for the rest of our lives. But there is one small catch – it is illegal. Now even though I would never get caught, I am facing a dilemma of values: Financial security Vs. honesty. What to do next? What can you do? Well, the answer to this depends on which of these values is more important to me. And on my list I have put honesty way above financial security. This means that I have to be honest with any dealings of finances, even if it means giving up an opportunity like the one presented above.
The point I’m trying to make here is that if you do not rank and prioritize your values, and are not sure of what is important to you, then you will be hard pressed to effectively do anything in your life that matters every day. Your time management will never go beyond the point of making fast and useful decisions based on the priorities of your values.