How To Prioritize When Everything Is A Priority

My favorite Super Hero was always Wonder Woman–she could get it all done and she would look great while doing it.   When things got out of control in her life, all she had to do was find some private corner, spin around and then go save the day.    She did it all while not even breaking a sweat or messing up her hair!!

I don’t know about you but sometimes I wish I could turn into Wonder Woman and go it all done in a flash.   As women, often we feel obligated and responsible to do everything for everyone.   But how do you prioritize things when all of your things are a priority??   The truth is we are only given 24 hours in a day and how we manage those precious 24 hours will make or break us at some point in our lives.

In order for us to be at our best, we need to have control over our time.  Our time is precious and can never be returned to us.  When we learn to prioritize our time, we will in turn, have more time to do the really important things in life.   Here are seven steps on how to prioritize when everything is a priority.

1. Write it all down.  Create a daily To Do List.  From changing the sheets on the bed to getting some new products up onto your website; create a list of everything that needs to be done for the day. You can either keep your list on some handy scrap paper or get yourself a pretty notebook.  It doesn’t matter as along as you write it all down.
2. Determine which tasks are most important.    Now take your To Do List and circle the top three most important things on your list.  Those three things become your top priority items.  Everything else will fall into place by value of importance and effort of task.
3. Post your To Do List somewhere highly visible.  Post your daily To Do List somewhere where you can see it and access it easily. Cross things off your list as your accomplish them.  Crossing things off will give you momentum to keep moving down the list.
4. Be Flexible.   Life happens; the washing machine over flows, your boss throws another project at you, your internet goes down.  These are things that you cannot control but are things that you need to handle and sometimes, these things must get moved to the top of your list.  Life will happen and when it does, we just have to take a deep breath, keep going and think to ourselves that this too will pass.
5. Give yourself 24 hours.   When you are asked to add another volunteer task to your already busy life, give yourself 24 hours before answer yes.  By giving yourself some time before giving a yes answer to someone, you can evaluate if this task will fit into your schedule, how much time will this require of you, and if it is even worth your time.  Remember, you only have 24 hours every day to work with.
6. Know when to cut.  We all can only do so much.  Knowing when to cut out a few things by either delegating them to someone else or simply giving them up will give us control over our time. When we are spread too thin, we become ineffective.  It is better to do a few things with excellence than to do several things with mediocrity.
7. Me Time.  Nothing will refresh you and give you a new appreciation for things than a little bit of Me Time.   Me Time is just when you do something for yourself.  Just a few minutes here and there doing things for yourself can reap great personal benefits.  CLICK HERE for a few Me Time ideas.

What do you do when you have to much on your To Do list?  Please share with us in the comment section below.