Category: Priorities

When I get excited about something, like a creative project, I tend to obsess.

I’ll work on it early, I’ll work on it late, and I’ll cut from my day as many of my other tasks/priorities as I can to maximize my ability to keep working on it.

This happens when I’m redesigning websites, choreographing new martial arts material, authoring new digital products, reorganizing spaces, learning new skills, and so on.

Most recently, I’ve been rebuilding my martial arts school’s pro-shop.

It was in desperate need of an update after having been essentially ignored for years.

What I’ve been trying to manage more mindfully this time around, however, as I undertake this creative project, is how I balance my time and to resist devoting too much at once to its completion.

I wanted to stay late to finish the whole project last week… but, I kept it to only one extra hour and allowed myself to leave before its completion.

I wanted to go in early to get a head start… but, I resisted.

I even wanted to go in on Sunday to finish… but, didn’t

What I’m trying to teach myself is to take that gifted creative energy and roll it into my other tasks. How can I use this energy to get my other priority tasks done? How can I take this excitement and use it to boost my mood? How can I take this burst of inspiration and roll it into my writing?

While there’s nothing wrong with going all-in and riding that creative wave with everything you’ve got… learning to stretch that wave and balance yourself in the process might lead to a far greater return.

If you don’t have time in your day to:

• Exercise
• Eat Right
• Read and/or Write
• Bond with Friends/Family
• Enjoy Some Down Time / Just Be

…You’re too busy.

And while I’m sure you can argue your case for why you can’t do some or all of the above things… hold that thought and read the next line carefully:

Don’t argue for your limitations.

Put your argument energy to better use and ask yourself a better question:

“What can I eliminate, delegate, automate, or reduce… so that I CAN have time to do the above things every day?”

Because what I think you’ll find is that the more you argue for your limitations—the more of a reality they’ll continue to be… and the more you question your limitations, the less and less they’ll be.

---

P.s. I sip on coffee while I write these. If you enjoy these posts, you can support my future work by supplying me with one of my next cups of joe here.

I kind of beat myself up today after spending an hour and a half watching reels after a long work week.

Then I remembered how I’ve essentially eliminated binge-reel-watching altogether for every other day of my week—for over a month now.

And I reminded myself that, like with food, it’s okay to have a cheat day. The goal isn’t perfection… it’s healthy.

And one cheat day doesn’t offset six healthy days. In fact, it helps keep the mind balanced… sane… satiated.

And so, like with cheat days, maybe you can try aiming for a six-to-one ratio with mindless media.

…It’s the daily cheats that turn into habits that turn into huge time sucks and mind melting that really cause the big problems.

But, one cheat per week keeps time in your pocket, discipline built, and mental resources available for higher level priorities.

…Without sucking the joy and pleasure that comes from the occasional binge.

We spend so much of our time collecting, gathering, purchasing… hoarding.

It’s no wonder life feels heavy at times.

…What might life look like if we spent more of our time donating, gifting, selling… detaching?

Lighter is a highly underrated, not talked about enough strategy for living.

What most of us are doing is rucking through life, exhausting ourselves, and rather than looking for ways to lighten our loads—we counterproductively and somewhat obsessively look for ways we can add more weight to what we’re already carrying.

…Often disguised as luxury goods, status upgrades, hyper convenience, even more comfortable, and retail therapy.

I’m convinced there’s a direct connection between the amount of stuff we have / are responsible for and the weight we feel on our shoulders.

Maybe if we shifted our focus from what we can add that’ll make our load feel lighter… to what we might remove from what we’re already carrying… we might actually get to ruck… lighter.

---

P.s. 12 Minimalist Quotes from Everything That Remains by The Minimalists

Generally speaking, I know what I need to do.

And I like to think I have a pretty good memory.

But let me tell you, I forget a whole lot less when I have a checklist.

Plus… I really like to cross things off my checklist.

And if I’m being totally honest… I’m the type who will write things onto my checklist AFTER I’ve done them JUST so I can cross them out. Yeah, I said it. Fight me.

Because of this self-awareness, I created Kaizen sheets for myself.

They’re one page documents that list everything I need to do with space to add things as they come up. I have one for work, one for personal growth, and I make custom ones for my employees.

If it’s important enough to be remembered, it’s important enough to be written down.

Don’t rely on willpower and memory to bring your goals to life—rely on fool-proof paper and ink, clear-minded task priority, and the almighty checkmark.

Out doing some last minute shopping today for the holidays, I saw:

• Cars fighting over parking spots.
• Shopping carts left carelessly all around parking lots.
• People evidently stressed out on the phone talking with people about gifts.

And towards the end of it all, I had a refreshing encounter with a woman who asked me for advice on a gift she was considering. She was calm, warm, and present. And after I gave her my advice, I asked her if she was ready for it all.

She said, “Honestly, yes. I’m not worried about it because even if I’m short a gift or missing something, I know that gifts aren’t what the holidays are about. So I’m going to celebrate the day as it should be celebrated and be present, helpful, and as joyous as I can be.”

And I think she nailed it.

Don’t miss the forest for the trees this holiday season.

It’s the spirit we bring with us to each of our encounters that counts—not the material gifts.

---

P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.

When it comes to priorities and life balance, I’ve written a lot about thinking in terms of days.

If Sleep/ Work/Recreational Time are priorities, split each according to the hours of your day (e.g. 8 hours each).

If Family/ Friends/Health are priorities, split each inside the 8 hours of “recreational time” you have (e.g. one hour meal time with family, one hour happy hour time with friends, one hour exercise every morning).

If Growth and Contribution are priorities, maybe block out 20 minutes to read, 20 minutes to write, and 20 minutes to help somebody just because.

And then there’s four hours left inside your “recreational time” to account for commutes, screen time, fun, snoozing, procrastinating, spontaneity, etc.

I like the idea of daily because every day we do the things that are priorities… it’s a good day.

It’s usually on the days when we aren’t able to hit our top priority areas that we feel like the day is a wash.

However…

It never plays out as simply as it’s laid out, does it?

Life gets in the way.

And when it does, a simple solution to keep your life balanced and in tune with your priorities is to shift from daily to weekly thinking.

…Put more time in at work than you planned? Subtract it from another day or deliberately block time for the missed priority on your more flexible days.

…Get caught in another media rabbit-hole and lose some high quality sleeping hours? If you can’t add it to the morning, ban yourself from even viewing media at all the next day or two.

Rebalance the week if/when you can’t rebalance the day.