Making a Plan to Live Out Your Priorities {Priorities Series Part 3}

This is part 3 of the Priorities series. Click here to read part 1 and here to read part 2.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been talking about how to define our priorities. In part 1, we discussed how to describe your ideal day. Knowing what we want to accomplish in life and how we want our lives to look on a daily basis is a key part of knowing our priorities. 

After all, if we are not living our lives based on what’s most important to us, we will find ourselves unfulfilled and frustrated. Knowing what we want our ideal day to look like will aid in us figuring out what is most important.

In part 2, we identified our current responsibilities and commitments. We did this so that we could see where we are now in relation to where we want to be when it comes to living out our ideal day.

In part 3, I’m going to put together all the information you’ve uncovered about your life and lead you through a process where you can do decide which current responsibilities and commitments are important to keep in your life right now. And you’ll be able to define your priorities based on what you need and WANT to do in life.

Let’s get started!

Get out the list of the responsibilities and commitments you made in part 2. 

You may look at this list and think that every task is important for you to do. However, I think if you are honest with yourself, you would say at least one or two tasks do not bring you joy, nor are they things that you HAVE to do. Possibly at one point in your life, you enjoyed doing these things, however, now they seem to be a chore.

While we can’t ditch responsibilities such as taking care of our homes, families, and ourselves, we can be more mindful of other things we choose to take on.

I encourage you to be really honest with yourself and ask which of your responsibilities and commitments do not align with your ideal day that you wrote down in part 1. If possible, try to let these commitments go. And be more mindful of what you agree to take on in the future.

Perhaps you discover that there is not much you can get rid of from your list. Before you become overwhelmed and discouraged, I want you to go back through your list and see if there are tasks you can delegate to someone else.

For instance, if one of your main responsibilities is to take care of your home, maybe you can delegate some of the tasks that take up time but could be done by someone else. Teach your kids how to do dishes, laundry, and clean their rooms. Maybe your spouse or significant other can help with duties related to dinner time. 

Often there are other people who can handle some of our responsibilities just as well as we can. We just have to be willing to let them do it.

Ok, so now you’ve pared down your list of responsibilities and commitments. Again these should be things only you can do and are important to how you want to live your life. These are your priorities.

You may discover after you’ve deleted and delegated some of the tasks that you actually have some room in your schedule to add in more. Go back to your ideal day and identify the activities you have not had time to do before. Choose the ones that will fit in with your current season of life.

Now you have a realistic set of priorities.

Since I’ve defined my priorities, I have been able to filter any requests for my time through these priorities. Usually, if the request for my time does not fit in with one of my priorities, or will add too much to my plate, then I say no.

However, there are some occasions where the request for my time sparks an interest that I want to pursue. I still filter this request through my priorities to make sure I have the time to pursue this new thing.

So, how do you feel? Do you have a good grasp on your priorities for this season of life? Remember, your priorities are not set in stone. They will shift as your life changes.

Are you still struggling with how to figure out your priorities? I’d love to help you out. Send me an email at theplanningwoman [at] gmail [dot] com.

I also have a downloadable resource called “Define Your Priorities.” Fill out the form below to get your copy. You’ll find a place in the workbook to do the work we talked about today.