How can you prioritize Personal Development goals when you have competing demands on your time?

When you're super busy, make time for personal growth by setting specific goals and breaking them into smaller tasks. Figure out what's most important, tackle those things first, and be realistic about what you can actually do. Let the people around you know what you're trying to achieve, and remember that even small efforts over time can lead to big personal growth.

Prioritize personal development amidst competing demands by: Identifying & analyzing your goals: SMARTen them up! Employing prioritization frameworks: 80/20 rule, Eisenhower Matrix, ABCDE method Embracing microlearning: Bite-sized learning, online resources Leveraging mentorship & networking: Seek guidance, join communities Creating a learning environment: Schedule time, minimize distractions Prioritizing self-care: Don't neglect wellbeing, set realistic expectations Tracking your progress: Monitor goals, celebrate milestones, seek feedback Consistency & a positive mindset are key to unlocking your full potential!

Lots of people set goals but don’t set the right goals. What is the purpose of a goal? The purpose of a goal is not to achieve it. The purpose of a goal is to help you to grow. If you set a goal you know how to achieve it’s not a goal it’s a task. If you set yourself a goal that you know that if you do x, y and Z you will achieve it that’s not a goal. A goal is something you don’t know how to achieve and it scares you. If it doesn’t it’s just not a goal as it won’t help you to grow. It has got to be something you truly want and desire, that you are passionate about. Write a list of all the dream goals you have and pick the one that you truly desire and write out in the present tense the goal and describe it as if you have achieved it

Bien qu'elle soit théoriquement efficace pour prioriser les taches, l'appliquer au quotidien peut s'avérer complexe. Par exemple, répondre immédiatement à tous les e-mails peut sembler urgent, mais est-ce vraiment important pour nos objectifs à long terme? Je trouve utile de réfléchir en début ou fin de journée aux taches du lendemain selon cette matrice, en me demandant si elles contribuent réellement à mes objectifs principaux. Cela aide à distinguer l'urgent de l'important et à ajuster nos priorités en fonction de l'évolution de nos objectifs et circonstances.

When you are struggling in your job and know that you must boost up your skills to cope up in the corporate world, prioritizing your personal development goals using the Pareto Principle allows you to concentrate on the dynamics that deliver the utmost substantial results. Let's say you realize that conquering a particular programming language aligns with your career ambitions and opens new opportunities. By devoting focused effort to this definite skill, you're projected to experience significant professional development, fulfilling 80% of your overall career-related objectives.

Consider reframing your personal development journey as a dynamic portfolio rather than a static checklist. Continuously reassess which goals contribute most significantly to your holistic growth, adapting to the evolving landscape of your aspirations. The Pareto Principle becomes a compass guiding you in prioritisation and the art of agile and strategic personal development.

This approach revolutionised my life this year. I started the year by delving into the Wheel of Life, and it's been a game-changer. After the initial assessment, I set concrete goals with tasks and habits to improve levels in areas I was unhappy with. As the year concludes, I'm gearing up to revisit the wheel and see how things have shifted. The beauty lies in the details—I'll scrutinise the changes, examine the impact of habits, and adjust where needed. Crucially, I'm not going to be hard on myself. Personal development is a journey, and every step is a victory. If I've nudged one area up a level, that's a reason to celebrate. The Wheel of Life isn't just a tool; it's become a companion in my pursuit of balance and fulfilment.

Growth mindset is the belief that you can improve your abilities through dedication + hard work. Know this: Everything surrounding you right now was built by people no smarter than you. The creators went from idea to execution—and continued to learn along the way. And so can you.

Throughout my experiences both personally and professionally I have found that when things don't according to plan, the only thing I can control are my thoughts and my attitude towards the situation. And this is what the Growth mindset helps me with: ? Acknowledging a situation. ? Thinking about how I can learn and grow from it.

I’ve always embraced the mindset of doing a task, improving a process or developing solutions that are 1% better today than yesterday. Through this 1% improvement mindset, you not only challenge yourself to try new solutions and creative ideas, but you also push yourself to learn innovative methods, and modern techniques - in turn this increases your knowledge and abilities.

Cultivating a growth mindset, where you see abilities as expandable through dedication and learning, fuels intrinsic motivation for self-progress. It promotes consistency amidst busy schedules by framing development as an incremental lifelong journey rather than a short sprint. Schedule small but frequent windows for skill building aligned to your long-term aspirations. Reflect often on learnings during setbacks rather than perceiving them as failures.

You’ve probably heard the term, “grow or die.” It sounds extreme, and it might be, but it can be applied here. Mindset matters. Mindset is what can differentiate you. Others may have more skills, more resources, more degrees, but be lacking the mindset necessary to grow and achieve. You can’t control a lot of things, but you can control how you think, which impacts what you do, which impacts how you grow. Don’t wait for the perfect season - lean into growth now!

Consistency wins the race. You can focus on snippets that will help you grow….one article a day, a few pages of reading a day, one tutorial video a day, 10 mins to focus on a growth topic per day. You do this every day and it adds up. We live in a world of instant gratification but personal development doesn’t happen over night. So take your time to do something small everyday and in a year’s time you’ll look back and see how far you’ve come. Most people don’t ever start because they think something they want to achieve, will take too long.

Balancing self-development goals with competing time demands can be challenging. A practical approach is integrating the Tiny Habits method. This involves breaking down self-development goals into small, manageable actions that can be easily incorporated into daily routines. For instance, if your goal is to enhance your professional skills, identify a tiny habit like spending five minutes reading an industry article every morning after your first cup of coffee. This anchors your self-development activity to an existing routine, making it more achievable amidst a busy schedule. Remember, consistency is key; even small actions can lead to significant progress over time.

No matter which approach or tool you choose, it is crucial to connect your goals to your motivation, that will drive you into the right direction no matter how busy you are. Ask yourself what makes this personal goal important to you? Try to ask yourself a “why question” until you reach unfold it to a core. For example: -I want to read more. What makes it important? -I want to keep up with the industry. And why keeping up with the industry is important? - I want to be influential and create more opportunities for career progression. And what make that important? You continue until you hit a core value ( happiness, connection, recognition, safety etc), and that way you are more likely to make that extra effort and stay focused on that goal!

Consider Harmony as a replacement for Work Life Balance. When we think of “balance” it’s often the concept of a board balancing on a fulcrum where you have to keep juggling everything to be perfectly in the center. I’ve found it helpful to think of musical harmony where when you hit some keys that are out of tune you just have to find the other keys that fit in the moment. Then you can turn something that sounds off into a beautiful minor chord. You may not always be able to change your external circumstances so an epic movie score playing all the time. With the concept of harmony there is a huge range of possibilities that can still sound good. It creates a positive flexible position when compared to a this-or-that balance mindset.

There are many frameworks we can use to enhance our personal development. They're mostly focused on the left brain and therefore based on logic, timelines, a matrix or the Pareto principle. What they all lack is the wisdom of the right brain which is connected to the subconscious. The right brain thinks in pictures and imagination. Personally, I prefer to use subconscious methods in my personal development like listening to a powerful trance in the morning or during a break. The subconscious mind then works towards my goals while I am fulfilling other demands consciously. And always remember that priority was meant to be a singular word: If you make Personal Development our priority, then competing demands on your time aren't an excuse.