How to Schedule Priorities First

Do you schedule priorities first, or do you prioritize your schedule?

Does it really matter?

You'll find in this week's newsletter five reasons why scheduling priorities first really matters, along with the #1 skill to practice scheduling priorities first.

Why It Matters

It all comes down to be being proactive versus reactive with your time. Here's how scheduling priorities first makes a big difference:

• Focus On and Do What Matters Most: By identifying your priorities first (health, career goals, family time, relationships, self-care, etc.), you ensure you're spending time on the things that truly matter to you. This gives your life direction and meaning, especially when your priorities are aligned with your vision and goals.
• Reduce Stress: When you prioritize your schedule, your day can get filled with urgent tasks (putting out fires), leaving you feeling overwhelmed and neglecting what's important. Scheduling priorities first puts you in control and reduces stress.
• Increase Productivity: Directing your energy towards high-impact tasks first leads to better results (stats found below). You're not just checking things off a list, but making progress on what matters most.
• Say No: Knowing your priorities empowers you to politely decline requests that don't align with your goals and priorities. This frees up time and mental space for what truly matters.
• Make Time for Well-Being and Self-Care: As you learn to schedule priorities first, you'll also learn to schedule time for your health (mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual/soul), relationships, and well-being.

The #1 Skill to Schedule Priorities

Pre-week planning provides a framework to identify and schedule your priorities across all areas of your life before the week even begins. This proactive approach ensures you're scheduling your time around what matters most, not the other way around.

Here are the four steps to effectively pre-week plan (consider what impact these steps would have in your life if you did this each week):

• Review your personal vision and goals (your compass)
• List your life roles (for balanced living)
• Determine the 1-5 priorities that matter most for each life role
• Schedule those priorities into your calendar first

The Quantitative Proof is in the Pudding

Studies show the impact! Those who pre-week plan achieve 30-50% more each week, focus on what matters most, and 100% of study participants report having less stress. Additionally, when people are not pre-week planning they're spending 40-50% of their time on Q1 activities (urgent, important items -- putting out fires), and only 15-20% of their time on Q2 activities (the non-urgent, important items, proactively preventing fires). However, when people pre-week plan, they're spending 50-70% of their time on Q2 activities, and only 20-25% of their time on Q1 activities. That's a big difference!

Wrapping Up

So, pre-week plan! Take time between Friday and Sunday evening, 10-30 minutes, to list your life roles, determine 1-5 key priorities for each life role, and schedule your priorities first. Know that you won't accomplish all of those activities, but you'll accomplish some or even many of them! That's intentional living. You will do what matters most and live in greater peace and balance!

"Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least."

― Goethe

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