Prioritization CAN Lead to Success!

The road to failure is paved by refusals to prioritize what is important over what you desire right now. We are mid-way through November and Cans for Kili is starting to gain traction throughout Indy. Not only does that mean more cans to add to our collection but that also means more effort is needed to maintain our operations. As a young adult that is a full-time employee, fellow within the Orr Fellowship, runner/athlete, and normal human being with friends and family, it can be difficult to prioritize my C4K responsibilities over my other duties.

I am proven to be a relatively spontaneous and impulsive person which ultimately means that I tend to over commit easily. Since joining the C4K team this past August I’ve been confronted many times about what it means to prioritize what is urgent now below what is truly important. As marketing director of C4K I must forgo what used to be consistent free time to make can pickups. I must use lunch to ensure C4K social media is scheduled out for the week. I must make time to ensure I get to all C4K meetings that might last up to 3 hours (but are usually EXTREMELY fun and I am always excited to attend).

I am not going to lie, I initially had a tough time with it. The reason I had a tough time was because I had mindset that I could fit my C4K duties into my already established schedule. In my head, I thought I could just add more work on top of the work I already had. That mindset ultimately just led to stress and it wasn’t till I talked to a close friend about it that I realized the key to solving this crisis was to simply re-prioritize my life. It is essential to know that what is important to you now is a lot different than what was important to you a few years, months, or even a week ago. Our lives keep changing, so our priorities should change with it too.

Here are my best tips/strategies to easily prioritizing your schedule that best reflects what is truly important to you at this moment.

1. First: Write down the most important items, events, people, or projects in your life right now. It is also good to give a short sentence or paragraph explaining why this is important. This will verbalize and make real the reason why this is important to you. If you can’t write down a specific, valid and good reason…. Should that item even be on your list?

2. Second: Rank them. To to prioritize your life you need to rank what is important in your life. If you only had 30 minutes of free time today would spend it on item 1 or 2? Hopefully making that hard decision won’t happen too often but at some point, it will. It will be nice to have what is more important figured out before the time comes.

3. Third: Schedule your priorities. “The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” – Stephen Covey. Stop trying to fit your priorities into your schedule and start making room in your schedule. This can be hard because you are changing a long existing habit. The best way that I have found to change certain habits is to make it a challenge. Challenge yourself for one month to do something different, to start scheduling your priorities besides just fitting them in. By setting a date and time, you are more likely to succeed. And if you do something for a month you are more likely to break your habit.

Until our next adventure,

Maverick