How to (finally) Re-Orient Your Priorities
#Underscheduled
In case you haven’t heard, this is a new phrase that I am coining. Hashtag-underscheduled.
After the year we have had (good riddance, 2020), we need to slow all the way down. Oddly enough, we believed that we were “slowing down” in 2020 when the pandemic hit.
And, for a while, we did.
However, after the world began to adjust to life at home and learn how to use Zoom for all the things, pretty soon we were back to being booked and busy. Except, now we weren’t going anywhere to be booked and busy, which is actually way harder than leaving the home to be booked and busy.
Just writing that sounded like a stressful mouthful and I know you know you know. We have all been doing this together.
All of a sudden we found ourselves attending all of the meetings at home while feeding our kids lunch, breaking up fights, monitoring distance learning, and more. And, because we are home, we ‘feel’ as though we have to be at everything because, well, what excuse do we have? We can attend to everything at the click of a button.
This is that hustle culture creeping its way back into our lives. Funny how we couldn’t go more than a few months of “rest” before we began hustling again; telling ourselves that we must do everything even when we’re burned out.
It’s time to kick that hustle-culture lie to the curb.
It’s not of Jesus. It does not belong here.
You know what does?
Rest.
Jesus tells us to come to Him, all who are weary and heavy-laden and He will give us rest. (Matthew 11:28)
Wonderful reminder. But, if you’re anything like me, I used to hear this verse and think to myself, “ that’s great, but HOW? How does He give me rest? What does this look like practically in my daily life?”
Stop Treating Everything Like a Priority
Because everything is not a priority. I know it feels this way, but feelings can lie to us. In this case, they are lying to us. You have to have a clear understanding of what your priorities are on a weekly and daily basis. I have a system called the Priority Process that I teach inside the Meant For Motherhood Academy that will teach you exactly how to dissect your priorities and figure out what needs to be tackled first and when.
You can click here to check out the Academy or here to head to the shop and purchase this as a standalone mini-course.
What Are You Telling Yourself About This Priority?
Are you putting unnecessary pressure on yourself? Are you telling yourself something that isn’t true? What is challenging you about this task?
Figure out what you may be telling yourself and work on adjusting your mindset towards your priorities. Make sure you aren’t approaching any of your priorities as something to do out of pressure.
Honor Your Season
Are your priorities aligned with the season you are in right now? Seasons change, so our priorities should, too. Not only that, the way we approach our priorities will also change. Make sure you are not approaching your priorities in a way that makes sense for a previous season (or even a future one) rather than the season you are in currently.
Now you actually have to tend to your priorities and stay on task (i.e. no more squirrel brain syndrome)
Just knowing what your priorities are is your first step, but that will only get you so far. You have to have a system for actually doing the things, eliminating distractions, and staying on task. No more hopping around from thing to thing as soon as you think of it. That’s all done now, k?
Categorize your time blocks so you know where to place certain tasks
You should have a block of time in your day that is more proactive, a block of time that is more reactive, a block of time that is for household tasks, and a block of time that is for personal tasks.
You should also rotate the categories of your blocks throughout the week so that you know exactly when you’re doing a certain type of task. (Example: Fridays are for personal correspondence during your personal task block and Mondays are for bills during your personal task block.)
Stay in prayer and seek God for wisdom
Ask God to remove anything He’s not asking you to stay focused on. Stay in His presence and make it a priority to ask Him FIRST.
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