Let The Clock Of Your Life Mark Its Priorities

Are we clear on our priorities? At present it seems that reality dictates that we have to live immersed in the middle of a large pile of tasks. Many of them are given and also on many occasions we link and combine one with the other. We build our 24 hours around them. We also know that some carry more weight and yet we allow them to lag behind. What at the beginning of the day seemed like a priority is sometimes crushed by the unstoppable inertia of the routine.

It is difficult to know how to order our time when something is out of the ordinary. Task planning issues aside, the goal at the end of the day is to find the satisfaction of having followed your own plan. Your own goals. That our priorities, either early or late, have been addressed in a satisfactory way.

– Clive Staples Lewis –

The proposal is to go a little beyond what is 24 or 72 hours. In the end, the day-to-day priorities are clear. With exceptions, the most recurrent are those that are related to our basic needs (food, work goals, social activity, etc). But what happens if we analyze our priority scale in a larger space of time: a week, a month or a year? What happens if we look back and see which of our vital priorities we have achieved and which seem to have been lost along the way? .

The clock of life

Time is precious and limited. This does not mean that we should be overwhelmed by how we use it or in what. It is simply something that sometimes we forget and in that forgetfulness we end up mistreating our time. In fact, many times we feel angry when we realize that our “temporary expense” does not suit our interests at all .

Do we know what we can give up? How much does it cost us? There is an interesting activity within positive psychology that works as a great stimulant for reflection. If we take a clock as a reference, do we know how to place in it the hour of our life in which we are? This can help us to analyze what we have left behind and thus be able to introduce changes in the present. The most important thing is to be aware of the time we have from that moment on.

Everything is starting

Once we have located ourselves in time, it is important that we reflect on some issues. In that pause we can begin by personally completing the following sentences :

• It’s too late for me to….
• It’s too early for me to….
• Now is the right time for me to …
• I need more time to …
• I hope that at… it happens…

From here the ideas are clarified and the energies, hopes and expectations are shared. We can accept discards and what is too late for. All the physical and mental energies that we are wasting can be redirected to new projects.

It may be a good time to analyze what we are stuck on or to reflect on those projects that perhaps we have started too early. Sometimes not only do we rush, but we involve our environment in this dynamic, something that can generate avoidable tensions.

The last step: love, play, work and priorities

Once we have become aware of all this, it is time to face important issues. Love, leisure and work are constant in our life and we can review the priorities that were, those that are and those that will be. From here begins the reflection on how much time we dedicate to love, how much time we dedicate to leisure and how much time we dedicate to work, to finally take the step and make decisions.

There are unavoidable elements, such as work, on which we have little room for change. However, just because this margin is narrow does not mean that it is negligible or that a small change here has great consequences. Do we really extend the day for work reasons? To what extent is there some self-deception in dedicating more hours to it when we can return home sooner? Are we afraid of empty hours? What are our priorities and where do we want to focus our energy? Can I change my day to reorganize everything?

Love and leisure are equally necessary parts of our routine. Having said this, I propose that we change the word “necessary” to “priority”. Necessity implies obligation and dependence. Priority implies choice, decision and the feeling of taking control of what is convenient for me and what I want.

Well … what time is it for you?