How to Free-up Time by Reevaluating Priorities

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

PRIORITIES.

What are priorities?

Priorities are things which are important.

Image Credit: Google

The thing about priorities is that they change over time, so we have to be willing to reevaluate them on a regular basis. If we don't, we'll continue engaging in an activity even though that activity is no longer serving a purpose.

What's the best way to reevaluate priorities?

By asking: Is this thing I'm doing still serving its initial purpose?

In order to identify whether or not something should remain a priority in our lives, we have to determine what its initial purpose for implementation was - a.k.a. why you decided to do the thing.

Once you've identified why you decided to do the thing, you need to ask yourself whether the thing you're doing is still serving that initial purpose that you needed it to fulfill.

Any activity we engage in, we do so with the idea that it fulfills some sort of need for us; the need defines the purpose.

In order to assess whether something should remain a priority in our lives, we have to identify what the need is that the activity is fulfilling.

A personal example: I had a second job for over a year.

There were two reasons I got a second job, two needs that the job had to fulfill.

1 - TIME - It had to fill time, because I had so much of it.

When I first started the job, I wasn't writing as much, I was single, and my social life was sporadic (because all of my friends are in couples). I was looking for something that would fill some of my time.

2 - MONEY - It had to solve a specific financial problem: COVID debt.

I was unemployed for 13-months during COVID and I racked-up some debt. On the income I was making at my full-time job, paying off that debt would have taken a few more years. I was looking for extra income in order to pay off what I owed very quickly.

Those were the two needs that the job had to fulfill.

Fast forward to now, a year later, and a re-evaluation of the initial purpose for implementation.

1 - TIME - My social life is still sporadic. But, I'm now dedicating more time to my writing and have a project under development, and I'm also in a relationship. Those two things alone are taking up the extra time I had a year ago.

In this case, I still have the need - things to fill my time with - but other things have come along which fulfill that same need. (The personal project, and the relationship.)

2 - MONEY - By working two jobs, I was able to pay off the balance of what I owed this past year. Now I could keep the job, because extra money is always nice. But the initial purpose was to pay off the debt, and that has been accomplished.

In this case, I no longer have the need - money to solve a specific financial problem - because the problem has been solved.

If you like a good flow-chart as much as I do, see the below for an illustrated example of what I've just explained:

Image Credit: Author

In evaluating the initial purpose for implementation, the second job I had was no longer fulfilling the needs that had caused me to get the job in the first place.

My time is now being fulfilled by other things.

My financial problem no longer exists.

The two purposes for having the job no longer applied.

And that's why I quit.

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WHY WE NEED TO RE-EVALUATE PRIORITIES

It's really easy to just keep doing things because we've been doing them. We get into our little routines and habits, and we don't question them.

But we have to question regularly in order to purge activities and commitments, otherwise our lives become overwhelmingly busy. We feel as though we just don't have the time for anything, and we end up living at a frantic pace.

The solution to a frantic pace and to freeing-up time is to ask if the things we're doing are still serving their initial purpose for implementation.

If they're not, then it's time to let go.

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Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

- Semisonic: Closing Time 

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash