Do You Plan Your Priorities?

Click below to listen to this post.

If you’re not yet subscribed to Kerri’s regular emails, you may do so by clicking here.

I’m writing this letter on the first official day of summer. The skies are blue as far as the eye can see, the sun is shining, and there’s a gentle, cool breeze coming in my office window. It’s heavenly.

Summer seems to get shorter and shorter here in New England and how I spend this time becomes more and more important to me.

While I like to keep my schedule loose when it comes to social engagements or non-work activities, this year I’m mixing things up a bit.

Instead of taking each summer day as it comes, I’m intentionally scheduling vacation time and planning any trips Melissa and I would like to take.

In the past, I would have no set plans at all and I would only have few days marked off my calendar.

While that might sound all easy breezy, as an online business owner, I can fall into the trap of always being on the clock. Taking breaks — short or long — requires some real discipline.

For the past few years, I’ve practiced this during the end-of-year holiday season, being sure to do and see that and who are important to me.

It’s summer’s turn now!

When you think of planning, you might think of rigidity, but it needn’t be.

Putting some gentle parameters around how you use your time will not only up your chances of making your priorities, well… a priority, but it also quiets your resistance because she has an idea of what you’re expecting of her. She can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’ve seen this time and time again with my members in Clutter Clear Your Life.

Every Monday in my membership community, I walk these trailblazers through a planning session for their weeks.

We start with a mind dump, then go into planning, and then cap off the hour with a Power POM — a 25-minute co-working session where everyone goes off and works on one of their Monday items.

Then we come back and celebrate our wins and work through any challenges.

I get to witness, each and every week, members making progress on things that have been looming over them for a long time.

What’s even cooler is watching them realize how much clutter they’ve been spending their time on — things that are more busy work than intentional moves toward the life they want to be living.

This is the added bonus of planning. Whether it’s your week or your summer, being thoughtful about what you focus on will soon help you see where you’ve been thoughtlessly giving your time away.

If there’s one thing I noticed in my life, it’s that the older we get, the faster time seems to pass so I plan on wasting less and less of it.

Even if part of my weekly schedule is an afternoon nap. 😴 After all, sometimes that’s the priority!

I know how tempting it is to put things off until tomorrow or Monday or “someday,” but life waits for no one. If something is important to you, ya gotta make the time for it.

So, what priorities do you want to bump up on your list?

Who or what do you want to make time for?

Share in the comments below!